Posts with tag unemployment

WASHINGTON -- The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record, worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt. The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net... Continue Reading »

In the conventional wisdom, there is nothing President Obama can do to put Americans back to work in large numbers. He is a president supposedly held hostage by vengeful politics, holed up in a White House surrounded by lunatics and impotent hacks, with congressional combat rendering meaningful action... Continue Reading »

Back in the pre-bust days, big companies paid to move their new hires to wherever the job was located. In some cases, the company would even buy the new employee's house outright, knowing that it could plant a "for sale" sign on the lawn and have the house resold in weeks, if not days. And then came the recession.... Continue Reading »

Loan servicers collecting payments on FHA-backed loans must allow qualified borrowers who lose their jobs to miss up to a year of mortgage payments before starting foreclosure proceedings against them, the Obama administration announced Thursday. The FHA's current three to four months of required unemployment forbearance... Continue Reading »

The housing market is one of two main factors hindering an economic recovery, Ben Bernanke told a luncheon audience in Arlington, Va., today. The Federal Reserve chairman said, "In some areas, for example, high foreclosure rates have produced significant numbers of vacant properties, depressing surrounding home prices,... Continue Reading »

A few years ago, the real estate community was gripped with Millennial Fever: the idea that the Millennials (or Generation Y), born between say 1983 and 2003 (according to NewGeography.com anyhow) and representing the largest demographic group in the United States after the Baby Boomer generation, would be the single most... Continue Reading »

There's a new federal program to help delinquent homeowners keep their homes as they grapple with loss of income: Up to $50,000 in an interest-free "bridge" loan for lower-to-middle-income mortgagers to cover past-due and future mortgage payments. With so many homeowners disheartened by the lack of acceptance into... Continue Reading »

Times have been tough for would-be homebuyers, despite record-low mortgage rates and plummeting home prices. Primarily that's because lenders have raised down-payment and credit score requirements. In the following piece, SmartMoney.com explains why it soon may become a lot easier for borrowers to qualify and to obtain the... Continue Reading »

Minnesota homeowner Matt Kreger refinanced his $168,000 mortgage into a 4.75 percent 30-year fixed-rate three weeks ago, to get out of a 5-year, interest-only ARM with a 5.7 percent rate, which was set to change at the end of September. Borrowers such as Kreger were part of a push before Labor Day to close on the... Continue Reading »

A continued heavy supply of homes on the market has brought home purchases almost to a standstill, despite low housing prices and low interest rates, say some industry pundits. Meanwhile, a declining clan of buyers are faced with unemployment, tight mortgage restrictions and the expiration of the tax credit. "The market,... Continue Reading »

Forget that home prices are stabilizing and new-home sales are rising, it's the amassing inventory of homes that could mire the housing market's recovery. According to The Wall Street Journal, the decline in the pending-home-sales index indicates that inventory is rising, meaning there are too many houses and too few... Continue Reading »

Are you unemployed and trying to find a way to keep your home? As of July, help is available from the Home Affordable Unemployment Program (HAUP). If you qualify for the program your mortgage payment could be suspended or reduced, depending on your financial situation. Here are the basic eligibility requirements for... Continue Reading »

It used to be that when people got into more financial trouble than they could manage on their own, they would declare personal bankruptcy. Then, in 2005, U.S. bankruptcy laws became more stringent: The amount of home equity that was protected from creditors was subject to tougher rules and, along with additional costs,... Continue Reading »

Good news for the economy: employers created more than 100,000 new jobs in March. Non-farm payrolls increased by 162,000, the the biggest increase since the start of the financial crisis in 2008. More than a quarter of those jobs, 48,000, were temporary workers hired to help with the U.S. Census. But that still leaves... Continue Reading »

The number of initial unemployment claims has been falling steadily for about a month now, but the job market remains stubbornly weak. It's beginning to look like another Jobless Recovery, with a booming stock market, big Wall Street bonuses, and high unemployment. Even Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner is complaining about... Continue Reading »