Tag: mortgage
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Interest Rates: What’s in Store for 2015?
Interest rates are an indicator of a country’s economic health. And as we head into a new year, financial experts worry that rising rates could stall growth and choke the recovery from the massive housing crash of a few years ago. But is a significant rise in rates likely in 2015? Some surprising factors may…
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Can 3% Down Boost Lending?
Where have all the homebuyers gone? In spite of gains since the housing crash of 2008, fewer mortgage applications are being approved – and the percentage of Americans who own homes has shrunk to its lowest levels in over two decades. That’s why federal entities including mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are making…
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Will Lower Credit Standards Boost Borrowing?
King Solomon’s Proverbs remind us that smart investing means putting plans in place for a long term yield, just like the prudent ant in Proverbs 6:6-8, “which provideth her meat for herself in the summer, and gathereth her food for the harvest.” That’s sound advice for buying real estate, where a property bought now under…
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Home Owners Score on the Big Banks
The Bible story of David and Goliath never fails to capture our imaginations. We love what it says about the little guy winning the day against a seemingly overpowering foe. Now, in the seemingly never-ending string of lawsuits against the nation’s big banks for fraud and manipulation, a pair of cases filed by home owners…
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JP Morgan Chase Gets Caught Lying — Again
The Proverbs of King Solomon are full of warnings about consorting with the sinful: those who lie, cheat and harm other people. And those principles still hold today as JP Morgan Chase, one of the biggest US banks, confesses to knowingly writing bad loans for government housing agencies and lying about them for over a…
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Mortgage Troubles Reach Pre-Crash Levels
In the Proverbs of King Solomon, houses represent wisdom and prosperity. And, as we’ve seen in these current economic conditions, the state of housing and jobs today are good indicators of stability and security, too. For many housing market observers, recent statistics on foreclosure and mortgage delinquency rates seem to suggest a brighter future for…
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Post-Lawsuits, Big Banks Try New Strategies
One of the basic principles for doing good business Solomon-style is to act with justice and equity to everyone. But as we’ve reported in this space before, those qualities have been in short supply among the country’s biggest banks, as shown by the long list of government-backed lawsuits filed against them in the aftermath of…
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New Rules Change the Lending Landscape in 2014
“The path of the just is a shining light,“ King Solomon says in Proverbs 4:18. Today, a string of lawsuits and new laws are attempting to bring justice to the ethically challenged US mortgage lending industry. And these efforts to protect consumers and hold lenders to new standards are changing the landscape of lending in…
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The Fed Starts to Taper – But Who Benefits?
A king’s throne is strengthened by clemency, King Solomon tells us in Proverbs 20:21, so that the whole country benefits by gestures of support from the top. Though there’s no throne involved, the Federal Reserve’s massive stimulus plan reflects the same intent. And now, with its recent decision to begin tapering down that plan, financial…
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What To Do When A Bank Says No
One of the essential principles of prosperous living, as King Solomon tells us in his Proverbs is equity – dealing fairly and evenhandedly with others. But in the complex and confusing world of mortgage lending today, equity seems nowhere to be found, as lenders accept – or deny – loan applicants for reasons that aren’t…