No quick fix for bad credit 06/27/08 Picture this: You're eager to take
advantage of today's troubled real estate market and buy a foreclosed house at a fire-sale price.
The problem is, you don't have much mon...
Putting Fed figures in perspective 06/26/08 As a homeowner, seller or buyer, what should you make of the Federal
Reserve's latest bombshell report on Americans' home equity positions?
Panic? Mild concern? No big deal...
Ken Harney - Higher income, but lower credit scores 06/02/08 Who have better credit scores on average — home buyers with higher or lower incomes?
Inside the country's fastest-growing home mortgage program, the surprising answer i...
Ken Harney - Credit crunch spreads to specialized niches 06/02/08 Like a spreading infection, restrictions on credit are moving into new and more specialized niches of the mortgage market.
The latest to feel the pinch:
•Cash-out refinanc...
Ken Harney - Appraisal industry fix draws fire 06/02/08 A major legal brawl is breaking out
over how homes are appraised, at what cost and by whom. The outcome could directly affect the price you pay for your next piece of real est...
Ken Harney - Lifting down payments 04/28/08 Partisan politics aside, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain proposed something last month that no other major presidential candidate has advocated in decades: raising mi...
Ken Harney - Warning to owners who walk away 04/28/08 The country's two largest sources of mortgage money have a blunt warning for anyone thinking about joining the growing "walkaway" trend, where homeowners stop making payments an...
Ken Harney - Will ruling impact mortgage lending? 03/31/08 Property appraisers have been warning about it for a decade, and the real estate market is reaping the whirlwind: The price declines underway around the country are partly the r...
Ken Harney - Mortgage system reform, take two 03/31/08 Almost anyone who's bought a house or taken out a mortgage in recent years knows the problems:
• Lenders' "good-faith estimates" of loan and settlement fees provided at appl...
Ken Harney - Class action suit takes aim at add-on fees 03/03/08 Just about anybody who bought a home or took out a mortgage in the past five years has run into them in some form: mysterious fees from realty brokers, lenders, builders and tit...
Ken Harney - Private mortgage insurer yanks coverage 03/03/08 First it was the lenders. Now it's the mortgage insurance industry: Entire product lines are being yanked off the real estate financing shelf, potentially squeezing large number...
Ken Harney - Distressed buyers running out of options 02/05/08 The rolling tsunami of home loan delinquencies and foreclosures is exposing serious problems in the mortgage industry's capacity to quickly handle borrowers' requests for help&m...
Ken Harney - 2007 was lousy. Could 2008 be better? 02/05/08 Queen Elizabeth II once famously referred to her "annus horribilis"—a horrible year during which almost everything went badly, from royal family scandals to a raging fire ...
Ken Harney - Passing the FICO test 12/31/07 It may be the only test you flunk if you score too high: It’s called the “FICO Test,” and it is a key element of the sometimes arcane new guidelines governing which homeowners q...
Ken Harney - Congress to hammer out relief package 12/31/07 Reversing months of inaction in a single day, the Senate passed two major bills last month that could help thousands of homeowners now struggling with unaffordable mortgages or ...
Ken Harney - It isn't that bad for U.S. homeowners 12/05/07 With the daily din of bad news about the state of the housing market, it's easy to lose sight of some larger economic realities: Despite declining prices in many markets, homeow...
