I received yet another letter from a homeowner struggling to decide whether to do a strategic default, and leave the house he loves or to stay in a neighborhood that is now in a serious downward spiral. I’m printing the letter, my response, and his follow-up because I think it’s emblematic of the choice so [...]
Q: About 3 years ago my neighbor moved out and abandoned her home. Now I find that the house will be auctioned off for tax delinquency. The starting bid is very low. I would like to bid on and try to buy this home, and then use it as a rental property. I know about [...]
The Negative Equity Crisis and Second Mortgages with Ilyce Glink on the Clark Howard Show June 7, 2011: Folks, we've got ourselves a full-blown negative equity crisis. Recently released data from CoreLogic reports that 38 percent of American homeowners who have borrowed against their homes are underwater with their mortgages. This is staggering. Perhaps even [...]
The State of the Real Estate Market with Ilyce Glink on the Clark Howard Show June 6, 2011: According to an ever-growing number of experts, including myself, the state of the real estate market is sobering. The news last week about where home prices are going is frightening. Home values nationally are back to 2002 [...]
The Case-Schiller Home Price Indices featured prominently in a June 2, 2011 podcast discussion between CBS MoneyWatch Home Equity blogger Ilyce Glink and Bill Wright of Americana Mortgage Group. The two experts join Jill Schlesinger and Jack Otter on "Ask The Experts" to answer user questions about real estate. The general consensus of the discussion [...]
What will it take to get this country out of Foreclosure Trouble? If you're out of work, and wondering how you're going to pay the mortgage, and worrying about whether foreclosure is soon going to darken your doorway, you might have thought they're be some sort of program to help you out. Given that the [...]
Getting out of Foreclosure Trouble on the Ilyce Glink Show June 5, 2011: Housing prices are back, nationally, to where they were in 2002. Basically this means that a full nine years of home equity has been wiped out. With the latest housing data in mind, people continually ask me if I think the bubble [...]
Q: I recently traded in an old lease vehicle for a new one. The payment is slightly lower on the new car than it was on the old car. When they ran my credit score, it was 747. How much will my credit score drop with this new car lease I just signed? I thought [...]
What's the forecast for the housing market for the rest of 2011? My prediction is that the market will continue to suffer for the balance of this year and well into next year. Why aren’t home buyers buying? Maybe they’ve heard the recent spate of bad housing news: Home prices fell again, and housing experts [...]
Q: I am writing this for my son. He is recently divorced and his ex-wife signed their home over to him as they were underwater and had no equity in the home. However his mortgage payment is based on two incomes. He applied for a loan modification under a "hardship" rule, and sent in all [...]
