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Personal Bankruptcy & Taxes
If you are contemplating filing Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, don’t proceed without an experienced and knowledgeable bankruptcy attorney from Legal Helpers at your side. Your taxes may qualify to be discharged in bankruptcy but it is very important to stay out of tax trouble during the process.
Who Is Really Filing for Bankruptcy?
Go take a gander at your newspaper’s business section. Go ahead, take it all in. The bankruptcies you see reported are the ones alerting stockholders, financiers, and everyone else immersed in the corporate world: the Chapter 11 business bankruptcies. Even the blog you are currently reading stands guilty of
Everything You Wanted to Know about Economic Indicators – Part II
More U.S. economic indicators from the Chicago Tribune…
• U.S. median existing single-family home price, the monthly median sale price for existing single-family homes. Housing prices affect perception of consumer financial health and affect consumer spending. Prices reflect state of homebuilding and related industries; $184,200 in June 2010
NMLS And FHA Training Sessions
Loan Officers: Sorry about the late notice, but just a quick reminder about a couple of NMLS and FHA training sessions coming up this week and next:
Mortgage Origination Mastery – 20-hr NMLS Class
with Mortgage Expert Chip Cummings
Wed-Thu Sept. 8-9
10:00am Eastern (7:00am Pacific)
20-hr NMLS-approved training
CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS OR TO ATTEND
This session will come complete with study manual and hundreds of actual sample test questions! Approximately 1/3 of ALL originators are FAILING the test – and only 56% pass it the SECOND time! If you’re just looking for a quick ONLINE Exam Prep tool – then this is perfect.
For those in the world of FHA (or looking to enter it), I am also conducting another special 6-hr. session for certification:
ABC’s of FHA Lending!
with Chip Cummings
Mon-Tue Sept 13-14th
12:00pm – 3:00pm Eastern
6-hr. training
CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS OR TO ATTEND
This session will help you get approved with lenders from around the country, and give you a jump on the competition.
Homeowners Squeezed by Housing Costs, Report Says
The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University recently released its State of the National Housing 2010 report and found that 40.3 million households spend more than 30% of their incomes on housing in 2008, and 18.6 million spend more than half their incomes on housing.
The report also found that one in seven homeowners owed more on their mortgages than their homes were worth. While the government has tried to stem the tide of foreclosures and assist some homeowners, many people who are underwater on mortgages loans have not been helped for a variety of reasons. According to the report:
As of April 2010, HAMP [Home Affordable Modification Program] had made 1.5 million offers that resulted in 637,000 currently active rial modifications and about 295,000 permanent ones. But even among those households able to qualify for this reduction in payments, the Treasury Department estimates that 40 percent will re-default.
Despite problems in the housing market, demand for housing rose in 2010, helped by many first-time home buyers claiming the governments tax credit 45% of home sales were to first-time buyers. Some repeat home buyers also took advantage of an expanded tax credit to purchase homes.
The housing report states that the housing recover is still at risk:
In addition to the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit program, which may have temporarily jacked up home sales, the market faces threats from the severe overhang of vacant units, still high unemployment, and record numbers of owners with homes worth less than the amount owed on their mortgages.
You can read more about the housing report here.