Cut Your Energy Bills Without Cutting Comfort There’s nothing better than snuggling up in front of a roaring fire in the middle of a raging snowstorm. (Can you tell I grew up in Chicago?) And while I like to sleep in a freezing cold bedroom at night, not having heat isn’t really an option. If [...]
Best Time of the Year to Start Big Home Improvement Projects There are a lot of folks who are happy 2010 is over and are looking forward to a better 2011. For many homeowners who struggled to make mortgage payments and get bills paid, 2010 was a year of putting off big home purchases, like [...]
Balancing What the Bank Says You Can Afford and What You Can Really Afford How much can I afford to spend? That might be the most asked question among homebuyers. Just to make it extra confusing, the answer to that question depends very much on whom you ask. A mortgage lender might approve you for [...]
Getting Rid of Debt before Buying a Home Got debt? It’s going to be tougher to get a mortgage. The reality of the new world of mortgage finance is that lenders don’t really want to lend money unless it’s a sure thing. What it boils down to is this: If you can afford to pay [...]
How to Think about Debt When Buying a Home Michelle sent me the following question: I am currently reading your book 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask because my husband and I are hopefully buying a home within the next year. It is a very helpful book! There is something I never understand, [...]
Strategic Default: The Consequences of Not Paying Your Mortgage When companies take on more debt than they can afford, they typically walk away from some of it to better balance income and expenses. Walking away from certain debts in order to shore up your balance sheet is called “strategic default.” The word “strategic” is used [...]
Buying a New Home? Here Are 5 Things Your Builder Won’t Tell You There are plenty of new homes to buy these days. In fact, depending on the city where you live, there may be years’ worth of new homes for sale. Many developers have gone bankrupt during these last few years, and their subdivisions, [...]
Reverse Mortgages: What’s New If you’re a senior age 62 or older, you’ve probably heard the term “reverse mortgage.” You may even have seen an ad featuring celebrated actor James Garner speaking on behalf of Financial Freedom, a reverse mortgage lender. Simply, reverse mortgages allow seniors to tap into their home equity and not pay [...]
Zero Down Home Loan Options I recently received this question from one of our Equifax Personal Finance Blog visitors: Q: My husband and I have been having serious marital issues since 2005, and we can’t seem to repair our problems. One problem we can’t agree on is the purchase of a home. I am trying [...]
Mortgage Interest Rate Update: Are We at the Bottom? In 2009, my 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage went into its seventh year, and the interest rate dropped to 3.35 percent. I thought that was fairly amazing. When I bought my first home (a co-op on Lake Shore Drive), in 1989, the interest rate on our mortgage was [...]
