After buying a home, the next thing homeowners are probably thinking of is how to pay off their mortgage early. When the bank sends a letter about...
After buying a home, the next thing homeowners are probably thinking of is how to pay off their mortgage early. When the bank sends a letter about...
View Home Buying Guide RSS feedAfter buying a home, the next thing homeowners are probably thinking of is how to pay off their mortgage early. When the bank sends a letter about equity enhancement programs, homeowners may think they've found their answer, but can these equity enhancement programs be really as good as they sound? Read this article to learn how these financing programs stack up.
Your bank sends you a letter in the mail promising to reduce the cost of your mortgage with no refinancing, allowing you to pay it off early. They call it an Equity Enhancement Program. Sound great? Of course! Take heed, however - everything may not be as it seems! According to financial expert Suze Orman, you may end up paying more than you realize.
Equity enhancement programs require you to make smaller mortgage payments every two weeks in place of larger monthly payments. Often, banks will even deduct these payments directly from your checking account. They say that by making two payments, you reduce the principal value of your loan earlier, reducing the interest you'll pay for the rest of the month. Fair enough, but there's more to the story than you realize. Often financial institutions forget to mention a one-time lifetime program fee in addition to regular monthly fees, which add up over the years and often offset much of your savings.
Fortunately, there is a better way. Orman suggests simply making one extra payment a year, which is absolutely free and accomplishes precisely the same thing. You can either add 1/12 of that extra payment to your mortgage each month, or write a check for an extra payment at the beginning of each year to get it out of the way. So, the next time you get a notice in the mail, even from your trusted bank, guaranteeing you can get something for nothing, be certain to read the fine print.
Some politicians are in favor of providing assistance to the millions of homeowners who are facing default as a result of poor decision-making and falling home prices. Others are dead set against it. Let's see where the American people stand.
An open letter to all of the lawmakers and taxpayers who think a mortgage bailout is what we need to solve the housing crisis.
To get borrowers to leave a house--and leave it in good condition--mortgage lenders around the nation have begun offering cash for keys. Some lenders are paying out upwards of $3,000.
Democrats unveiled a new plan last week that will allow the FHA to buy $300 billion in delinquent, underwater mortgages. The initial cost to taxpayers is estimated to be $20 billion.
The worst housing slump since the Great Depression is prompting all manner of new bailout plans. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke encourages banks to forgive portions of mortgage debt, the Democrats propose using billions in federal dollars on buying up bad loans, and the Bush Administration is prepared to dump bank losses on the taxpayers' shoulders.
The new home price data released this week shows a historic drop in home prices. The negative declines are eating into equity across the country. An estimated 30 percent of U.S. homeowners are expected to be underwater by 2008.
Should mortgage borrowers at risk of losing their home be given a bailout? What about lenders who face lost profits? Four recent polls ask Americans where they stand on these issues.
Many people may be losing their homes to foreclosure because of legitimate financial crises, but there are even more people losing their homes because of lender follies as well as their own greed and stupidity. Here are five stories in particular that will be sure to induce fits of eye-rolling.
If you have followed the news at all over the last few months, then you know that the public has been spoon fed a spate of tearjerker news stories that are meant to paint struggling mortgage borrowers as victims. These stories talk about the importance of staving off foreclosures and helping people who need it, but they very rarely touch on the truth of the matter: most mortgage borrowers were reckless and do not deserved to be rescued.