From the category archives:

Personal Finance

Do You Owe More or Less?

by Alex Stenback 03.11.2011

The numbers are in, and the Federal Reserve tells us that total household debt for 2010 hit the lowest level since 2004, as the WSJ reports. While this is good news – – a broad reduction in household debt is another brick in the foundation upon which the recovery will be built – household debts (which include mortgages [...]

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Behind on The Mortgage: What is a Delinquent Borrower to Do?

by Alex Stenback 01.04.2008

We’ve posted this once before, but given the number or search queries, emails, and phone calls we are getting asking the question posed in the title, we thought it was worth re-posting a summary of David A. Smith’s excellent advice on what to do if you are, or are in danger of, falling behind on [...]

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From the NYT: Inside the Countrywide Lending Spree

by Alex Stenback 08.27.2007

Any consumer with a functioning BS detector who has seen (over, and over, and over again) number one mortgage lender Countrywide’s televised ads – you know the ones, with a smarmy, guy next door spokesmodel, pitching everything from option ARMS to debt-consolidation Home Equity Loans – probably recognized that there was more at work there [...]

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Consumers, Well Acquainted with Mr. Frying Pan, Rush to Meet Mr. Fire

by Alex Stenback 08.23.2007

If you have any notion that our collective national jones for borrowed money at any cost and nearly any terms will be behind us once the market, the government, et al. deals with the mortgage mess, you might want to re-think things. For instance: You might assume, super-smart blog readers that you are (you are!), [...]

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Before You Sign an Arbitration Agreement, Read This

by Alex Stenback 08.22.2007

                                                                        Click for larger ImageAmong the myriad disclosures a home buyer is asked to sign when purchasing a home (which may or may not include a diagram of the digestive system of [...]

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Real Estate Commission Weirdness, Deconstructed

by Alex Stenback 08.21.2007

If you’ve ever struggled to understand how exactly real estate agents are paid, and where the incentives are, check out this Dynamite post over at a Funmurphys, by regular guy and recent home seller Carl Drews, who unpacks the four essential "weirdnesses" of a real estate transaction. The whole post is worth a read, but [...]

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Banned in Minnesota Today: Trigger Leads

by Alex Stenback 08.01.2007

One of the better pieces of legislation to come out the East side sausage factory this year is a law banning the sale of what are known as "trigger leads" (more on this here, and here.) [The] new law prohibits consumer reporting agencies or any other business entity from selling or exchanging with a third [...]

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Despite Concern, Lenders Still Pushing Option ARMS

by Alex Stenback 04.19.2007

Lenders Like Quicken Still Aggressively Pitching Option ARMS As the ad posted above played on CNBC this AM, we thought to ourselves, "Self, I can’t believe these guys are pitching option-ARMS this way.  Talk about stupid."  Then, as if on cue, we see a piece in today’s Real Estate Journal that points to growing concerns [...]

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Home Equity as Retirement Savings: Not So Hot

by Alex Stenback 04.10.2007

Earlier today in the Linklube (see previous post) we linked to a paper from the Fidelity Research Institute that examines the role of home equity (as opposed to other types of investments) in financing one’s retirement.  Now that we’ve had chance to read it in detail, we wanted to hit the high points for those [...]

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