Photo by Louise Rosskam, from the Library of Congress. Found on Flickr. Ask yourself: Can I afford to buy a house without financing? If I can’t afford to buy a house without financing, would I mind living in a house or my desired neighborhood for 15, 25 or 30 years (the probable length of your [...]
[27 Feb 2010]
Eric Posner, a law professor, and Luigi Zingales, an economist, both from the University of Chicago, have made an interesting suggestion: Any homeowner whose mortgage is underwater and who lives in a ZIP code where home prices have fallen at least 20 percent should be eligible for a loan modification. The bank would be required [...]
[24 Jan 2010]
Yet there is an inherent imbalance in the borrower-lender relationship that makes this morality message unfair to consumers, White says: Banks set the rules during the housing boom, handing out home loans with no down payments, no income checks and inflated appraisals. Now that property values have dropped 20% to 50% in many areas, banks [...]
[19 Dec 2009]
Two years ago, I bought a house. Last week, DeKalb County confirmed that this was a financial disaster. For the last 10 years, pundits, personalities and the President proclaimed homeownership as the balm to soothe a range of ills, including community stability and the racial wealth gap. For the last 10 years, I listened intently [...]
[26 May 2009]