It didn't take long before the carnage in the hit house-party movie "Project X" spilled onto the real real estate market. Thirteen teenagers are being questioned for their possible involvement in a wild house party that will cost the builder nearly $100,000 in repairs, reports KHOU in Houston, Texas. "It's ... Continue Reading »

Rumors of Arthur Livingston's demise have been greatly exaggerated -- and they're taking a toll on the South Carolina man's credit rating. Bank of America, Livingston's bank of choice for the past 14 years, mistakenly declared him dead to the three major credit bureaus in May 2009, TV station WIS in Columbia, S.C., ... Continue Reading »

Mortgage lenders will soon have access to new details about a prospective borrower's past -- such as past rental applications, inquiries to pay-day lenders, and missed child support payments -- that will be factored in to a new credit score. Real estate and mortgage data aggregator CoreLogic says it's signed an ... Continue Reading »

"Why won't the bank just reduce the amount of my loan instead of taking my home and then selling it to someone else for way less than I would have been happy to pay?" It's a question that gets asked repeatedly these days, especially by people who are facing foreclosure or are upside down on their mortgages. ... Continue Reading »

Did the voices of the housing crisis just get swallowed up by the anti-Wall Street protests? Marches, sit-ins and confrontations with police -- all part of the Occupy Wall St. movement that organizers say was birthed organically and fed through social media outlets -- are happening in major cities across the country. ... Continue Reading »

With unemployment high, markets on a hair trigger and the memory of Washington debt-ceiling gridlock still fresh, many Americans are reluctant to put their money toward any venture that could be less than fully secure. Despite efforts on the part of the White House and the Federal Reserve to encourage borrowing ... Continue Reading »

Washington is acting to rescue tens of thousands of beleaguered homeowners by offering interest-free loans, some of which will ultimately be "forgiven" if borrowers follow the rules. But the pre-screening deadline for applicants is July 22, so interested homeowners must move fast. Click here to get started. Coming out ... Continue Reading »

Foreclosure via Facebook? With roughly 4 million foreclosures in the pipeline in this country, some legal experts say it's just a matter of time until lenders win the right to serve foreclosure documents through the giant social network. That day has already come for one couple in Australia. When they defaulted on a ... Continue Reading »

As U.S. regulators fool with the idea that homebuyers should put 20 percent down on home purchases, they need only look across the sea to see what happen when a similar plan was put in place in Hong Kong recently: Sales at 10 of the island-nation's largest home developments fell almost 60 percent the week after the ... Continue Reading »

Count me among the unpanicked over the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller monthly housing index that shows housing values have dipped past a low set during the Great Recession. I'm not even getting goosebumps over the chilling words "housing double-dip." Nope. For the 70 million home-owning Americans who don't have a ... Continue Reading »

Short sales, the hot potatoes of the real-estate market, are becoming easier to handle. Over the next three years, look for the number of short sales and mediations to grow, as the last reset of those toxic adjustable-rate mortgages comes due and major banks and their servicing divisions get more cooperative. But ... Continue Reading »

It's a Catch-22 if ever there was one. The very process of shopping around for a low interest rate on a mortgage can adversely impact your credit score and cost you your eligibility for the cheaper loan you're seeking. Each time a lender does what is known as a "hard pull" on your credit report, their action actually ... Continue Reading »

A Georgia homeowner was awarded $21 million in a lawsuit against one of the largest mortgage servicers in the nation. The homeowner, David Brash, a U.S. Army sergeant, claimed that PHH incorrectly reported his account as "seriously delinquent," when payments had been made on time through automatic deductions from his ... Continue Reading »

It's probably safe to say that it isn't having a new apartment that's hard, it's getting it. First, there's the legwork, then there's the scraping together a security deposit and first and last months' rent. But for some people, it's that pesky credit score that stands between them and the garden apartment with tons of ... Continue Reading »

Consumer lending is still tight, and your credit score will still be a major factor in 2011 if you want to get the best mortgage interest rates. Even if you don't have a top score, you may still be able to get a government-backed loan, such as an FHA, VA or USDA, at a decent rate. To get the best rate on the market, ... Continue Reading »