Latest Buzz

Must Read! Collected by Trashout.Pro

05/09/2012 - Florida carries burden of 30 percent of nation's shadow inventory - The Sunshine State's shadow inventory of 550,000 homes makes up a third of the nation's unlisted distressed properties according to a report released this week by the Florida Realtors. Florida Realtors chief economist John Tuccillo said despite the large volume, the slow leak of homes onto the market, as well as an increase in short sales, shouldn't crash prices as many have feared. The report, released Tuesday, defines shadow inventory as homes with mortgages 90 days or more delinquent, homes in the process of foreclosure and homes repossessed by the bank but not yet listed for sale. - www.palmbeachpost.com

05/09/2012 - Condo owners can join forces to sue delinquent owner - While we have not heard of anyone doing it to this point, we see no reason why a unit owner or group of unit owners cannot seek to collect the monies owned the association by delinquent unit owners. We'd suggest that those unit owners who want to take action against delinquent owners obtain an assignment from the association of its collection rights and give it a shot. Sitting back and allowing everyone's home values to plummet is certainly not the answer. - www.palmbeachpost.com

05/07/2012 - Josh Crawford Has Not Had A Bank Account In More Than A Decade And Likes It That Way - Josh Crawford, 42, of Squaw Valley, Calif., has not had a checking account or credit card in 14 years. But that has not stopped him from participating in the electronic-payment economy. To do that, he uses Visa prepaid cards, loaded up with values of $50 to $500, when he needs to make an online transaction like buying Olympic collectibles on eBay or purchasing a plane ticket. Crawford pays for everything else in his life with cash. - www.huffingtonpost.com

05/01/2012 - Suburban Foreclosed Homes Transforming Into Marijuana Farms - Organized marijuana growers are shifting to the suburbs from rural and commercial areas, helped by a housing crisis that created a glut of affordable, spacious houses and a stream of new residents to previously more stable communities. Houses that sold for $1 million before the crisis have been turned into grow houses, equipped with the high-intensity lights, water and air-filtering systems necessary to produce potent, high-quality marijuana. - www.nytimes.com

04/29/2012 - Americans Struggle With Student Debt, Even After Filing For Bankruptcy - When an older relative dies, the family often finds itself with the stamp collections, Queen Anne furniture and stacks of old TV Guides that piled up over a lifetime. Collectibles can be hard to sort through in terms of both monetary and sentimental value. Modern technology can help you create an inventory and find out what the items are worth, but deciding who gets what and how to handle the things nobody wants is a perennial problem. - www.huffingtonpost.com

04/29/2012 - Americans Struggle With Student Debt, Even After Filing For Bankruptcy - The misfortunes that brought schoolteachers Devin and Sarah Stang and their four young children to bankruptcy – and the loss of their house and a car in the process – were their own unique story. Now, the Stangs just want a truly clean slate, financially. But even the ordeal of bankruptcy won't give it to them, and the reason is a common one: Much of their debt comes from private student loans. - www.huffingtonpost.com

04/29/2012 - Fixes Abound for SBA Loan Programs | How To Fix SBA Loans - One lending program, known as the "504" program, is being specifically targeted even though it has quietly been a successful job creator for the SBA for decades. The 504, which helps business owners buy commercial property, has historically been a zero-subsidy program, meaning that no tax dollars were required to keep it running. These loans have helped create hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs, and if viewed over its lifetime, it has been one of the most cost-effective economic development programs ever created by the U.S. government. - www.huffingtonpost.com

04/23/2012 - Elevator Pitches: 5 Things You Need To Know - While condensing your years of work into a concise, one-minute presentation may seem impossible, there are key guidelines that can help you slim down to pitch-perfect form. To craft a great elevator pitch, here are five things you need to know. - www.huffingtonpost.com

04/15/2012 - How to Pay Off Your Mortgage Loan Faster - A lot of homeowners want to pay off their mortgages before the end of the loan term. This is especially true for borrowers who want to repay their home loans before retirement. There are a number of ways to accomplish a mortgage payoff. The two easiest ways to put more money toward a mortgage are to set up automatic payments from a bank account or use the lender's website, explains Jerald Banwart, senior vice president of customer operations at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in Des Moines, Iowa. - www.trashoutpro.com

04/13/2012 - Middle Class Misses Out On Recovery As Poor, Rich Grab Jobs: Report - Middle income jobs have accounted for only 34 percent of employment gains since February 2010, according to Wells Fargo calculations cited by Bloomberg, even though they employ 40 percent of workers. During the same period, the lowest paying jobs made up 46 percent of employment growth, while the highest paying jobs, which only employ 15 percent of the population, accounted for 20 percent of gains. - www.huffingtonpost.com

04/13/2012 - Middle Class Misses Out On Recovery As Poor, Rich Grab Jobs: Report - Middle income jobs have accounted for only 34 percent of employment gains since February 2010, according to Wells Fargo calculations cited by Bloomberg, even though they employ 40 percent of workers. During the same period, the lowest paying jobs made up 46 percent of employment growth, while the highest paying jobs, which only employ 15 percent of the population, accounted for 20 percent of gains. - www.huffingtonpost.com

04/12/2012 - Banks Were Too Big To Fail 200 Years Ago, Tooe - If you think American banks are too big to fail now, you should have seen them 200 years ago. Banks dominated the American corporate landscape in 1812, according to a study by professors Richard Sylla of New York University and Robert Wright, of Augustana College in South Dakota, for Bloomberg View. The professors reconstructed what the Fortune 500 would have looked like 200 years ago and found that banking and insurance dominated Corporate America in its infancy. - www.huffingtonpost.com

04/08/2012 - Community Life: Association should consult attorney about foreclosure - Question: About two years ago, an owner in our condominium moved out, handed the keys back to the bank, and stopped paying the mortgages and our association maintenance fees. (Read More)
Answer: Unfortunately for associations, especially in Lee County, this situation is all too common, even some five years after the "crash" of the real estate market. There are no "quick fix" or "magic bullet" options, though a cottage industry of those who promise otherwise has predictably taken hold. (Read More) - www.news-press.com
Read More: Community Life: Association should consult attorney about foreclosure

03/14/2012 - Goldman Director Blasts Firm On Way Out, Citing 'Toxic' Environment - To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the world's largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for. - www.nytimes.com

03/10/2012 - You'll Never Believe How Young This Homebuyer Is | Willow Tufano, Florida 14-Year-Old, Buys House With Money Made Off Of Foreclosure Crisis - Willow Tufano, a Florida 14-year-old, recently purchased her first home, NPR reports. Tufano split the $12,000 cost of the house with her mother, but she says she plans to buy mom out by the time she's 18 and put her name on the title. Though Tufano's story may sound outlandish, she isn't the first teen to buy a house; in May 2010, one Ohio 18-year-old bought her first home using cash she'd saved up from state fair winnings, according to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. - www.huffingtonpost.com

03/02/2012 - Silicon Valley Homeless Feel The Grip Of Recession's Long Reach - The first time Michele arrived at the Maple Street homeless shelter three years ago, she was still driving her BMW 325xi, the final remnant of her Silicon Valley affluence. Her paper wealth of more than $2 million had evaporated a decade earlier, she says, via a stock options fiasco. She had used the options to buy stock in her high-flying software startup, netting a seven-figure profit by the government's reckoning, but then held the shares until they were nearly worthless. That left her with no cash and a $200,000 tax bill. She had sold nearly everything to cover it: her house, her remaining stocks, her art collection. - www.huffingtonpost.com

08/31/2011 - Cook County: Foreclosure Fund Holds Millions In Unclaimed Taxpayer Money - A mortgage foreclosure surplus fund of profits generated in property sales dating back to the 1990s holds millions that belong to 1,944 property owners, the Chicago Tribune reports. On average, the county owes them about $2,000 apiece, though one business is owed $460,000 it has yet to claim, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. - www.huffingtonpost.com

08/31/2011 - Credit unions vs. banksVideo | Credit unions keep perks, banks won't (VIDEO) - Credit Union National Association CEO Bill Cheney says credit unions are in good financial shape and are keeping the perks that most U.S. banks are dropping. - www.cnn.com

08/29/2011 - Did Karl Marx Foresee The Global Economy's Current Crisis? - Give Karl Marx a Chance to Save the World Economy: George Magnus. The process he describes is visible throughout the developed world, particularly in the U.S. Companies’ efforts to cut costs and avoid hiring have boosted U.S. corporate profits as a share of total economic output to the highest level in more than six decades, while the unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent and real wages are stagnant. U.S. income inequality, meanwhile, is by some measures close to its highest level since the 1920s. Before 2008, the income disparity was obscured by factors such as easy credit, which allowed poor households to enjoy a more affluent lifestyle. Now the problem is coming home to roost. - www.huffingtonpost.com

07/10/2011 - Strategic Defaulter Walks Back To His Mortgage - So when Soto heard of a new program that helps struggling borrowers -- but only ones who are still in their homes -- he decided he should move back into the still vacant home and give it a shot. Soto said he told himself, "Okay, I'll move my ass back in there." He and his wife brought most of their belongings back to the house this week. - www.huffingtonpost.com

07/10/2011 - Payday Lenders, Pawn Shops Thrive In Bad Economy - Profits at pawn shop operator Ezcorp Inc. have jumped by an average 46 percent annually for five years. The stock has doubled from a year ago, to about $38. And the Wall Street pros who analyze the company think it will go higher yet. All seven of them are telling investors to buy the Austin, Texas, company. - www.huffingtonpost.com

07/09/2011 - Man Who Loses Job, Home, Car Becomes Public Speaker - Often all it takes to become homeless is a series of unfortunate events. That's what happened to John Harrison, NPR reports. He lost his job in a merger, then had trouble finding a new one without a college degree. Then his house burned down and he had to live in his car until it broke down. Soon he had no home. - www.huffingtonpost.com

06/26/2011 - Nontraditional data may help mortgage applicants - Millions of Americans whose credit scores have declined in recent years because of economic stresses could start rebuilding their scores if their rent, utility, cellphone, insurance and other monthly payments were reported to the national credit bureaus. - www.latimes.com

06/26/2011 - Foreclosure myths, debunked - You shouldn't let emotions or misinformation stop you from keeping your home. Here are some common misconceptions about mortgage payments and the foreclosure process. People fear foreclosure almost as much as they fear death. But unlike death, foreclosure can be prevented. Unfortunately, just as some people ignore an illness' symptoms in hopes that it will just go away, some troubled owners are afraid to confront their problems and take the necessary actions to save their homes. - www.latimes.com

06/23/2011 WATCH: Bankers Taped To Lamp Poles In Stunt. Bank Pretends Rivals Taped Its Employees To Lamp Posts (VIDEO) - The campaign has used a number of traditional and new media resources to gain exposure, including break-up tweets, a stunt in which waiters presented rival banks' executives with a break-up cake. - www.cnn.com

06/16/2011 Fastest Growing State | How North Dakota outpaced the U.S. economy (CHART) - The American economy grew at a snail's pace of 2.9% last year, but some surprising states did better (and worse) than the overall economy. A recent report from the Commerce Department paints a new picture of how economic growth looked across all 50 states last year. Interestingly, both the fastest and slowest growing states were in the same neck of the woods. - www.foreclosures.com

06/07/2011 Foreclosure Prevention Actions Down - Completed foreclosure prevention actions on loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac declined during the first three months of this year, from 171,531 during the January to March 2011, compared to 208,416 in the last quarter of 2010. - www.foreclosures.com

06/06/2011 Computers, Not Traders Now Make Vast Majority Of Wall Street Trades (VIDEO) - Computers are king, even on Wall Street. Today, close to 70 percent of all the trades on Wall Street are conducted by high-frequency traders, or super-computers that can buy and sell stock faster than it takes for someone to blink, according to a segment airing on 60 Minutes on Sunday. - www.huffingtonpost.com

06/02/2011 Life After Bankruptcy: 5 Steps to Rebuilding Your Credit, Finances and Emotions - Rebuilding your life after bankruptcy - including your credit rating, finances and your emotional well-being - can sometimes seem like an overwhelming task. But if you've recently filed for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection, it's important to realize that there is life after bankruptcy. And it doesn't have to be a life where you're treated like a financial outcast and banished to years of credit exile. - www.walletpop.com

06/02/2011 'Best Time Ever' to Buy a Home? Best-Selling Author Says Yes - Today, more than any other time in history, information is the key. You need to become an expert on your local market. There are three things you must do: Look within a small geographic area; look intensely for a short period of time; look at many, many properties. After a while, you will know what the price should be and will spot a bargain when you see it. - www.realestate.aol.com

05/24/2011 'PARTNERS WITH THE BANKS' The Federal Reserve's Role In The Financial Collapse - This is an adaptation from "Reckless Endangerment", an exploration of the origins of the recent financial crisis, by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner. The book will be published today by Times Books. This excerpt examines the cozy relationship between Alan Greenspan's Federal Reserve and the banks the Fed was charged with regulating. This is the second of three excerpts. - www.huffingtonpost.com

05/12/2011 BofA to give away houses - Have too many foreclosed properties? Why not give them away? - That's what Bank of America plans to do with as many as 150 vacant and abandoned properties in and around Chicago through a new "collaboration" with the city that's intended to address the problem of abandoned properties. - www.bankrate.com

05/11/2011 Who Walks Away From a Mortgage? Not Who You'd Expect - A report released in April by FICO, a credit-scoring and analytics company, offered tools to mortgage lenders to spot potential defaulters. They weren't who you might think: FICO's red flags included people with high credit ratings who were up to date on credit card and auto payments. As a financially savvy businessman with a credit score above 800 until very recently, Safronoff fits the profile. - www.realestate.aol.com

04/28/2011 Manhattan Apartment Hunting: Renting In The Current Market - If you're thinking about apartment hunting in Manhattan right now, my first suggestion would be: don't. My second suggestion would be: if you must move, know that the market is significantly different from what it was a year ago. I've lived in five different Manhattan apartments and only one of them involved a broker's fee - www.huffingtonpost.com

04/27/2011 Where The Housing Bubble Lives On | Canada - In Canada! Right next to us! After our housing bubble led to a global economic crisis! House prices have risen to almost 5.5 times disposable income per worker, well above the long-term historical average of 3.5. ... ...home prices rose 8.8% in February from the year before ... more than double the average price of a home in 1999 ... The debt-to-disposable-income ratio for Canadian households rose to 148.9% last fall ... surpassing American borrowing ... the amount of home-equity loans has risen as much as 170% in the past decade... - www.npr.com

04/27/2011 Recourse Loans | When Borrowers Don't Pay, Should The Bank Take Everything? - Spain, like the U.S., is going through a huge real estate bust. But only around 3.5 percent of Spaniards with mortgages stopped making payments last year. In the U.S., the rate was above 9 percent. What's true for Spain is true for most of Europe: Homeowners are much more likely than Americans to keep paying their mortgage, even when the economy falls apart. Maybe it's because European homeowners who stop making payments stand to lose a lot more than their American counterparts. - www.npr.com

04/27/2011 Economic Recovery To Lose Steam As Inflation Arrives, Federal Reserve Says - The Federal Reserve said growth will lag this year as the central bank finally acknowledged Wednesday what most Americans have long since realized: "Inflation has picked up." The Fed's recognition of rising inflation did not affect its easy-money policy, though. The main interest rate will remain anchored near zero percent - www.huffingtonpost.com

04/27/2011 Supplier of Chinese drywall agrees to settle some claims - A Chinese drywall supplier's insurers have agreed to pay up to $8 million to settle court claims against the company over damage to homes from the corrosive product, according to a proposed settlement filed Tuesday. Interior/Exterior supplied drywall made by two Chinese companies -- Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. and Taishan Gypsum Co. -- to builders in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. - www.heraldtribune.com

04/27/2011 Real estate tycoon in the making - Malynda Williams didn't set out to be a real estate tycoon. But the 50-something has managed to acquire four properties over the past three years, and she's looking for more. "I started out trying to get something going for after I retire," Williams said. "I never thought it would be this, but I really love it." - www.cnn.com

04/26/2011 - LISTEN: The Decade's Home Prices Converted Into Musical Notes | U.S. Home Prices, Sung As Opera - The Case-Shiller home price index is a powerful way to look at the story of housing in America. You can see the boom and bust all in one simple graph. But when we go on the radio to talk about home prices, a graph isn't much good to us - nobody can see it. So we converted the Case-Shiller graph into musical notes. - www.npr.com

04/26/2011 - Will the 'Age of America' end in 2016? - According to the figures, the Chinese economy would grow from $11.2 trillion in 2011 to $19 trillion in 2016. Over the same period, the U.S. economy will rise from a dominant $15.2 trillion to a trailing $18.8 trillion. But, as the saying goes, statistics are often used like a drunken man uses a lamp-post -- for support rather than illumination. - www.cnn.com

04/22/2011 - Mortgage denied: Sometimes, for no good reason - Banks are reluctant to make loans without the Fannie and Freddie guarantee, and loans backed by them account for just about every mortgage written these days. In 2009, the agencies lifted the minimum credit score that borrowers must have from 580 to 620. That's probably for the best. But they've pushed through a host of other requirements as well, and that means real estate deals don't get done, even for some relatively low-risk borrowers. - www.cnn.com

04/22/2011 - Gold Hits Record High, Americans Sell Their Treasures - Across the United States, people are heading to pawn shops and jewelry stores with gold necklaces their ex-boyfriends gave them, gold coins that they inherited from their grandfathers, and in at least one case, "10 half pairs of earrings and a bracelet they got in the '80s and monstrous hoops." - www.huffingtonpost.com
Read More: "Percent of people expressing a high level of trust in others" contest

04/19/2011 - Trading Down: Laid-Off Americans Increasingly Taking Pay Cuts - And Kissing Their Old Lives Goodbye - Susan Goscewski spent 30 years climbing the professional ladder. It took little over two years of unemployment for her to tumble back down. - www.huffingtonpost.com
"Trading Down": Have you had to take a pay cut?:
Find a picture, click the PARTICIPATE button, add a title and upload your picture

04/15/2011 - Foreclosure Investors Flip Homes, Reap Rewards - While some buy foreclosed homes so they can rent to tenants, others invest in everything from extensive renovations to cosmetic repairs before re-selling the houses for a profit. "Investors in today's market tend to be a little more experienced than the ones in the boom, and in a lot of cases sat out the boom because they thought prices were unsustainably high. It turns out they were right," said Rick Sharga, senior vice president at RealtyTrac - http://www.huffingtonpost.com

04/14/2011 - Desperate single Irish mother tries to sell home on YouTube - VIDEO - A divorced Irish mother of two has turned to YouTube in a final ditch attempt to sell her palatial country home in a bid to live "happily ever after". Jillian Godsil, has launched an online campaign to promote her eight-bedroom home which is known as Raheengraney House. - www.irishcentral.com

04/14/2011 - Turn your house into a billboard for free mortgage payments - Would you allow the front of your house to be a giant billboard for a start-up company for one year if said company paid your mortgage the entire time? Well, 13,000 homeowners nationwide -- including 28 in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach -- have told Adzookie they're game. - www.sun-sentinel.com

04/01/2011 - Chase Bank: Disney Dollars Were Taken Thanks To Dick Durbin - Wall Street has been lobbying furiously the past few weeks to push legislation through the Senate that would delay what is known as "swipe fee reform," which requires the Fed to write rules that would reduce the fee merchants must pay for using debit cards to a "reasonable" amount. - www.huffingtonpost.com

03/30/2011 - IRS cracks down on millionaires - "There's always been this public perception that the rich are getting away with murder and the poor guy is left footing the bill," said Thomas Cooke, professor of accounting and business law at Georgetown University. "It's true that historically the low income earner was more likely to be subject to an examination than a high income earner, but now the higher income taxpayer is getting the greater focus." - www.cnn.com

03/15/2011 - Renew your lease - rents could rise 10% - Renters beware: Double-digit rent hikes may be coming soon. Already, rental vacancy rates have dipped below the 10% mark, where they had been lodged for most of the past three years. "The demand for rental housing has already started to increase," said Peggy Alford, president of Rent.com. "Young people are starting to get rid of their roommates and move out of their parent's basements." - www.cnn.com

02/26/2011 - Clergy Perform Exorcism On Chase Bank To Banish 'Demons Of Selfishness, Avarice' - Angered by mortgage policies that fail to address the national foreclosure crisis, members of New York's clergy gathered in front of JPMorgan Chase's Park Avenue headquarters on Thursday to close their accounts and exorcise what they perceived to be the evil spirits inhabiting the bank. - www.huffingtonpost.com

02/26/2011 - Deed In Lieu And Short Sale Program Requirements For Distressed And Underwater Mortgage Homeowners - Reports early in 2011 stated that more servicers may begin offering deed in lieu and short sale plans to homeowners rather than pursue a formal foreclosure as these alternative plans are not only being considered by numerous homeowners, but there are some indications that they can be less costly to a servicer than a foreclosure. Also, there is help for unemployed homeowners within the Making Home Affordable program, as both the Home Affordable Unemployment Program and the Hardest Hit Fund all are in place to address issues related to unemployment and a homeowner's ability to make their mortgage payment. - www.rwbpress.com

02/26/2011 - New Option For Underwater Mortgage Holders: What You Should Know About the FHA Short Refinance Program - Though the number of underwater mortgages in the U.S. has decreased since March, it's been due to an increase in foreclosures, not home values. That's why a new option has just been set in motion, known as the FHA Short Refinance program. Until now, homeowners could only refinance an underwater mortgage if their loan was backed by the FHA. Now, this new program lets non-FHA borrowers refinance to an FHA-backed mortgage, worth no more than 97.75 percent of their home's value, at today's historically low mortgage rates. - www.gobankingrates.com

02/26/2011 - 25 Guys to Avoid on Wall Street - There are lots of critical skills you need to succeed on Wall Street. It helps to understand market forces. A facility with numbers is useful. Having a feel for group dynamics is necessary to succeed on trading desks and deal teams. Superb time management, verbal acuity, and judgment are all important. - www.trashoutpro.com

01/20/2011 - From Mortgage Broker To Homeless: One Woman's Housing Bust Saga. Homeless ex-mortgage broker Susan Schneider shows housing bust hit agents hard - Before the real estate bust, Rob Paxton and Susan Schneider might have met at a networking event or through their home-buyer clients. Instead, they first crossed paths at a day shelter for the homeless in Falls Church. - www.reuters.com

01/19/2011 - First time buyer? 5 tips on how to avoid a money pit - Don't be fooled by a fresh coat of paint and updated countertops. Throwing copious amounts of cash at a series of unfortunate events is hilarious when it's Tom Hanks and Shelley Long, but going broke on unexpected home repairs isn't funny when it happens to you. It's time to put down the cookies and check for cracks. Here are some tips on how to avoid purchasing a money pit: - www.reuters.com

01/15/2011 - John Davis Wins Lottery, Saving Home From Foreclosure - The single father of two girls says he's had a tough year, financially. Davis says he had just $6 in his bank account when he won. He works at a car dealership and says he plays the lottery almost every day. Davis says he plans to pay off most of his debt and will take a cruise with his daughters when the weather warms up. - www.huffingtonpost.com

01/11/2011 - The Rise of the New Global Elite - F. Scott Fitzgerald was right when he declared the rich different from you and me. But today's super-rich are also different from yesterday's: more hardworking and meritocratic, but less connected to the nations that granted them opportunity-and the countrymen they are leaving ever further behind. - www.theatlantic.com

01/07/2011 - Rent costs half my income - and it's worth it - Amy Merrick is a floral designer, writer and stylist living in Brooklyn, N.Y. She documents the intersection of money and her creative pursuits on Bundle.comand on her own blog, An Apple a Day. - www.cnn.com

01/03/2011 - Helping Women Stay Out Of Debt - Alexa von Tobel, 26, came up with the idea in 2006, as she was graduating from Harvard College and was about to take a job on Wall Street. She had been in school for 18 years, but realized that she had never had a formal education on personal finance. - www.huffingtonpost.com

12/30/2010 - Henry Paulson, Ex-Treasury Secretary, Loses $1 Million On DC Home - Few know better than former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson how the struggling U.S. economy has battered home prices. Paulson sold his three-bedroom home in a tony Washington neighborhood last week for close to a third less than his initial asking price and more than $1 million below what he paid for it more than four years ago. - www.huffingtonpost.com

12/29/2010 - Can you be cut off from condo access when you rent your unit? - In other words, the board can force the owner to choose who has the use rights, but must always let the owner in as landlord to the unit, and the tenant can invite the owner as a guest. The law does not cover homeowners but the issue may be addressed by governing documents and rules. - www.sun-sentinel.com

12/18/2010 - Bank of America Stops Handling WikiLeaks Payments - WikiLeaks responded with a Twitter message urging its supporters to stop doing business with the bank. The bank said in a statement that it believes that site "may be engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments." - www.foxnews.com

12/16/2010 - Housing bust? So what? We still want to own - The American Dream is still alive and kicking, including within immigrant and minority communities, according to a survey from mortgage giant Fannie Mae. The housing crisis hasn't quenched the homeownership thirst, the company found. More than 51% of people said the bust did not change their willingness to buy a home and an additional 27% said it actually made them more likely to do so. - www.cnn.com

12/08/2010 - Meet Andrew Whelan, Actor Turned Green Cleaning Entrepreneur - About five years ago, he began cleaning homes, and last spring, transferred his energies full-time to running a cleaning business.About five years ago, he began cleaning homes, and last spring, transferred his energies full-time to running a cleaning business. - www.cnn.com

12/02/2010 - Perfect time to buy a home - but we're too scared - It's perfectly natural that they should feel that way in the wake of the housing bust, said Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. "It's like when the stock market is crashing," he said. "People are waiting to see if deals will get better." - www.cnn.com

11/09/2010 - Bankruptcies Soar -- But Not For Businesses - However, at 58,322 the number of business filings is still double the level in 2007 just as the U.S. was sliding into its deepest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. - www.huffingtonpost.com

10/25/2010 - S.O.S. SHOCKING NEW WAGE STATISTICS RELEASED New Figures Detail Depth Of Unemployment Misery, Lower Earnings For All But Super Wealthy (VIDEO) - One out of every 34 Americans who earned wages in 2008 earned absolutely nothing -- not one cent -- in 2009. The stunning figure was released earlier this month by the Social Security Administration, but apparently went unreported until it appeared today on Tax.com in a column by Pulitzer Prize-winning tax reporter David Cay Johnston. - www.huffingtonpost.com

10/21/2010 - Five places where land is free - The concept is certainly not new. Homesteading incentives dating from 1862 helped settle the far reaches of the country. And as population density increased, communities thrived. Some communities today simply need more people. Land, they've got plenty of, so why not give it away? People pay taxes and that allows schools to stay open, roads to be built, public services to be paid for. - www.walletpop.com
Read More: Free Land: Mini Homestead Acts

09/02/2010 - Human landscapes in SW Florida - A couple weeks ago, I was listening to a story by NPR's Planet Money team about "Toxie" a toxic asset they had purchased to follow and help tell the story of the recent financial meltdown. One of the mortgages in Toxie was on a home bought for investment in Bradenton, Florida, and the team took a look at housing in the area. Many homes there are empty and have been for years. Huge developments sit partially completed among densely built up neighborhoods and swampland. A guest stated that there were "enough housing lots in Charlotte County to last for more than 100 years". Boom and bust residential development has drastically affected parts of southwest Florida for decades now, and I spent some time (with the help of Google Earth), looking around the area. With permission from the fine folks at Google, here are a few glimpses at development in southwest Florida. (26 photos total) - www.boston.com

09/04/2010 - Donald Duck Meets Glenn Beck in Right Wing Radio Duck - Using dozens of Walt Disney cartoons from the 1930s to 1960s, Jonathan McIntosh made this amazing remix where a downtrodden Donald gets his house foreclosed on after losing his job. He turns to Glenn Beck's radio show for moral support, only to be stricken with fear about the Nazis, Communists, and Islamic extremists that undoubtedly surround him. - www.huffingtonpost.com

Watch More: Donald Duck ... Nazi .. NWO .. Propaganda ,
WWII Propaganda Cartoon - Donald Duck ,
Banned Donald Duck cartoon-the spirit of 43 (WWII) ,

09/02/2010 - Midnight Shopping On The Brink Of Poverty - Take a trip to one of those 24-hour Walmarts on the last day of every month, and you'll get a glimpse into the lives of low-income families trying to get by. At one location in Fredericksburg, Va., at around 11 p.m., families start to load up on necessities like diapers and groceries. - www.npr.com

08/23/2010 - Five 'new normals' that really will stick - It's not easy to change Americans' financial habits permanently, and 'new normals' don't always last. Fortune found five that just might stick, at least for a while. - www.cnn.com

08/21/2010 - The laws on securing truck loads - For the owner, licensee and driver of any truck, trailer, semitrailer or pole trailer, it is their duty to securely fasten the load to the vehicle. - www.trashoutpro.com

08/19/2010 - Brazen Seattle squatter occupies Magnolia dream home - It has sweeping views of Puget Sound, spans 5,000 square feet of space and rests on a quiet street on top of a hill. However, police sources say this million-dollar dream home is occupied by a man who's living there illegally. - www.katu.com

08/19/2010 - Not easy to claim abandoned home next door - Interestingly, people who have moved into abandoned homes and started paying property taxes on them in recent years have had some success keeping them -- or at least getting those tax payments reimbursed when the houses are reclaimed by their true owners. But it's a process fraught with uncertainty. - www.bankrate.com

08/18/2010 - HOMEOWNERS' REBELLION: COULD 62 MILLION HOMES BE FORECLOSURE-PROOF? - Over 62 million mortgages are now held in the name of MERS, an electronic recording system devised by and for the convenience of the mortgage industry. A California bankruptcy court, following landmark cases in other jurisdictions, recently held that this electronic shortcut makes it impossible for banks to establish their ownership of property titles and therefore to foreclose on mortgaged properties. The logical result could be 62 million homes that are foreclosure-proof. - www.webofdebt.com

08/17/2010 - Small Businesses Are Having An Easier Time Getting Loans, Fed Survey Finds - The weak economy and continued high unemployment has kept housing markets cool. As a result, the median price of a single-family home crept up just 1.5% to $176,900 in the second quarter, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors. - www.cnn.com

08/11/2010 - Home prices slowly creeping up (Comprehensive CHART city-by-city) - The weak economy and continued high unemployment has kept housing markets cool. As a result, the median price of a single-family home crept up just 1.5% to $176,900 in the second quarter, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors. - www.cnn.com

08/03/2010 - Owners of blighted property shamed online - Reading Mayor Tom McMahon announced a new online "Wall of Shame" featuring blighted properties that he said would be torn down unless owners fix them up. The property owners' names are posted along with pictures and addresses. - www.msnbc.com
Read More: map and list of properties is online

07/30/2010 - Aunt Aggie's Farm: State Tells Niece To Back Off 100-Year-Old Woman Facing Foreclosure - Albinger allegedly took out a $100,000 mortgage on the farm in 2000 and "then began to sign over parcels of land to a trust and also to a company called Phoenix Horizon LLC, which according to state records was formed by Albinger's niece, Bridget Gruzdis," - www.huffingtonpost.com
(Related) Read More:
SAVE AGNES' FARM!,
100-Year-Old Woman Raised 40 Foster Kids On Her Monee Farm ,
Aunt Aggie's whistleblower,
She's 100 years old and facing foreclosure,
100-year-old Monee woman fighting to stay on farm gets glimmer of hope.

07/30/2010 - Americans Buy IPads While Broke in New Abnormal Economy - When the bank foreclosed, he says he felt a sense of relief. He also had more cash. He and his fiance took the kids to Disneyland. Ronzio, 31, gave himself a treat as well. "I bought myself an iPad," - www.bloomberg.com

07/30/2010 - America's oldest family farm for sale - Since 1635, the Tuttle farm has been passed from father to son and after years of thought, Will Tuttle has put what's known as the country's longest family-run farm on the market. - www.cnn.com

07/28/2010 - The Most Ridiculous Real Estate Agents Of All Time (PHOTOS) - We don't know why real estate agents insist on putting their names and faces all over their signs. Isn't the property or home the REAL reason you're calling anyway? - www.huffingtonpost.com

07/28/2010 - Homeowner wins right to park truck in own driveway. Florida Man Spends $200K for Right to Park in His Own Driveway - n a news release from his law firm, Anderson said the association will have incurred more than $300,000 in legal fees and costs after paying the Vizzis. He said the Vizzis regret the fact that the homeowners will end up paying the bill, but had no other choice aside from giving in to the association's demands. - www.myfoxtampabay.com

07/26/2010 - Advice for the reluctant landlord - Prices in many places are unlikely to rise for a year or more. Until they do, these simple steps will help you maximize what you make while minimizing hassles. - www.cnn.com
Read More: EZ Landlord Forms

07/23/2010 - Renters: Know Your Health Rights - According to Every Tenant's Legal Guide, every state except Arkansas requires rental housing be kept in "livable condition" - meaning it must have safe electrical, plumbing, heating and ventilation systems, an intact structure, and clean and safe hallways and stairs. - www.huffingtonpost.com
Read More: National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership, Every Tenant's Legal Guide, Section 8, Federal Standards

07/19/2010 - Secrets of extreme savers - You can put away a lot more than the average American without living a deprived life. - Before they make any purchase, even big-ticket items like cars, they save up the cash. In 1996 they paid cash for their first home, a $105,000 townhouse in Macon, Ga. Five years later they bought their current three-bedroom home in the Kansas City suburbs for $200,000 -- in cash. - www.cnn.com

06/18/2010 - Lenders Mine Facebook, Twitter For Info On Borrowers - Andy Beal, the owner of Trackur, told the Pittsburg Post-Gazette that many companies--among them, credit lenders and debt collectors--are now using social media monitoring services to "match online profiles with real world identities." - www.huffingtonpost.com

06/16/2010 - 'SAVE MY HOUSE' Contest: Saddest Foreclosure Victim Wins A Free Lawyer - So far, the shortfall has been masked by a weak economy that has put a damper on homebuying. Once the job market rebounds, however, people will look to have their own homes again. This pent-up demand could get unleashed on unprepared markets, causing shortages and rising local prices. - www.huffingtonpost.com
Read More: "Save My House" contest

06/03/2010 - Think housing is recovering? Think again. - And delinquencies already account for more than 10% of all mortgages. These defaults aren't just on subprime ARMS anymore either, with prime fixed-rate loans now representing 37% of all delinquent loans. Moody's forecasts about 1.9 million homes will be taken from their owners this year, with a little over a million more going back to the banks in 2011. These can be added to the 6.3 million vacant homes currently sitting idle across America. - www.cnn.com

06/03/2010 - Should you rent or buy? - Use Trulia's Rent vs. Buy calculator - If you guessed buy, you'd be wrong. According to the new Trulia Rent vs. Buy index, it makes more fiscal sense to rent in this farm city due to the huge gap between rental and purchase prices. - www.cnn.com

06/03/2010 - The Top 10 Cities Where It's Cheaper To Rent Than Buy A Home (PHOTOS) - "It is not a surprise to see cities like New York and San Francisco on the 'Rent' cities but I was surprised to see areas like Omaha, Oklahoma City and Kansas City on our rental list, "said Pete Flint, co-founder and CEO of Trulia. "We're not suggesting that it's unwise to buy in these areas though -- just that it's significantly more expensive than renting." - www.huffingtonpost.com

Should you rent or buy?

05/20/2010 - What to watch for when buying a vacant home - Here's a list of 10 things to watch for in foreclosed or vacant homes from Ross Kollenberg, mitigation and construction manager for On-Site Specialty Cleaning & Restoration in Troy, Mich: - www.miamiherald.com

04/08/2010 - House Republican Book Club: Michael Lewis Claims GOP Lawmakers Shockingly Uninformed About Financial Crisis - Lewis that they were going to leave early to attend the Bernanke hearing but they stayed because "they said, 'We never learn anything from him [Bernanke], he never explains anything to us'," according to Lewis. - www.huffingtonpost.com

04/08/2010 - The Recession Creates a New Business Paradigm: Entrepreneurial Independence and Individualism - Instead of rejoining the ranks of the W-2 workforce, these spirited individuals are choosing to take control of their own destiny and become their own boss. They are starting out as independent consultants, taking on freelance jobs, and identifying unique business opportunities - www.huffingtonpost.com

03/23/2010 - Vast Majority Of Americans Say Banks Still Need to 'Make Amends' For Crisis: ABC News - Seventy-seven percent in this poll for "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" say these institutions have not done enough to make amends for their part in the economy's meltdown. - www.abcnews.com
To download a PDF file with full poll results: CLICK HERE

03/23/2010 - Two New Studies Show States Are Better At Protecting Consumers Than The Feds - One of the more contentious issues in the debate over financial regulatory reform has to do with whether tough state consumer protection laws should continue to be preempted by federal regulations and laws, some of which may be less stringent. - www.huffingtonpost.com

03/10/2010 - LifeLock settles with FTC for $12 million - Federal regulators said Tuesday that LifeLock has agreed to pay $12 million to settle charges the company made deceptive claims about its ability to protect customers from identity theft. - www.cnn.com

03/09/2010 - Robert Mustard Jr., Dallas Shooter, Yelled 'You've Taken All My Money' Before Trying To Kill His Financial Adviser - When police arrived, Mustard was still on the premises, authorities said. Police shot at -- but missed -- the gunman, a disbarred lawyer, who then barricaded himself in an office and shot himself in the head. - www.huffingtonpost.com

03/08/2010 - Can't make your mortgage? Get an emergency loan - The Smiths are among the 3,250 homeowners that the housing agency's mortgage assistance program saved from foreclosure last year. Created in 1983, the initiative provides loans of up to $60,000 for as long as 36 months to Pennsylvania residents suffering financial hardship, such as job loss, divorce or medical problems. - www.cnn.com

02/25/2010 - Wall Street used Stockton as housing punch line - On Wall Street it was spring 2005 "when we began to hear the first jokes about the housing market," writes Lawrence McDonald, vice president at Lehman Brothers before its historic September 2008 collapse. McDonald, author of a riveting new inside history of Lehman, "A Colossal Failure of Common Sense," says, "One name in particular kept popping up on the joke menu: Stockton." - www.miamiherald.com

02/19/2010 - My Mortgage Company is stealing my money--and my home! A new definition of "Home Robbery" - This should be on the front page: Read why it is any legislation designed to put foreclosures on the fast-track would be bad for homeowners... Be sure to watch the video embedded in blog, and then scroll down to find another investigative report in the comment field. You owe it to yourself to watch these videos -especially if you have a mortgage and believe that by simply making your payments on time, your home is safe from foreclosure--think again! - www.givemebackmycredit.com

01/23/2010 - How a swashbuckling breed of mathematicians and computer scientists nearly destroyed Wall Street - The Minds Behind the Meltdown. In his new book, "The Quants," Wall Street Journal reporter Scott Patterson suggests how this new breed of mathematicians and computer scientists took over much of the financial system and the damage they inflicted in the 2007 meltdown. - www.wsj.com

01/23/2010 - 7 Things About The Economy Everyone Should Be Worried About - A common theme underlying them all is that while our leaders -- and the voices of conventional wisdom -- treat our current recession as cyclical in nature, and are essentially mostly just waiting around for growth to pick up again, there is plenty of reason to believe that this crisis was instead an expression of structural problems. And if that is so, and we don't take the proper action, then the wait could be a long one. - www.huffingtonpost.com

01/17/2010 - Joseph Stiglitz: Economic Crisis Exposed The 'Moral Bankruptcy' Of Our Society - IT IS SAID THAT A NEAR-DEATH experience forces one to reevaluate priorities and values. The global economy has just escaped a near-death experience. The crisis exposed the flaws in the prevailing economic model, but it also exposed flaws in our society. - www.motherjones.com

01/06/2010 - The Pros and Cons of Social Lending - The loans can be used for funding many of life's necessities such as a baby on the way, buying a car, purchasing a home, paying off student loans or to cover medical bills. The site has become increasingly popular since 2007, mostly due to both the lending options it offers borrowers with various credit backgrounds and the investing opportunities it offers lenders. - www.mint.com

12/13/2009 - Catch-22: Credit checks on jobless keep jobless unemployed - Employment experts say companies of all kinds are increasingly reviewing the credit histories of job candidates before making a decision about whom to hire. - www.sun-sentinel.com

12/05/2009 - Rent a mansion for less. Exhibitionists welcome. - That is the idea behind the recently launched Web site - LiveInHomeStagers.com started by Valerie Szymaniak of Boca Raton. - www.heraldtribune.com

Inside Edition Story on Using People as Props to Sell Vacant Homes

11/26/2009 - Federal Bankruptcy Filings Are Up By 34.5% - New numbers from the - Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts show about 1.4 million bankruptcy cases were filed this fiscal year. That's up 34.5 percent compared with the more than 1 million cases filed last fiscal year. The bankruptcy figures cover a period from Oct. 1, 2008, to Sept. 30. - www.liveinhomestagers.com

11/22/2009 - Neighbors work together to take care of vacant homes - In Indian Village, residents place baby monitors in vacant homes to stop break-ins and in other neighborhoods, some residents pool funds to buy foreclosed homes and keep them from deteriorating, said Emily Billings, an agent with Dwellings Unlimited in Southfield, Mich. - www.miamiherald.com

11/18/2009 - Home Prices Will Rise 4% In 2010, Say Realtors - The housing market's rebound has been aided by an aggressive federal intervention to lower mortgage rates and bring more buyers into the market. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/18/2009 - Biden On The Bailout: 'Socialism For The Rich And Capitalism For The Poor' (VIDEO) - I was in Arizona the other day and said I would get more support in the Congress saying 'Let's pass a law restoring rattlesnakes in the desert' [than helping Wall Street again], - www.huffingtonpost.com

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Joe Biden Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

10/30/2009 - Mobile Home Ad's Painfully Honest Pitch: "These Ain't Mansions" - Once again, Rhett and Link have taken downtrodden business owners and given them an incredible viral ad that shows their true colors. - www.huffingtonpost.com

10/29/2009 - What happens if you don't pay the mortgage? - About one-third of South Florida mortgages are underwater, meaning the homeowners owe more than the home is worth at today's depressed prices, according to First American CoreLogic. Some homeowners are certainly wondering why they're sending in the payment on, say, a $300,000 mortgage, when the house today would sell for only $210,000. - www.miamiherald.com

10/28/2009 - Imagine no foreclosures (it's easy if you try) - How about this. Let's have a federal bill that states that any bank that took a bailout loan and hasn't paid it back yet isn't permitted to foreclose on anybody's primary residence. - www.stanleybing.com

10/25/2009 - New owner worries about short sales - Now we are concerned that when the property moves from the builder to the association all these short sale units that are not sold will be pending unpaid liabilities for the community. - www.miamiherald.com

10/25/2009 - Illegal Foreclosures & Evictions, Appalling Lender / Lawyer Abuses, Impediments to Justice - because too often judges are biased against the financially unfortunate, they tend to rule in favor of the rich and powerful; or, a person can run out of money to pay his / her lawyer prior to resolution of the matter. - www.newsblaze.com

10/25/2009 - Fla. Appeals Court Takes Judge to Task for 'Benevolence' - "Benevolence and compassion" have no place when it comes to setting foreclosure sales, a Florida state appellate court ruled in a stern order. - www.law.com

10/25/2009 - Make the right moves after foreclosure - Quick action and persistence can set the stage for recovery after losing your home in a foreclosure. - www.miamiherald.com

10/25/2009 - Thousands starting over after foreclosure - You can put your life back together after you lose your house -- whether or not you ever buy again. - www.miamiherald.com

10/16/2009 - Was The Recession Caused By Intelligent People? - "IF you really want to know why the financial system nearly collapsed in the fall of 2008, I can tell you in one simple sentence." - www.nytimes.com

10/15/2009 - Thousands mob Detroit center in hopes of free cash - Scuffles erupted as several thousand Detroit residents jockeyed, pushed and shoved Wednesday to get free money being offered to only 3,500 of the city's recently or soon to be homeless. - www.huffingtonpost.com

10/12/2009 - How The Last 30 Years Have Squeezed The Middle Class - As abundant data make clear, middle class families are being squeezed by stagnant incomes and rising expenses, and have been since the 1970s. - www.dailyfinance.com

10/09/2009 - Mortgages under 5% are back in bloom - THome mortgage rates fell for the sixth straight week, according to two key measures, with one of them pointing to a sub-5% rate for the 30-year fixed loan for the second week in a row. - www.cnn.com

10/09/2009 - For Sale: Buy the Cheapest House in the Valley -- For $25,000 - The 600 square-foot home at 815 E. First Street features one bedroom and one bathroom and is the least expensive single family home in the seven-county area served by the Metrolist multiple listing service that doesn't involve a bank-owned or short sale transaction. - www.news10.net

10/07/2009 - Homes: Sell at a loss, buy at a discount - Jennifer Galdes wants to buy a home in a better neighborhood, but is now the right time? - www.cnn.com

10/07/2009 - How to play the housing 'rebound' - What the housing 'rebound' means for you. Homes are selling again, but the market today is divided by price point. Your best strategy depends on where your home sits on that spectrum. - www.cnn.com

10/04/2009 - Mold turned Orlando man's 'castle' into 'house of horrors' - Ronald Brooke is rebuilding most of his house near the University of Central Florida, after stripping it down to its wood frame and concrete slab. He discovered in 2003 that mold was making him sick. - www.orlandosentinel.com

10/02/2009 - America's Debt Mentality - A former co-worker who was born in France and is now an American citizen told me once that she had a hard time getting used to the concept in the United States that it was OK to buy things for which you didn't have the money. She kept thinking there was a catch. - www.foxbusiness.com

10/02/2009 - Washington Post: "The Economic System No Longer Works For The Majority Of Americans" - Moore's "love story" is really an oversimplified political melodrama based on half-truths, innuendo, fuzzy thinking and imagined conspiracies. - www.washingtonpost.com

09/29/2009 - Middle-Class Family Living In Storage Unit After Losing Jobs - Former factory workers now find themselves lost; what was once a stable and respectable living has disappeared, and picking up the pieces of a dissipated career is turning into anxiety. - www.huffingtonpost.com

09/24/2009 - Landlord Goes Back To Work To Let Unemployed Tenants Stay Rent-Free - Peirce refused to evict them. He didn't throw the families into the street, though he has every right to. - www.huffingtonpost.com

09/23/2009 - Recession squeezes seniors' meals, bills - The bank filed foreclosure papers on her house last month. And Hewitt, 72, struggles every day against worsening health and the strong odds that she will land in a nursing home. - www.desmoinesregister.com

09/23/2009 - Junk Removers Find Heart-Breaking Wreckage In Foreclosed Homes - Junk removal services in North Carolina have the sad job of cleaning out foreclosed homes and going through the former residents' lives - www.huffingtonpost.com

09/18/2009 - Luxury real estate vultures - A Fortress Investment veteran is now at an auction house that hopes to feed off of distressed estates. - www.cnn.com

09/16/2009 - Loving Couple Divorces To Stay Afloat Financially - generally, you should do it only if you can afford to lose the money. And even then you need to proceed with caution. - www.huffingtonpost.com
Read More: Credit, Divorce, Down Not Out, Economy, Recession, Business News

09/15/2009 - My sister wants to borrow money - generally, you should do it only if you can afford to lose the money. And even then you need to proceed with caution. - www.cnn.com

09/13/2009 - Closing The Book On The Bush Legacy - Thursday's annual Census Bureau report on income, poverty and access to health care-the Bureau's principal report card on the well-being of average Americans-closes the books on the economic record of George W. Bush. - www.theatlantic.com

09/12/2009 - Seven New Rules for the First-Time Home Buyer - Here's how they dismantled the old saw - and a list of seven suggestions they offered up in its place. - www.nytimes.com

09/12/2009 - Google Economist Sees Good Signs in Searches - Hal Varian is pretty confident the national economy is recovering, and he's not just basing that on government data. He says he can tell from Americans' search habits. - www.washingtonpost.com

09/10/2009 - Nouriel Roubini's Financial Times Interview: Double-Dip Recession Still A Risk - Economist Nouriel Roubini, the president of RGE Monitor who's often referred to as "Dr. Doom," recently sat down with Martin Wolf of The Financial Times, and said that the world faces a "rising risk" of a double-dip recession. www.ft.com - VIDEO -

09/10/2009 - Mosquitoes Breeding In Swimming Pools Of Foreclosed Homes - The neglected pools are breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which can carry diseases like West Nile virus. www.huffingtonpost.com - VIDEO -

09/08/2009 - HISTORY REPEATING - The Next Financial Crisis - We can't avoid it. The Next Crisis Is Coming - And The Fed Is Making It Worse. - www.tnr.com

09/07/2009 - AP: Layoffs Toughest On Younger, Older Workers - Would-be retirees have watched their savings dwindle and health care costs soar, while workers recently out of school and burdened by debt try to advance in careers that no longer have room for them. - www.huffingtonpost.com

09/02/2009 - Condos sic judges on owners for back fees - Desperate condo associations are starting to seek court-appointed receivers - a trend that started in South Florida but has spread to this part of the state. - www.orlandosentinel.com

08/31/2009 - Miami-Dade county real estate tax appeal - If you live in Miami Dade county in Southeast Florida you are probably paying more property taxes than you should - www.trulia.com

08/31/2009 - Property taxes: How to beat 'em - Getting overcharged? Appeal your property tax bill the smart way . You know that your home's value has tanked. So why doesn't the blasted tax man? - www.trashoutpro.com

08/31/2009 - Appeal to the Value Adjustment Board FORM - Petition for Review of Market/Clasified Use Value for Tax Year 2009 - www.miami-dadeclerk.com

08/26/2009 - Rent a Mansion for $1000.00 per Month - There's more to life - and renting - than Craigslist. Here's how to push past the clutter and find the gem of an apartment that's waiting just for you. - www.msn.com

08/26/2009 - 8 sneaky ways to snag a great apartment - There's more to life - and renting - than Craigslist. Here's how to push past the clutter and find the gem of an apartment that's waiting just for you. - www.msn.com

08/26/2009 - Is your suburb the next slum? - Once the symbol of the American dream, many suburban communities could be on their way to becoming tomorrow's slums. - www.msn.com

08/26/2009 - Jail time for dirty pools and dead lawns? - Last year, Indio California passed a law that allowed it to charge banks with a criminal misdemeanor if they allowed a home to fall into disrepair. - www.msn.com

08/24/2009 - Breaking a condominium death spiral - Covenant Mortgage assists the condo association by providing them quick and easy interim capital to offset the delinquent assessments and keep prices from a downward spiral because there is no demand, Flood said of LM Funding. - www.heraldtribune.com

08/23/2009 - The Business Show: debt report and credit tips - Miami Herald reporter Niala Boodhoo provides a local debt report and credit tips. - Miami Herald Studios - www.miamiherald.com

08/21/2009 - Foreclosure Home Transformation - Neighbor Ernie Lasalle's house. He helped the Martinez couple and other Naples beautify the landscaping. 17 photographs.
www.naplesnews.com - PHOTO GALLERY -

08/21/2009 - Life after foreclosure - After losing their homes, these 4 families thought they'd never recover. They've found it difficult to rent and their credit is wrecked, but life is looking up. - www.cnn.com

08/17/2009 - In debt, do they part? Recession delays divorces - Throughout Central Florida, couples who want to split up are handicapped: by the high cost of attorneys' fees, because they can't sell their homes or can't afford to set up two households. - www.orlandos.com

08/14/2009 - Garage Sales Booming as Recession Grinds On - Nearly every weekend, listings appear online and on handmade signs taped to lampposts and propped up on street corners coast-to-coast, jostling for space with those announcing foreclosure sales and bank repossessions. - www.foxbusiness.com

08/12/2009 - Jim Cramer's Housing Bottom Call Revisited - (See below 06/03/2009 for Cramer's Bottom) - You may recall that in June, Cramer said, "I am frantically trying to buy multiple properties right now." Cramer went so far as to definitively declare a bottom to the housing market. His words: "This is patently obvious." - www.huffingtonpost.com

08/12/2009 - Housing Has Not Bottomed (But Cramer Said!) - For the market to bottom it must stop going down in price. There is no indication that the rate of acceleration is even slowing, and in fact we had this embedded in the Bloomberg report - www.market-ticker.denninger.net

06/03/2009 - Jim Cramer in June 2009: Buy A House Now, Calls Housing Bottom - Cramer went so far as to call a bottom to the housing market. His words: "This is patently obvious.". - www.huffingtonpost.com

08/09/2009 - Go-to Guy on Foreclosure Cleanouts Sees It All - Hazel, 40, is a "property preservationist," which these days makes him a very busy man. With thousands of people defaulting each week on mortgages across central Florida, he's one of growing regiment of people the banks summon to "trash out" - sanitize and seal up - their foreclosure stockpile. - www.abcnews.com

08/09/2009 - Sweeping up after the people who've lost it all - Nick Hazel shovels debris at a foreclosed house in Orlando. "You gotta remember," he says, "I'm also the guy who might help the place mean something to somebody else." - www.heraldtribune.com

08/09/2009 - When real estate falls, so does auction hammer - "We are seeing more people with homes that were on the market for $4 million to $7 million that are not selling, and they are calling us," said Jim Gall, president of Auction Company of America. - www.heraldtribune.com

08/09/2009 - Marketing Madoff's mansions - The U.S. homes that Bernie owned are about to go on the market. Wonder what they'll sell for? - www.cnn.com

08/09/2009 - Hired! Coming out of retirement at 65 - Forget lazy days rocking on a creaky porch swing, these days working is the new retirement. Like many others, Boyd Barger had to put his retirement plans on hold and rejoin the workforce. - www.cnn.com

08/08/2009 - Real Estate Today: Reaching for the bottom - Builder Albert Sanchez, in his own words hawking homes from $120K to $160K for approximatly 2000 square feet
www.heraldtribune.com - VIDEO -

08/08/2009 - Celebration, Florida - The town that Disney built for their retired executives so they could vote on Disney's behalf on all matters beneficial to the park such as sewage, water management, easements, etc... There is not a single house available for sale in Celebration that doesn't go through the Disney apparatus. If you didn't work for Disney, you don't live here.
www.heraldtribune.com - VIDEO -

08/07/2009 - What Matt Taibbi Got Wrong In His Goldman Sachs Story - Goldman Sachs may be bad, but it's far from the worst. Can one firm create a bubble? Can one firm create four bubbles? - www.cnn.com

08/06/2009 - Dollar stores' sales soaring - A sign of the recessionary times: U.S. dollar store sales are soaring. CNN's Maggie Lake reports. - www.cnn.com

08/01/2009 - Q&A with Michael Lewis - (Part 1): - "A Real Chance There's Going to Be an Uprising". - www.huffingtonpost.com

08/04/2009 - Q&A with Michael Lewis - (Part 2): - The Rules of the Game Were Totally Screwed Up. - www.huffingtonpost.com

07/29/2009 - Investing Rules For The End Of Civilization - The number of people worldwide 65 and older is estimated to rise to 1.3 billion by 2040, up from an estimated 506 million as of midyear 2008. - www.foxbusiness.com

07/29/2009 - The Globe Will Soon Be Geezer Central - to prepare for a breakdown of civilization, "your safe haven must be self-sufficient and capable of growing some kind of food. - www.foxbusiness.com

07/29/2009 - Should You Invest In Toxic Assets? - A Mutual Fund Will Allow Ordinary Investors to Put Their Money Into Mortgage-Backed Securities, But There's Not Yet a Compelling Reason to Invest. - www.wsj.com -

07/27/2009 - What will it take to change Americans' lifestyles? - What is needed today is not just legislation, but serious thinking about how to get Americans to lead healthier lifestyles. - www.politico.com -

07/22/2009 - Small Businesses Left Out Of Bailout - "Stuff I thought the Obama administration would be good at I think they're limping along at," said Michael Brey, president of Brey Corp., which owns a small chain of toy and hobby shops in Maryland. "He put together an economic dream team, and I thought they were going to hit it out of the park." - www.wsj.com -

07/22/2009 - CIT A 'Wake-Up Call' For Small Businesses - Small businesses hit hard by the recession may be able to find temporary relief in the "America's Recovery Capital," or ARC, loan program. Launched by the U.S. Small Business Administration in mid-June, the loans can provide an immediate infusion of capital to pay principal and interest payments on existing debt for up to six months. Small businesses can borrow up to $35,000 interest-free under the deferred-payment loan program. - www.wsj.com -

07/21/2009 - Can The Lottery Help Us Save Money? - Using the Lottery Effect to Make People Save. In 2007, Americans spent $92.3 billion on legalized gambling; that same year, says the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Americans saved only $57.4 billion. - www.wsj.com -

07/15/2009 - Meltdown 101: How To Prepare For Your Loan Modification - a permanent change in a mortgage that results in more affordable payments for the borrower. - www.huffingtonpost.com -

07/12/2009 - Habitat for Humanity Finds Buying Foreclosures is Cheaper than Building - Subdivisions built in the boom are already falling apart on their own or at the hands of vandals, so there should be plenty of sweat required to restore and maintain them. - www.motherjones.com -

07/04/2009 - The Architects of Destruction - They took greed and incompetence to all-new levels... - www.wealthdaily.com -

06/30/2009 - Dumbest Moments in Business 2009 - midyear edition. We're just six months in, but what do you think the dumbest moment of the year is? - money.cnn.com -

06/30/2009 - 21 Dumbest Moments in Business 2008 - We don't know whether to laugh or cry. Our annual list of the year's most laughable moves proves that, even in moments of crisis, stupidity lives on. - money.cnn.com -

05/05/2009 - Mr. Foreclosure - Some call him a shark. Others say he's the best hope for people priced out of their own neighborhoods. - rd.com -

04/23/2009 - Banks Starting to Walk Away on Foreclosures - Banks are quietly declining to take possession of properties at the end of the foreclosure process, most often because the cost of the ordeal - from legal fees to maintenance - exceeds the diminishing value of the real estate. - nytimes.com -

04/23/2009 - Best credit cards - Shopping for a new card with the right rewards for you? Here are some picks that offer great perks to suit your spending habits. - money.cnn.com -

04/20/2009 - www.realtytrac.com New Law Protects Renters From Foreclosure Eviction - renters scored a big victory against foreclosure evictions.

04/20/2009 - www.trashoutpro.com Reforms for American Homeowners and Consumers - President Obama Signs the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act and the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act

04/18/2009 - www.hopenow.com Hope Now joins with government to create streamlined mortgage modification - SMP is an important new tool to prevet foreclosures. PDF

04/18/2009 - CNBC.com 2009 Spring Real Estate Guide - CNBC Special Report

04/15/2009 - money.cnn.com Pssst - wanna buy a toxic asset? - Federal officials are considering ways to open up to retail investors its programs to clean up bad loans. Some investment managers are intrigued by the idea.

04/09/09 - Foreclosure Grace Period Bill Signed Into Law

04/06/09 - Dispatches From The Displaced: A Short Sale Realtor Sheds Light On The Housing Crisis

04/06/09 - PennyMac, Led by Ex-Countrywide Head, Buys FDIC Loans (Update3)

04/06/09 - Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC.

04/03/09 - News and Trends Center - Welcome to RealtyTrac's News and Trends Center. Here you will find the latest foreclosure trends and news, along with video, blogging, feature and opinion articles, and contacts for ordering custom foreclosure data.

04/03/09 - Walking Away From Foreclosure Becoming Socially Acceptable

03/28/09 - $10 raffle ticket could buy Fort Lauderdale home worth millions

03/28/09 - WEBSITE - Yours to Win - Above home worth millions

03/23/2009 - Emergency Assistance for the Redevelopment of ABANDONED and FORECLOSED Homes

02/23/09 - Realty Trac VP Discloses 70% Of All Foreclosures Are Not Shown On MLS!

03/04/09 - Stumped home sellers look to make a trade - swap your house

03/04/09 - Making the swap work - VIDEO - MSNBC.com

01/26/08 - Creative New Ways To Buy A Home - Forbes.com

CONGRATULATIONS to the raffle winners! (the winner) Grand Prize Winner:
Karen McHale of Idaho Springs, CO (ticket # 15614
Second Prize Winner: Stephanie Krejci of Port Washington, WI (ticket # 16178

#1 $50.00 ticket wins a million dollar home (the raffle)

#2 $50.00 ticket wins a home (before the raffle)

#3 $50.00 ticket wins a home (before the raffle)