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7 Guidelines For First-Time Home Buyers
Just about a year ago, our financial system as we knew it was collapsing — Wall Street was in shambles. Things kept getting worse in pretty much every corner of the economy, and we're still trying to figure out whether or not the country has reached a state of recovery. The housing market has been particularly tumultuous, but many new buyers are taking advantage of lower home prices and finding themselves in escrow for the first time.
Three Lessons to Learn From the Housing Fiasco
The deflated housing bubble has had widespread effects that continue to poison the lives of many Americans and the greater economy. As much as we are faced with stories of foreclosure after foreclosure, the results of a recent survey by real estate website Zillow suggest that many aren't taking away important lessons from the housing debacle. ABC News Consumer Correspondent Elisabeth Leamy is discouraged by this and offers a few key takeaways from the popped bubble.
NJ Woman Bakes Her Way Out of Foreclosure
Mortgage apple cakes are the tastiest thing on the menu for one New Jersey homeowner. Angela Logan must make a $2,559.54 payment on July 26 if she wants to keep her home of 20 years out of foreclosure, and because of a successful bake sale it looks like she'll meet the deadline.
Logan cooked up the idea to sell apple cakes for $40 each in order to pay her mortgage, and as of Tuesday, she had more than 500 orders, including one from Hong Kong.
Guess How Much: Jon and Kate Gosselin's Homes
A family of 10 demands a lot of space, so parents of eight Jon and Kate Gosselin moved their brood this Fall from a 5-bedroom, 2½-bath house to a larger 6,000-square-foot 5-bedroom, 5½-bath home.
The controversial family is settled into their new, more private home in Wernersville, PA, but their Cape Cod-style home in Elizabethtown has been on the market for 89 days and counting. Can you guess how much the family paid for each of the homes?
Maxed Out: Couple Spends Three Times Their Monthly Income
This episode of Maxed Out features Julia, 28, and Mike, 30, a couple on the fast track to losing everything. All the big financial moments arrived at once for Mike and Julia — they have two mortgages and a baby, plus a ton of unmanageable debt. They're living in the townhouse they purchased before their condo sold, on the assumption that the condo would sell immediately.
Would You Take In a Roommate to Cover Your Costs?
Having roommates has its financial and social benefits when you're in college or a young professional, but most of us expect the time will come when we live alone or just with our nuclear family. The recession seems to be changing that. According to CNN more and more professionals (often homeowners) are taking in roomies to help cover the cost of a mortgage and make up for frozen salaries and unexpected health care cost increases.
20 Percent of Homeowners Owe More Than Their Homes' Value
Chances are, if you know several homeowners, at least one of them owes more on her home than it's actually worth. This situation is commonly described as being underwater, because the home cannot be sold to pay off the mortgage. New results from a study composed by First American CoreLogic show that one in five homeowners were in this awful situation as of the end of 2008.
Maxed Out: Quitting More Than 50 Jobs Lends Itself to Debt
This episode of Maxed Out is about Ron and Jennifer, a couple living on a single income and unsure of how they'll pay next month's mortgage. Ron has been unemployed for three months due to injury, but their financial problems began 10 years ago, mainly because of his inability to retain a job — Ron admits that he has quit between 50 and 100 jobs in just one decade. They have six credit cards, two mortgages, and an emergency line of credit they used to pay the past month's mortgage.
Credit Scores Are Important, but They're Not Everything
When it comes to our financial resumes, consensus is that credit scores are the number one factor that lenders rely on to determine the credit-worthiness of a borrower. After a year of one home foreclosure after another, some mortgage lenders have begun investigating financial habits that tell a bigger story than what the credit score can offer. Find out what has changed in the lending world when you read more
Ask Savvy: Should I Split the Mortgage With My Boyfriend Who Earns More?
Dear Savvy,
My boyfriend and I are looking to buy our first home together. He makes about $25,000 more than me per year and we both have similar expenses when it comes to our loans (I make about $56k and he makes about $81k). We're very realistic that relationships don't always work out in the end, but right now, we're very happy and believe we will get married and have children in the future.
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