Posts with tag underwater mortgages

By Vera Gibbons The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced the extension of the Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP, through the end of 2015. HARP is one of two government programs aimed at helping homeowners who are current on their mortgage -- but have little to no equity -- to refinance their mortgage at a... Continue Reading »

By Mamta Badkar Despite the housing recovery, 21.5 percent, or 10.4 million, of all residential properties continued to be underwater at the end of Q4 2012, according to the latest data by CoreLogic. The value of negative equity -- when homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth -- fell to $628... Continue Reading »

By Diana Olick An underwater mortgage may sound like you're dealing with beachfront property gone bad, but it's actually a term of art in the world of real estate. You probably heard this term in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and its accompanying real estate bubble. So what is an underwater mortgage? CNBC... Continue Reading »

By Les Christie Struggling homeowners increasingly turned to short sales to get out from under mortgage debt last year. There were nearly three times as many short sales as there were sales of foreclosed homes in 2012, according to RealtyTrac. Foreclosures accounted for 11 percent of all sales, down from 13 percent a... Continue Reading »

Still a threat to the housing recovery that everyone is lauding is a staggering amount of mortgage debt that many homeowners can't crawl out from under. Imagine what that debt totals in the states hardest hit by the housing crisis. With millions of mortgage holders in each state -- some of them seriously underwater -- the... Continue Reading »

By Cory Hopkins Almost 2 million American homeowners were freed from negative equity in 2012, and the overall percentage of all homeowners with a mortgage in negative equity fell to 27.5 percent at the end of the fourth quarter, according to Zillow's fourth quarter Negative Equity Report. The falling negative equity rate... Continue Reading »

By Mitchell D. Weiss If you're one of the 28 percent of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage that's higher than your house is currently worth, is it time to toss the keys to your lender and walk away? According to Zillow's third quarter Negative Equity Report, some 14 million people combine to owe an estimated $1 trillion... Continue Reading »

The housing market's downturn was so severe that it has taken years to even begin approaching pre-meltdown normalcy, but as it improves, more homeowners are finding themselves in much better financial positions. During the third quarter of the year, negative equity in the housing market took a sizable tumble, according to... Continue Reading »

While the housing market has been somewhat rocky in the last several months, there have generally been improvements, and that trend continued into the second quarter of the year. The number of first-lien home loans nationwide that were current and performing through the end of the second quarter climbed to 88.7 percent,... Continue Reading »

By Les Christie Record-low mortgage rates of 3 percent to 4 percent have been out of reach for these homeowners. Despite having good credit and making their payments on time, they're stuck paying 6 percent or more on their loans. See the whole story on CNNMoney. It Would Kill My Father to Walk... Continue Reading »

By Mamta Badkar Analysts have been out saying housing has turned the corner. Adding to signs of a recovery is a report from Zillow that shows that the number of homeowners in negative equity -- in which a borrower owes more on their mortgage than their home is worth -- is declining. Being in negative equity is also known... Continue Reading »

By Les Christie NEW YORK -- Rising home prices helped nearly 1 million homeowners emerge from being underwater on their mortgages during the second quarter. But younger homeowners are still struggling to stay afloat, according to a report from Zillow. The percentage of borrowers who owed more on their homes than they... Continue Reading »

By Christopher Maag Donna Moore's husband earns a good income, and he can easily afford to pay their mortgage. But in a few months, when her husband retires, all that will change. "(W)e will not be able to pay this mortgage," a reader using the screen name "Donna Moore" wrote in response to a recent Credit.com story,... Continue Reading »

By Alex Viega LOS ANGELES -- U.S. homeowners are getting better about keeping up with their mortgage payments, driving the percentage of borrowers who have fallen behind to a three-year low, according to a new report. Still, the rate of decline remains slow, credit reporting agency TransUnion said Wednesday. The... Continue Reading »

By Les Christie NEW YORK -- A growing number of older Americans are falling into serious mortgage debt, with more than three million borrowers over the age of 50 at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure, according to a recent report from the AARP. Since the housing crisis started, more than 1.5 million homeowners age... Continue Reading »