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(11-29) 04:00 PST WASHINGTON -- Go ahead. Break the chains. Stop paying on your mortgage if you owe more than the house is worth. And most important: Don't feel guilty about it. Don't think you're doing something morally wrong. That's the incendiary core message of a new academic paper by Brent T. White, a University of Arizona law school professor, titled "Underwater and Not Walking Away: Shame, Fear and the Social Management of the Housing Crisis." White argues that far more of the estimated 15 million American homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages should stiff their lenders and take...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov. 5, 2009) — Today, Congressman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) announced that Congress has approved H.R. 3548, the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act. The bipartisan legislation would extend unemployment benefits for 14 weeks and for six weeks in states with unemployment rates above 8.5 percent. Missouri’s unemployment rate was 9.5 percent in September 2009. It would also allow military personnel to fully participate in the first-time homebuyer tax credit program and will make payments tax-exempt under the Military Homeowner Assistance Program, which helps military families recoup costs associated with selling a home that has declined in value and...

ALL HOMEOWNERS BETTER READ THIS Cap & Trade legislation: This bill is only 1428 pages long. The House passed it without reading and it is in the Senate now awaiting to read it after they come back from their August recess "fact finding trips". Here is the link for the bill http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bil Home owners take note & tell your friends and relatives who are home owners!!! Beginning 1 year after enactment of the Act, you won't be able to sell your home unless you retrofit it to complywith the energy and water efficiency standards of this Act. H.R. 2454, the...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration's effort to help homeowners avoid foreclosure may not achieve its goal of helping 3 million to 4 million borrowers and may simply delay mortgage defaults for many, a government watchdog group says. The Congressional Oversight Panel, charged with making regular assessments of the $700 billion financial rescue fund enacted last year, said the Treasury Department should consider whether to improve the current $50 billion program or adopt new programs to meet an expected rise in foreclosures fed by increased unemployment. The panel's report is scheduled to be made public Friday. It comes a day after...

>>>People who default strategically and lose their houses appear to understand the consequences of what they're doing. Piyush Tantia, an Oliver Wyman partner and a principal researcher on the study, said strategic defaulters "are clearly sophisticated," based on the patterns of selective payments observable in their credit files. For example, they tend not to default on home equity lines of credit until after they bail out on their main mortgages, sometimes to draw down more cash on the equity line. >>>Strategic defaulters often go straight from perfect payment histories to no mortgage payments at all. This is in stark contrast...

As you may have guessed, rising unemployment accounts for many home foreclosures. That's turning many people from homeowners to renters. Judy Heller and her husband spent 24 years in their Rochester home, raising their kids. But they're moving out soon. "It's too expensive, we can't afford to stay here and my husband had looked for a job around Rochester but most of them are minimum wage, and you can't survive on minimum wage now," Says Heller. They're moving to an apartment in the Twin Cities, where her husband's found a job. Down sizing means living in a smaller place, and...

PHOENIX -- A Valley couple say their home was put on the auction block even though they successfully modified their loan. So, they contacted 3 On Your Side for help. I would say eight out of 10 times my reports are based on miscommunication and that seems to be the case here. azfamily.com Rachel and Jaime Torres thought they were making their new modified payment. But, as it turns out, they forgot to include money for their escrow account, meaning their new "modified" payment wasn't enough. "I said, 'Oh no! Oh no, my God,' and I broke down in tears,"...

Some housing experts believe there is no alternative but outright forgiveness of a substantial chunk of mortgage debt for many people who are at risk of foreclosure.Government and private-lender attempts to stem the home foreclosure crisis so far have mostly focused on loan modifications or refinancing -- giving borrowers a temporary or permanent reduction in their monthly payments. But some housing experts say the next wave of help will have to address the core problem for many homeowners: negative equity. This camp believes that there is no alternative but outright forgiveness of a substantial chunk of mortgage debt for many...

Berkeley's City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to eliminate homeowner mandates from its climate action plan, in part because of an uproar from infuriated residents. The plan required owners to upgrade their homes' energy efficiency, based on an independent audit of a home's windows, roof, appliances and insulation. The goal was for all of Berkeley's 23,000 homes and 25,000 duplexes and apartment units to reduce energy use by 35 percent by 2020. Many homeowners vehemently protested the mandates, saying the cost to upgrade a typical drafty prewar Berkeley home would be astronomical. Hills residents particularly fought the portion requiring white...

OBAMA: Good evening. Now, before I take questions from the correspondents, I want to give everyone who's watching tonight an update on the steps we're taking to move this economy from recession to recovery, and ultimately to prosperity. Now, it's important to remember that this crisis didn't happen overnight and it didn't result from any one action or decision. It took many years and many failures to lead us here. And it will take many months and many different solutions to lead us out. There are no quick fixes, and there are no silver bullets.

In these hard times, the campaign for the Metro Parks levy is facing a financial crunch. The campaign's original goal was to raise $400,000. So far, contributors have given $130,000. Metro Parks said American Electric Power, Grange Insurance and the law firm of Squire Sanders & Dempsey are among the businesses endorsing the levy. To save cash, the campaign doesn't plan any TV ads. It does plan to use its network of supporters to blast e-mails and has discussed using social-networking sites such as Facebook to get the message out, Executive Director John O'Meara said.

In a rare move, a South Side homeowners association has filed to foreclose on 84 homes in the Mission Creek community because of unpaid association dues. That’s 21 percent of the roughly 400 homes in the community, based on data from RexReport.com. The 84 are set to go on the auction block April 7 at the Bexar County Courthouse — an event that would devastate the neighborhood’s property values, experts say. Judith Gray, an attorney hired as the auction trustee, said the association is foreclosing because many homeowners have not paid dues for several years, and the multiyear loss of...

WASHINGTON – Disagreement among Senate Democrats over how many struggling homeowners should qualify for court-ordered mortgage relief has stalled a key part of President Barack Obama's foreclosure prevention plan on Capitol Hill. Behind the scenes, top Democrats are offering banks and credit unions sweeteners to drop their opposition to the plan, hoping that even tepid support from lenders might win a few vital votes from skeptical Democrats and Republicans. The bill would give judges new power to lower the interest rate and principal on a primary home loan as part of a bankruptcy settlement. The measure passed the House last...

ATLANTA -- A well-armed couple opened fire with an assault rifle and pistol early Friday morning on some car thieves in southwest Atlanta. The couple at a home in the 1900 block of Childress Drive told police that after somebody tried to steal their car last week, they rigged up a homemade alarm in their carport using string and cans.

I probably should have just listened to Paul Harvey. Though it wasn’t actually Paul Harvey. It was Ron Chapman. And that’s probably the problem. I understand Ron Chapman is a radio legend somewhere, but I don’t live there. So, to me, he’s just an insufferable bore. But I should have been listening anyway. Instead I got an idea. An idea that had been kind of simmering in my head for a week or so. I was trying to think of a way to show that I wasn’t happy. That I was tired of bailouts. That I didn’t want to pay...

Some home builders already struggling in Florida's dismal housing market are facing another headache: The Chinese-made drywall they used is causing unpleasant odors and possibly leading to electric problems in dozens of homes constructed during the housing boom.

Chinese property hunters to raid US By Geoff Dyer in Beijing Published: December 5 2008 20:10 | Last updated: December 5 2008 20:10 Chinese bargain hunters are preparing to descend on American cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, where homeowners have suffered some of the steepest price falls in the US. SouFun, the biggest real estate website in China, is organising a trip next month to look at properties in California and possibly Nevada. Liu Jian, the company’s chief operating officer, said about 300 people had expressed interest in the idea in the three days since it was...

Risk Specialists Companies, Inc. (RSC), a subsidiary of AIG Commercial Insurance, is introducing what it says is a first in the U.S.: a homeowners insurance product that is compliant with key Islamic finance tenets and based on the concept of mutual insurance. Advertisement The Takaful Homeowners Policy is underwritten through RSC member company A.I. Risk Specialists Insurance, Inc., in conjunction with Lexington Insurance Co. and in association with AIG Takaful Enaya. Headquartered in Bahrain, AIG Takaful Enaya was established in 2006 to provide Takaful products, including accident and health, auto, energy, property and casualty products. The Takaful home policy is...

ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis city leader frustrated with the police response to rising crime called Tuesday on residents to arm themselves to protect their lives and property. Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe said police are ineffective, outnumbered or don't care about the increase in crime in his north St. Louis ward. St. Louis has had 157 homicides in 2008, 33 more than last year at this time.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will loosen terms of its foreclosure-prevention effort so that the program, meant to backstop $300 billion in home loans, can be more effective, the agency said on Wednesday. The Hope for Homeowners program will now insure home loans that have had as little as 3.5 percent of their value erased by the original lender. Under the original terms, a lender would have to write off 10 percent of a failing loan before the government would invest. Investors who hold a stake in failing loans through second liens may receive...

Fort Worth Burglars Get More Than They Bargain ForFORT WORTH (CBS 11 News) ― Surveillance video shows at least two young men getting what appears to be a big surprise when they tried to break into one North Texas house. What happened is all captured on tape. CBS 11 News talked exclusively to the Fort Worth homeowner about the experience he calls 'frightening'. "I think I shocked them a lot more than they shocked me," homeowner Jim Cox explained. Burglars may have taken one look at Cox's North Fort Worth house and thought, "lights on – but nobody home." But...

Nearly one in five U.S. mortgage borrowers owe more to lenders than their homes are worth, and the rate may soon approach one in four as housing prices fall and the economy weakens, a report on Friday shows. About 7.63 million properties, or 18 percent, had negative equity in September, and another 2.1 million will follow if home prices fall another 5 percent, according to a report by First American CoreLogic. The data, covering 43 states and Washington, D.C., includes borrowers nationwide, even those who took out mortgages before housing prices began to soar early this decade. Seven hard-hit states...

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander hopes to raise awareness about a program that could help thousands of Tennesseans. He says roughly 67,000 Tennessee homeowners with overdue mortgages could use "Hope for Homeowners" to refinance their loans. “HOPE for Homeowners" is a way for homeowners to refinance delinquent mortgages if their lenders agree to participate. This program is a good step toward boosting confidence in the housing market and helping preserve the American dream for the millions of people facing possible foreclosure,” says Alexander. His office says "HOPE for Homeowners" is a voluntary initiative to help distressed borrowers refinance their mortgages. It...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made an overnight change in the homeowner bailout he proposed at Tuesday’s presidential debate, making it more generous to financial institutions and more costly for taxpayers. McCain's staff says it was always meant that way. When McCain sprang his surprise idea at the start of the debate in Nashville, his campaign posted details online of his American Homeownership Resurgence Plan, which would direct the government to buy up bad home mortgages, allowing strapped people to keep their property. The document posted and e-mailed by the McCain campaign on Tuesday night says at the end of its...

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Monday outlined plans for the four biggest U.S. banks to issue new bonds to stimulate mortgage lending, the latest in a series of steps to aid the troubled housing market. Paulson outlined rules to issue so-called covered bonds backed by mortgage loans. The instruments are popular in Europe but had little appeal in the U.S. until demand for mortgage-backed securities plummeted because of soaring home loan foreclosures. C,JPM,BAC,WFC...have signed up to issue covered bonds, seen as less risky than mortgage-backed securities. "Covered bonds have the potential to increase mortgage financing...

HOME owners could be forced to turn their houses green before they can sell them under a proposal before the State Government. Planning Minister Justin Madden yesterday refused to comment on the proposal. The Master Builders Association wants laws to make it compulsory for owners of all existing homes to meet minimal environmental standards before they are allowed to sell them. The changes will cost each homeowner hundreds of dollars but the MBA says buyers of newly built homes are already being forced to meet five-star standards and they shouldn't be the only ones bearing the burden of helping the...

The U.S. Supreme Court created a huge political backlash when it ruled that local governments could use eminent domain to seize private property and transfer it to other private owners for "economic development." Since the Kelo ruling in 2005, 42 states have enacted limitations on eminent domain — not always effective ones. But like lawmakers in many other states, some California officials are trying to block real eminent domain reform. On June 3, Californians will vote on Proposition 99, a ballot initiative sponsored by groups representing cities, counties, redevelopment agencies and other pro-condemnation interests. It purports to protect property rights...

The number of properties with a filing...declined 5 percent from March. California had the most properties facing foreclosure at 64,683, an increase of 112 percent from April 2007. The number of properties declined less than 1 percent from March. The state posted the second-highest foreclosure rate in the country, with one in every 204 households receiving a foreclosure-related notice. California metro areas accounted for six of the 10 U.S. metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates, led by Merced, with one in every 66 households receiving a foreclosure notice.

In the community of Shady Grove Woods, trees are becoming more and more scarce. Residents and other anti-Intercounty Connector activists marched through the neighborhood on Saturday, pointing out the trees that were cut down to make way for the six-lane highway. ‘‘It’s just that we didn’t have a say in it in so many ways and we’re not talking about a two-lane road, we’re talking about a major highway running through here,” resident Sam Chim said of the ICC. ‘‘We have a lot of nice, private woods back here and now we’re going to have a highway running through instead....

NEW YORK (AP) — Giving a peek at a broader economic plan, Sen. John McCain is calling for federal aid for well-meaning homeowners with what he called "burdensome mortgages." "There is nothing more important than keeping alive the American dream to own your home," the likely GOP presidential nominee said in remarks prepared for a roundtable discussion Thursday at Windows We Are Inc. in Brooklyn. "And priority No. 1 is to keep well-meaning, deserving home owners who are facing foreclosure in their homes," the Arizona senator said. McCain on Thursday proposed a plan to offer deserving people the chance to...

Federal Reserve Report Shows Homeowner Equity Dipping Below 50 Percent, Lowest on Record NEW YORK (AP) -- Americans' percentage of equity in their homes has fallen below 50 percent for the first time on record since 1945, the Federal Reserve said Thursday. Homeowners' percentage of equity slipped to a revised lower 49.6 percent in the second quarter of 2007, the central bank reported in its quarterly U.S. Flow of Funds Accounts, and declined further to 47.9 percent in the fourth quarter -- the third straight quarter it was under 50 percent. That marks the first time homeowners' debt on their...

AUSTIN – Texas homeowners still pay far more for insurance than those in any other state, even after the overhaul passed by the Legislature four years ago that was supposed to lower rates. A new study from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners showed that the average annual premium in Texas for the most common homeowner policy was $1,372 a year, considerably more than the nationwide average of $764. Louisiana was the second-highest at $1,144 and Florida was third at $1,083. The premiums in all other states were less than $1,000.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, suggested Sunday that a tax break or other government financial help for homeowners facing the mortgage crunch would be the best political fix for the economy. He cautioned against meddling with home prices or interest rates to address the housing problem. Greenspan did not specifically call for a tax cut. Instead, he called for the government to apply money to the severe housing market slump. Such a cash infusion would typically come through a tax break or a new government spending program. "Cash is available and we should use...

For Immediate ReleaseDecember 7, 2007 President's Radio Address   President's Radio Address  Audio  En Español       Fact Sheet: Helping American Families Keep Their Homes      In Focus: Homeownership THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Today I want to talk to you about some important policies affecting taxpayers and homeowners this holiday season. On Thursday, the United States Senate passed a bill to fix the alternative minimum tax, or AMT. The AMT was designed to ensure that the wealthy paid their fair share of taxes. But when Congress passed the AMT decades ago, it was not indexed for inflation. As a result, the AMT's higher tax...

<p>The last politician who took advice from the bond market was Bill Clinton. When he pushed for a tax hike back in 1993 to cut the budget deficit, it was under the assumption that bond investors would respond by bringing down interest rates. (The theory here is that deficits are inflationary. Inflation is bad for bonds.) Yet long-term interest rates surged from 6.45 percent when Clinton signed his tax-hike bill on Aug. 10, 1993, to 8.16 percent on Nov. 7, 1994, the day before the midterm congressional election where Republicans won back the House and Senate.</p>

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- As the carnage widens from the subprime mortgage meltdown, Democratic presidential candidates are putting more emphasis on the plight of homeowners and calls for more regulation rather than on investors and falling financial markets.

CLAREMONT - There will not be a sequel to the mini-scandal known in some circles as "Flag-gate." Claraboya residents, many of whom were engaged in a fierce neighborhood dispute over tiny American flags during last year's Fourth of July season, have pledged to behave themselves this year. Tom and Nancy Telford, the two neighborhood real estate agents who planted flags last year in their neighbors' front yards with Nancy Telford's business card attached, left off the business cards this year, and mailed out a postcard to their neighbors giving them an advance opportunity to decline a flag. Last year, after...

Florida Senate Democrats have crafted a tax reform plan that would boost taxes for homesteaders, while cutting taxes for commercial property and second-home owners.

A 50-year-old principal was found naked in his school office while watching gay pornography on Tuesday, according to sources. Sex toys were found nearby, the sources added. Police said John Acerra was a longtime teacher and principal in the Bethlehem Area School District, but was also allegedly selling crystal meth out of his school office. Acerra, of Allentown, was the principal of Nitschmann Middle School in Bethlehem, and was arrested minutes after he arranged to sell the notoriously addictive drug to a police informant, according to investigators. Police arrived and found meth and drug paraphernalia on his desk, according to...

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A Louisiana federal judge has ruled many New Orleans homeowners whose houses sustained water damage after Hurricane Katrina are not excluded from coverage under their insurance policies, a judgment that represents a loss for the insurance industry. In an 85-page judgment, U.S. District Court Judge Stanwood Duval denied motions by some insurers seeking to stop policyholders from receiving claims they said were prevented by exclusion language spelled out in the policies. The insurance companies argued the industry standard wording for what constitutes a flood covers any inundation of dry land by water. But in his decision,...

We have complained repeatedly about the media's use of the term "secret prisons." The phrase was used by Dana Priest in a Pulitzer Prize-winning story to refer to places where suspected terrorist were briefly held. She compared them to the Soviet gulags. But President Bush has never confirmed their existence, and spokesman Tony Snow has made a point of saying that administration officials don't use that term when talking about the one-time secret CIA program of interrogating al-Qaeda terrorists. I think it's important to report what people actually say, and what has been confirmed, rather than what the media want...

Work with lender as soon as possible to avoid owing more than your house is worth. Sunday, November 12, 2006 In the next couple of years, a combination of rising mortgage interest rates and falling or slow-growing home value could plunge thousands of homeowners underwater. Being underwater means owing more than the house is worth. It's an especially risky situation for people with interest-only mortgages and pay-option adjustable-rate mortgages because they don't build equity unless they choose to. Some might be able to refinance or get through hard times by living frugally. Others will have to sell their houses. Still...

POMPANO BEACH, Fla., May 4, 2006 – Nearly 60 sailors worked to help take future homeowners' dreams one step closer to reality here yesterday. Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class John Mcinnis, a damage controlman aboard the USCG Cutter Elm, works with servicemembers from his ship and others to roof a house for Habitat for Humanity of Broward County, Fla. Servicemembers began working with Habitat May 1, and were to complete their participation May 4. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The sailors are assigned to various U.S. and Canadian military ships temporarily ported...

BURBANK – Chris James needed help moving a piano and three dozen boxes of records from his music studio, but instead of corralling some buddies he rented a truck and hired day laborers outside the local Home Depot. The two Guatemalan men finished the job in an hour and a half, hauling a piano and wedging a sofa into his condo, then stacking the boxes in a back room, for less than $40. It was first time James hired day laborers but it won't be his last. “Absolutely satisfied,” said James, 31. The No. 1 employers of day laborers, many...

"Where Judgeds Go When They Need A Real Advantage........Upon attending hearing of August 11, with Judge George Kreeger on an Emergency Ordor of a Motion to declare Judge Fudger's Order Void, due to his obvious lack of jurisdiction, we learned a new chapter........Violence begets violence. When the former Head of the Ga Republican Party's Law Firm targets a small family, .......... District Attorney Patrick Head, refused to meet with citizens when summoned twice. Could it be, DA head having met with Clerk....lack of Jurisdiction?

TAMPA - Before David Kelley went to Iraq, he bought his wife a "Support Our Troops" sign to display outside the couple's home in the Westchase subdivision. When Kelley, an Army private, went overseas in November, Stacey Kelley posted the sign outside their home. For her, the sign is a daily reminder of the sacrifice her husband and fellow soldiers are making. But officials of Westchase, in northwest Hillsborough County, view the sign differently. They say the 2-foot-high sign violates community rules. Stacey Kelley, 24, received a letter from the homeowners association last month stating she could be fined $100...

A Missouri couple say they were denied an occupancy permit for their new home because they're not married. Olivia Shelltrack and Fondray Loving have been together for 13 years and have three children, ages 8, 10 and 15, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The couple are appealing the occupancy permit denial from the Black Jack, Mo., board of adjustment, which requires people living together to have blood, marriage or adoption ties. Loving is not the father of Shelltrack's oldest child. I was basically told, you can have one child living in your house if you're not married, but more than...

CLEARWATER - Policyholders covered by Citizens Property Insurance Corp. pleaded with state regulators Thursday night to reject the company's proposed rate increase, saying it will force them to sell their homes. "I'm sick to my stomach," Pasco County resident Meghan Hulbert told officials of the state Office of Insurance Regulation at a public hearing on the rate increase. "I'm a single mom, and I may have to give up my home." Officials of Citizens, the state's insurer of last resort, said they are concerned about the rising rates. But they said it was a reality that Florida residents may have...

Unruly home owners face eviction Launching a barrage of measures to combat yobbish behaviour, he said the Government was consulting on a new "house closure order" to bring relief to those suffering from the "misery" of nuisance neighbours. This included "noise, constant visitors at all hours, rubbish and vandalism". It would empower the authorities in England and Wales to seal a property for up to three months, and evicted families would be rehoused in special residential units. Hazel Blears, the Home Office minister, confirmed the measures would apply to people with mortgages or who owned their homes outright, and would...

Congress, States Slow to Confront Kelo December 9, 2005 | | On June 23, the U.S. Supreme Court sent shock waves through the ranks of the nation’s homeowners and small businesses when it ruled 5 to 4 that government could seize property and transfer it to another private owner if the change in ownership might enhance the community through “economic development.” The case pitted the City of New London, Conn., against Susette Kelo, who fought the city for seven years to keep her home from being seized to make room for a major commercial development. Because the decision alerted families...