Let's hold off blaring the triumphant trumpets just yet for President Obama's plan to allow holders of underwater loans to refinance at a lower rate through revisions in the Home Affordable Refinance Program. What this change does is amend the loan-to-value ratio in a refinance. By removing the cap on how upside-down you ... Continue Reading »

WASHINGTON -- Seeking to circumvent congressional opposition, President Barack Obama will promote a series of executive branch steps aimed at jumpstarting the economy this week, beginning with new rules to make it easier for homeowners to refinance their mortgages. An administration official said the housing ... Continue Reading »

By S. Mitra Kalita The foreclosure crisis may be making Americans sick. A study published online yesterday in the American Journal of Public Health surveyed nearly 2,500 homeowners over the age of 50 who were asked if they had fallen more than two months behind on their mortgage payments since 2006. Of those who ... Continue Reading »

LAS VEGAS -- Mitt Romney came to the state with the highest foreclosure rate in the nation and said he wants to allow home foreclosures to "hit the bottom" to help the housing industry recover. In an interview published Tuesday ahead of presidential debate, Romney told the Las Vegas Review Journal's editorial board that ... Continue Reading »

WASHINGTON -- Homes were built in September at the fastest pace in 17 months, a hopeful sign for the economy. Most of the gain was driven by a surge in volatile apartment construction, which helps boost economic growth. But other data suggest a housing recovery is far off. Single-family home construction, which ... Continue Reading »

When it comes to the housing crisis, it's not what the GOP candidates have said but what they're not saying. The housing and foreclosure crisis has been pretty much invisible in the presidential race, playing stepchild to the issue of what to do about all those unemployed people and the pesky fact that nobody is ... 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 »

By Arthur Delaney ALAMOGORDO, N.M. -- From next to the dead tree in his backyard, Ernie Soto can see the big house where he used to live. It's perched on the side of a mountain overlooking Alamogordo, a town of 36,000 on the eastern edge of New Mexico's Tularosa Basin. In 2007 Soto moved downhill to a smaller ... Continue Reading »

Finally, a bit good news in the housing market. October's NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, released today, is up four points -- the biggest jump in a year and a half. The index, which measures homebuilders' confidence in the health of the single-family home market, is an indication that, in some places at least, ... Continue Reading »

Clearly investor king Warren Buffett knows when to hold them and when to fold them. Houses, my friends, not cards. The world's third-richest man sold this 3,100-square-foot Laguna Beach, Calif., home in 2005 for $5.45 million. And now it's on the market for $4.995 million. ... Continue Reading »

And if you don't believe us, check out this infographic, which compares the price-per-square foot of U.S. real estate to that of more than two dozen cities around the globe. At just over $1,000 per square foot, property in New York is downright cheap compared with Paris, London and Oslo. And at $54 a square foot, Houston ... Continue Reading »

This may not come as a shock to many real estate agents, but their line of work was just named among the Top 12 overrated jobs by CareerCast.com. What makes that career and 11 others so overrated? A perception of having high salaries, power and prestige is offset by the reality of high stress, physical demands or ... Continue Reading »

With the real estate market in the doldrums -- and many agents leaving the business because of it -- getting those left to come to Realtor open houses has become an art of one-upmanship. We've seen catered affairs that put weddings to shame, live music, and gourmet cakes in the shape of the house decorated with the ... Continue Reading »

By Ryan J. Downey I made my last mortgage payment on Nov. 1, 2009. Bank of America changed the locks on my house on Sept. 29, 2011. I realize that my results may not be typical and that every situation is unique. But I'd like to provide people in a similar spot with something that wasn't readily available to me ... Continue Reading »

WASHINGTON -- The American dream of homeownership has felt its biggest drop since the Great Depression, according to new 2010 census figures released Thursday. The analysis by the Census Bureau found the homeownership rate fell to 65.1 percent last year. While that level remains the second highest decennial rate, ... Continue Reading »