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Archive: The economy
Is Washington turning into a seller's market?
The inventory of homes listed for sale on the local multiple listing service, Metropolitan Regional Information Services, the cupboard is pretty bare in some spots. At the current sales pace, Manassas Park City has just 1.3 months' worth of listings. Manassas City, just 1.4 months. Falls Church City, 2.1 months; and Fairfax County just 2.7 months. Arlington County has 3.9 months. The rule of thumb says 6 months' inventory marks a balanced market--favoring neither sellers nor buyers.
By Elizabeth Razzi | November 13, 2009; 12:48 PM ET | Comments (14)
Have you refinanced yet?
Mortgage interest rates dropped again this week, hitting just 4.91 percent with 0.7 points (prepaid interest) for a 30-year fixed-rate loan. That is so low it almost demands a rush to the refinancing table. (Then again, bank deposits are paying less than 2 percent, so maybe rates aren't that low, after all.)
By Elizabeth Razzi | November 12, 2009; 12:00 PM ET | Comments (1)
Washington-area home prices down 2.5% from last year
The median home price for homes sold in the Washington, D.C., area, a vast Census territory that stretches from the Chesapeake bay to West Virginia, fell 2.5 percent during the July-September quarter compared to a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors. The price decline was greater for Washington-area condos. At a median of $244,300, prices were down 7.1 percent compared to a year ago, or 0.2 percent compared to the second quarter of this year.
By Elizabeth Razzi | November 10, 2009; 12:45 PM ET | Comments (12)
Remodelers: "It will die if you don't take care of it."
Remodeling is not dead--but it's a much more modest endeavor these days, when more homeowners are paying the tab out of their savings instead of a cheap and easy home equity loan, according to remodelers. Officials of Case Design/Remodeling, which is based in the Washington area, had some interesting things to say about remodeling in Nation's Building News, an online publication of the National Association of Home Builders. Their average project now costs about $100,000, half of what was typical in 2007, said Mark Richardson, Case co-chairman. And they're focusing much of their pitch to homeowners on the need to keep up their properties, pointing out maintenance issues that ought to be taken care of. "It will die if you don't take care of it," is Case's message.
By Elizabeth Razzi | November 10, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Washington home sales and The Weekend Poll
How much did the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit boost local home sales? By about 1,900 deals that otherwise would not have occurred, according to local real estate analysts Delta Associates. The area's high prices and high number of transients makes our market less influenced by first-timers than most other parts of the country, Delta analysts say in a report released with Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., the local multiple listing service.
By Elizabeth Razzi | November 6, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (1)
Fannie Mae to allow some troubled owners to rent back
Fannie mae announced a new program Thursday that will allow some homeowners facing foreclosure to hand the deed back to their lender but remain in the home as a renter. The idea behind their new "Deed for Lease Program" is that allowing rent-backs will minimize family displacement and stanch the deterioration of neighborhoods plagued by vacant foreclosures, according to Fannie's announcement.
By Elizabeth Razzi | November 5, 2009; 02:39 PM ET | Comments (3)
Now you can get closed-sale prices as fast as a real estate agent
Starting this morning, Redfin is posting closed-sale prices and photographs for all homes on the multiple listing services serving the Washington area (and about a dozen other metro areas) as soon as the listing broker marks the sale as final.
By Elizabeth Razzi | November 5, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (1)
Refinancers save $3 billion in a year
People who refinanced during the July-September quarter cut their interest rate by an average of 1.1 percentage point, and they stand to save $3 billion, all together, over the first 12 months of their new loan, according to Freddie Mac. Another telling statistic: The median appreciation of the refinanced property was 0 percent during the third quarter. Zero.
By Elizabeth Razzi | November 3, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
First-time buyer credit and The Weekend Poll
There's some movement on Capitol Hill toward extending the first-time buyer's tax credit. As reported by the Post's Dina Elboghdady, there is consensus in favor of a limited extension of the $8,000 tax credit. The latest version said to be favored in the Senate: Extended to home sales that go under contract by April 30 and close by June 30. A new, $6,500 tax credit would be available for buyers who have owned during five of the eight years prior to the purchase.
By Elizabeth Razzi | October 30, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Washington area is short 40,000 homes affordable to average earners
We now have a shortage of about 40,000 for-sale homes within a 30- 45-minute commute of those employment hubs that are affordable to people earning these incomes, according to the report. They predict the shortage of affordable for-sale homes will grow by 5,000 units per year between 2010 and 2030. And recent declines in area home prices haven’t helped much, they say, because housing close to those employment hubs took less of a hit than homes farther out in the suburbs.
By Elizabeth Razzi | October 29, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (16)
Act fast to cash in credit card rewards
If you have a Home Depot Rewards MasterCard--and have been counting on tapping that line of credit for a big job--you need to go shopping, and fast. Citi, which issues the card, has announced that cardholders can use them to make purchases only through Saturday, Oct. 31. And Rewards Points must be redeemed by Jan. 31, 2010, or they expire.
By Elizabeth Razzi | October 27, 2009; 08:00 AM ET | Comments (2)
Solar Winners, Chat Day and The Weekend Poll
A couple of early winners have been announced at the Solar Decathlon still underway through this weekend on the National Mall. So far, Team California has taken first place for architecture and communications; the University of Louisiana at Lafayette has taken first place for market viability, and the University of Minnesota has taken first place for lighting design. The rest of the winners will be announced Friday.
By Elizabeth Razzi | October 16, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Get Free Alerts if Someone Messes With Your Deed
First American CoreLogic's ePropertyWatch service allows users to set up a password-protected account and receive e-mail updates reporting recent home sales, foreclosures and, most important, the registration of any changes to public records reflecting your ownership of the home. Such changes could include liens or deed transfers filed without you knowing about it.
By Elizabeth Razzi | October 15, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (4)
AIG Headquarters Going Condo?
The former headquarters of American International Group -- AIG-- in Manhattan will be turned into luxury condos, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
By Elizabeth Razzi | October 13, 2009; 05:27 PM ET | Comments (1)
A Flood of Solar Events and The Weekend Poll
The 19th Annual Metro Washington, D.C., Tour of Solar Homes and Buildings is scheduled for this weekend, Oct. 3-5. And the National Mall is in the process of turning into one solar-powered housing development.
By Elizabeth Razzi | October 2, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
It's Official: We're Hot and Hip
Washington, D.C., ties with Seattle to lead the Wall Street Journal's new list of 10 cities that will be "the hottest, hippest destinations for highly mobile, educated workers in their twenties when the economy gets going again."
By Elizabeth Razzi | September 30, 2009; 09:00 AM ET | Comments (1)
Builder KB Home Starting Up Again in Washington Area
Signs of life in the Washington-area real estate market have caught the attention of at least one big builder. Los-Angeles based KB Home announced this morning that it would resume building in the Mid-Atlantic region, including Maryland and Virginia. The company pulled out of the market in April, 2008.
By Elizabeth Razzi | September 16, 2009; 10:04 AM ET | Comments (1)
What's the Line on Extending the $8,000 Tax Credit?
Odds are improving that Congress will extend the first-time-home-buyer tax credit beyond the Nov. 30 deadline as it pushes to revive the housing market, said Jaret Seiberg, a policy analyst at Washington Research Group, a unit of Concept Capital. There’s a 60 percent chance that lawmakers will keep the tax credit intact especially since policymakers from both parties have voiced their support, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who represents foreclosure-plagued Nevada, Seiberg said. But fiscally conservative lawmakers may rally against it in part because it could cost at least $10 billion to extend the tax credit through Sept. 30, 2010, Seiberg said.
By Elizabeth Razzi | September 15, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (8)
Fuel Bills May Shrink This Winter
The rates we pay to heat our homes this winter will probably be lower than last year, according to the latest forecast from the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration.
By Elizabeth Razzi | September 10, 2009; 12:10 PM ET | Comments (0)
Labor Day, Jobs and the Weekend Poll
This Labor Day finds nearly a 10th of the U.S. workforce looking for a job. We in the Washington area have it easier than most, considering our 6.2 percent unemployment rate, but as The Post reports, pay raises are likely to be scarce and skimpy.
By Elizabeth Razzi | September 4, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
Jobs, Foreclosures and The Weekend Poll
We have seriously bad news out of the Mortgage Bankers Association. More than 9 percent of all mortgage loans outstanding on one- to four-unit homes were at least one month behind on payments during the second quarter. That number, which is adjusted to reflect seasonal trends, broke the previous quarter's record level of delinquencies, and it doesn't even include people already in the foreclosure process. Count them in, and 13.6 percent (not seasonally adjusted) of loans are in trouble. That's the most MBA has recorded since they started keeping track in 1972.
By Elizabeth Razzi | August 21, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
Foreclosure Info via iPhone and The Weekend Poll
An iPhone is now your ticket to more on-the-go info on home prices and foreclosures. First American CoreLogic released a free iPhone app, RealQuest Home Value Pro, that lets you tap into estimated values for specific addresses and neighboring properties as well as data on nearby foreclosures, pre-foreclosures, auctions and bank-owned properties.
By Elizabeth Razzi | August 14, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Price Increases Coming in Foreclosure Hot Spots?
Another report based on Metropolitan Regional Information Systems data says the supply of for-sale homes in the Washington area fell in July, to 5.3 months' worth. "That level of supply is considered at or below equilibrium," according to the folks at Metrostudy, a consultant hired by MRIS, the local multiple listings service. And because supply is below the six-month threshold that marks a balanced market, they expected prices to rise soon. However, not everyone agrees.
By Elizabeth Razzi | August 12, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (14)
Choosing Bankruptcy to Avoid Foreclosure
Even though you cannot get rid of your mortgage payments through bankruptcy, about one in five people who went through mandatory pre-bankruptcy credit counseling said they were doing so to avoid losing their homes to foreclosure, according to Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Greater Atlanta. That organization provides counseling throughout the United States.
By Elizabeth Razzi | August 6, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (1)
Housing Demand in Area Outpacing Supply
The inventory of homes listed for sale in the Washington metro area dropped to just 5.1 months' worth in June, according to a report from Delta Associates, a real estate consulting firm, and Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., the local multiple listings service. That's an important milestone for the local housing market. Analysts usually cite a six-month supply as normal for a balanced market. Five months' supply takes us out of a buyer's market and toward one that favors sellers.
By Elizabeth Razzi | August 5, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (10)
Geography of Distress
I want to direct you to a valuable package of work produced by a team of writers and editors at the Post. They've produced an interactive map of residential foreclosures by Zip code from January 2007 to June 2009 for the Washington metro area. Hardest hit, they say, is Woodbridge's 2011 Zip code, which had 3,041 homes lost.
By Elizabeth Razzi | July 30, 2009; 03:15 PM ET | Comments (2)
More Signs That Home Prices are Steadying
For the first time since the summer of 2006, the analysts at S&P/Case-Shiller have detected price increases from April to May in 17 of the 20 metro areas they follow.
By Elizabeth Razzi | July 28, 2009; 11:26 AM ET | Comments (1)
Home Sales Increase and The Weekend Poll
The best news coming out of the National Association of Realtors' monthly home sales report? The inventory of listings nationwide in June was down about 15 percent from a year earlier. The median price also happened to be down about 15 percent over the same period. Recovery can't happen until inventories are whittled down to more normal levels--closer to six months' supply vs. the 9.4-months' supply the nation has now, so this is a promising development.
By Elizabeth Razzi | July 24, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Signs of Stabilizing Prices, and the Weekend Poll
Trulia reports today that there are signs that prices in the Washington area are starting to stabilize. The metro area is among those that have had a significant decline in the number of for-sale homes with price reductions over the past month. The same is true for Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Dallas and Baltimore. At the beginning of July, 23 percent of homes on the market in the Washington area have had at least one price reduction, averaging 8 percent. On June 1 according to Trulia, 30 percent of homes on the market had a price reduction, averaging 10 percent.
By Elizabeth Razzi | July 10, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (6)
Mortgage Fraud Rising in the Washington Area
Maryland is on the FBI's top ten list for states with the most mortgage fraud, and the District is among jurisdictions "newly identified as having significant mortgage fraud problems," according to the bureau's 2008 Mortgage Fraud Report, which was just released. Nationwide, the number of mortgage fraud suspicious-activity reports referred to law enforcement increased 36 percent over 2007, the report says. And the government's economic stimulus programs could fuel further increases, according to the FBI.
By Elizabeth Razzi | July 9, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (4)
Electricity Price Update
The Energy Information Administration shaved a little bit off its forecast for residential electricity prices. Today they said prices for the year are likely to be 4.7 percent higher than last year, on average. That's just a bit lower than the 5 percent annual increase they forecast in June.
By Elizabeth Razzi | July 7, 2009; 03:25 PM ET | Comments (0)
Appraisers Blamed for Killing a Market Recovery
There's a Catch-22 that always arises when home prices start to increase near the end of a recession. Even though buyers are willing to pay more, appraisals often come in lower than the agreed-upon price because they're based on comparable sales from three-to-six months earlier, when prices were bottoming. Real estate agents and mortgage brokers say it's happening now, and that it's disrupting sales.
By Elizabeth Razzi | June 25, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (11)
D.C. Area Makes All the Best Lists
Brace yourself for more cars moving vans on Washington-area roads: Two national magazines, Kiplinger's Personal Finance and Forbes, have us on their "Best of" lists.
By Elizabeth Razzi | June 23, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Younger Home Buyers Will Be Less Wealthy
The Echo Boomers will probably have less money to spend on housing--and other needs--than their predecessors. "The depth of the downturn may, for the first time in at least 40 years, reduce the real median household incomes of each 10-year [age group] relative to its predecessor by 2010," says the report. That new decade happens to start in only seven little months.
By Elizabeth Razzi | June 22, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (4)
What Northern Virginia Needs Now is New Homes?
What makes Washington different from the rest of the country? (Insert your own wiseguy remark here.) According to Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University, it's that our unemployment woes are much lighter than elsewhere, and --take a deep breath--we need to start building homes again.
By Elizabeth Razzi | June 16, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (4)
Pessimists vs. Optimists and The Weekend Poll
I haven't yet figured out what's really behind the bloggists and commenters who seem to fervently hope for an even more drastic plunge in home prices. Jawboning the market down doesn't seem to have much purpose, and I don't see the fun in all that cynicism. Conversely, trying to cheerlead the market back to health doesn't work very well, either. In Saturday's Real Estate Section, I have a story about the "Surround Sound" campaign the National Association of Realtors has pursued over the past 16 months, which tries to counter the gloomy economic news that prevailed in the press.
By Elizabeth Razzi | June 12, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (15)
Will the Busy Real Estate Market Last?
Yesterday I had a quick cup of coffee with Glenn Kelman, president and CEO of Redfin, an online real estate brokerage, and Karen Krupsaw, the company's manager of the DC-area market. And while they said business is way, way up this spring ("our best May and June ever," according to Kelman) he expressed some concern about whether it would stay that way going into fall.
By Elizabeth Razzi | June 3, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (4)
What If There Weren't All Those Foreclosures?
Distressed home-sales--foreclosures and short sales--magnified the price decline in California since 2006 by about 5.4 percentage points, according to a research paper from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The study attempts to quantify the effect of distressed home sales on home price measures such as FHFA's House Price Index.
By Elizabeth Razzi | May 28, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (5)
Inching Toward a Remodeling Comeback
The scream of a circular saw in my house this weekend might have convinced a passerby that there was a whole lot of construction going on inside. Actually, it was just a tiny do-it-yourself job that might more appropriately be considered decorating rather than remodeling. But it still represents the first home-improvement spending we've done since late last summer when it became clear that the economy was starting to fall apart. Looking at the news I see that we're not alone taking baby steps back toward spending. On May 14, the National Association of Home Builders reported a jump in its Remodeling Market Index--improving from abysmal to simply bad.
By Elizabeth Razzi | May 19, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (2)
Recovery Could Bring a Flood of Listings
If the real estate market showed real signs of coming back to life, would you put your home up for sale? According to a new survey released by the Zillow realty web site, about 32 percent of homeowners said they would be at least somewhat likely to do so. And Zillow officials said if there really is that much pent-up supply out there, it could seriously weigh down the eventual housing recovery.
By Elizabeth Razzi | May 14, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
Beware Dated Housing Stats
"Anyone here from Northern Virginia?" asked Tom Lawler, founder of Lawler Economic & Consulting in Vienna. He was one of the panelists in that marathon economic summit meeting that Realtors held at the Marriott Wardman Park yesterday. "Northern Virginia is actually starting to bottom," he said. He warned participants that all the home-price indexes rely on dated information.
By Elizabeth Razzi | May 13, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (4)
Market Up, or Down, Or?
Check back through the day for updates filed from the National Association of Realtors' daylong economic summit. We're in the Marriott Wardman Park's giant ballroom, and through the day we'll hear from former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Havard's Eric Belsky and Martin Feldstein, the Wharton School's Susan Wachter, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, Carnegie Mellon University's Allan Meltzer and others, roughly in that order.
By Elizabeth Razzi | May 12, 2009; 09:18 AM ET | Comments (3)
Hope on Two Axles
spotted a delightful sign of springtime rejuvenation in my neighborhood over the weekend--a delivery truck. And it was a furniture delivery truck, no less, from a rather nice store. Driving around the vehicle, it occurred to me that it's been months and month since I've seen trucks delivering anything more substantial than the daily mail. Discretional spending on the home! It felt like I was seeing an old pal after a long absence.
By Elizabeth Razzi | May 11, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Mortgage Crisis Show, Tonight on WAMU and WHUT
I'm looking forward to the questions that will come up this evening during a panel discussion I have been invited to join at Howard University. It's part of their week-long special on the mortgage crisis and is being led by WAMU radio host Kojo Nnamdi. The broadcast will be live on Howard University Television, WHUT,and WAMU 88.5. at 8 p.m.
By Elizabeth Razzi | April 30, 2009; 02:40 PM ET | Comments (0)
Nudge Turns to Shove
This was the week when federal officials showed just how serious they are about stirring up the housing market. If an $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers wasn't enough to draw buyers off the sidelines, the Federal Reserve announced it would throw another trillion (plus a couple billion) more dollars into the bond markets to drive interest rates even lower. Lenders started quoting 30-year mortgage rates around 4.5 percent almost immediately. If this doesn't shoot some adrenaline into the market, it's hard to imagine what will. Also this week, the feds unveiled a handy Web site to help consumers find their way toward a government-assisted refinance, a loan modification or a credit counseling session. It's a good clearinghouse of calculators, interactive worksheets and links. (You may also want to try the interactive guide to the homeowners bailout plan put together by my colleague Renae Merle, which has better news for...
By Elizabeth Razzi | March 20, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (2)
How Many Foreclosed or Homeless?
One of the biggest frustrations in trying to report about this housing crisis and recession is the lack of reliable numbers on two of its most dire outcomes: foreclosures and homelessness. There are numbers out there; they just aren't very reliable or, especially with regard to homelessness, up-to-date. It's hard to count people as they fall off the map. Like most major media outlets, The Post reports foreclosure numbers from RealtyTrac each month, mostly because there's no other source that's better. But I don't know anyone who uses those numbers, including reputable economists, who isn't frustrated by the fact that the same home often gets counted more than once in their statistics. They count all the steps that lead to the actual foreclosure, from default notices to auction sales, so a single address that goes into foreclosure adds to the statistics several times. And it's important to remember that RealtyTrac...
By Elizabeth Razzi | March 16, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (1)
Recession Victory Garden
I remember the year I tried to grow tomatoes. I dug a new bed until my hands blistered. I mixed dried manure and peat into hard clay, planted seedlings and used soft cloth to tie the vines to stakes so as not to cut into the delicate stems. By the end of summer I harvested about three tomatoes, the most expensive vegetables I've ever eaten. This year maybe I'll give it one more try, in a far sunnier spot. (There's one lesson learned the hard way.) It seems to be what everyone else is doing. A 1945 U.S. government poster. (U.S. Agriculture Department/War Food Administration). Demand for vegetable seeds is up about 22 percent over last year, says George Ball, chairman and chief executive of the Burpee seed company. "That's astounding," Ball said in a phone interview. It follows a similar jump that happened last year, but he said they...
By Elizabeth Razzi | March 12, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (6)
Prices Down All Around
February was an altogether lousy month for the economy, so who's surprised that local real estate sales stats for the month were equally bad? Median sales prices for all parts of the immediate metro area were down -- by quite a bit -- compared with February 2008, according to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., the local multiple listing service. In the District, the median price for all homes, including condos, was down 13 percent to $360,000; Prince George's County, down 24 percent to $220,000; Montgomery County, down 24 percent to $315,500; Northern Virginia (including Fairfax and Arlington Counties, and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church), down 23 percent to $318,000; Loudoun County, down 22 percent to $294,000. And in the Prince William County, Manassas City and Manassas Park City grouping, price was down 36 percent from last year to $169,500. There was some good news in that Prince...
By Elizabeth Razzi | March 11, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Dealing With Signs of Fraud in FHA Loans
How dead would the housing market be if buyers could not turn to the Federal Housing Administration's mortgage insurance program? Low-down-payment mortgages insured by FHA account for nearly a third of all mortgage loans being made now. But there are worrisome signs that the program is being seriously abused, according to a report in Sunday's Post by Dina ElBoghdady and Dan Keating. Most alarming was their finding that in the past year, the number of borrowers who failed to make a single payment before defaulting on the loans has nearly tripled. The story quoted Kenneth Donohue, the inspector general for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which includes FHA, as saying an immediate default "clearly suggests impropriety and fraudulent activity." In response to the story, FHA spokesman Brian Sullivan said that while the agency is managing the extra risks inherent in lending to borrowers with low down payments, they...
By Elizabeth Razzi | March 10, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
Surprise! It's a Bailout for Vacation Homes, Too
I'm shocked that people aren't jumping all over the revelation that the no-equity mortgage refinance program unveiled yesterday is going to be available for vacation homes and one-to-four unit rental properties as well as for owner-occupied homes. The Post's Renae Merle reported this detail, which she found in the program rules published by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The refinances are available to borrowers who bought their properties using Fannie or Freddie loans and who are not behind on their payments, but who don't have enough equity to qualify for an ordinary refinance. It's half of a two-part homeowner bailout program. The other half encourages loan modifications that can reduce interest rates and payments for borrowers already in default or near foreclosure. That loan-modification plan is restricted to a borrower's primary residence. But President Obama never made such a distinction when he first announced the broad outline of his plan...
By Elizabeth Razzi | March 6, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (5)
Sharpen Your Elbows to Get In on Borrower Bailout
Ah, it was good to see so much detail laid out for the government's new refinance and loan-modification programs for borrowers at risk of foreclosure. The 17 pages of guidelines are government poetry, what with all the acronyms, formulas and step-by-step directions. It makes for lousy reading, but all those details increase the odds that the program will actually work. If you don't believe me, consider the infinitely complicated IRS Form 1040 and its effectiveness at separating you from your money. If a quick run through this calculator indicates you may qualify for a refinance (available even if falling values have wiped out your equity, as long as you're current on payments) or a loan modification (available if you're behind on payments or on the verge of foreclosure) get your financial documents together quickly and call your lender. They are going to be swamped with calls. Some of the largest...
By Elizabeth Razzi | March 5, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (2)
An After-the-Recession Spending List
Like almost everyone else, I've pulled back on spending around the house. I haven't set foot in a mall since Christmas, and I recycle most catalogs without even looking at them. But my After-the-Recession Spending List is getting longer by the day. It makes me feel better to plan and prioritize family spending, even if it's going to be a long time before we pull out the checkbook. A vacation involving passports and phrase books? That's a long, long way off, but it stays on the list. My After-the-Recession list includes things pricey and cheap. Plantation shutters for two rooms will cost more than a few pennies. New shelves in a closet, not much. Paint throughout the house is looking shabby, but it can wait. And forget about saving money by doing it ourselves. My husband and I—along with everyone we know—are working harder at our jobs than ever. Who...
By Elizabeth Razzi | March 2, 2009; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (1)
