Crucial Question: How Quickly Will Bankruptcy Stop a Home Foreclosure?
Bankruptcy will stop foreclosure fast. But there are excellent reasons to get your ducks in a row early.
“Converting” Your Chapter 13 Case into a Chapter 7 One
When you start a Chapter 13 plan, it's good to have Chapter 7 available as a backup plan.
The Nitty-Gritty about Catching Up on Your Mortgage through Chapter 13–Part 2
More answers about how Chapter 13 gives you up to 5 years to catch up on your past-due mortgage.
The Nitty-Gritty about Catching Up on Your Mortgage through Chapter 13–Part 1
Chapter 13 gives you up to 5 years to catch up on your past-due mortgage. How does this actually work?
Residential Income Segregation Varies Widely Across the U.S.
Increasingly, the rich live among the rich, and the poor among the poor. Especially in the big cities of Texas. Less so in Miami, Cincinnati, Boston, Sacramento, and Portland.
Chapter 13 Turns the Power of the “Automatic Stay” into a Superpower
If Chapter 7 strengthens your hand against your secured creditors, Chapter 13 turns you into Superman. It starts with a much more robust "automatic stay."
What if Protecting Your Home Is Your Highest Priority?
You may have serious financial problems but have still managed to keep current on your mortgage. How does bankruptcy NOT hurt your home but instead protects it?
What Makes Your Bankruptcy Simple, and Not So Simple?
If your financial life is legally simple, your bankruptcy will likely be simple. What is is about your financial life that makes for a not so simple bankruptcy case?
State Sued for Diverting $50 Million from its Foreclosure Settlement Fund
The state with the highest foreclosure rate, Arizona, is being sued for violating the settlement's federal consent judgment by not using the funds for helping homeowners.
Some States Are Not Using Their Foreclosure Settlement Funds to Help Homeowners
States recently received $2.5 billion from the major banks for foreclosure prevention and related help for homeowners. But much of that is not being used for those purposes.
AARP Report Says More Older Americans Now Still Have Morgage Debt;foreclosures
Not only is the foreclosure rate climbing for older mortgage holders, it is climbing faster than it is for younger ones.
Chapter 13 Should Not (Sometimes) Be Used to Save Your House
Although Chapter 13 is often the go-to prescription for hanging onto a home in financial distress, like most strong medicine it comes with side-effects. The simpler Chapter 7 "straight bankruptcy" may be the better solution for both short-term relief and long-term financial health.
Irony by Perjury Adds Insult to Injury: from Lender Robo-signing to Foreclosed Homeowners Begging for Scraps from the National Mortgage Fraud Settlement
Homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure may need to commit perjury to get restitution payments through the settlement. That would be the deepest kind of insult on injury.
Is the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) 2.0 New and Improved Enough to Help YOU?
Under new rules coming on line, HARP is now available for refinances no matter how far your home is underwater. The 125% loan-to-value cap is no more.
Ten Terrific Tools for Saving Your Home through Chapter 13–Part 2
Here are the other 5 powerful home-saving tools. Chapter 13 isn't for everyone. But these tools, especially in combination, can often give you what you need to tackle and defeat your mortgage and other home-debt problems.