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A new report claims that Freddie Mac betrayed American homeowners. That is after placing multibillion-dollar bets that will pay off if homeowners remain shackled by costly mortgages with interest rates well above current rates. Interest rates now reach as high as seven percent. The company does not want borrowers to default on their mortgages. However,

Homeowners who owe substantially more than the value of their homes are probably too far underwater to refinance their debt anytime soon. But those who have less debt soon may have an opportunity to refinance at lower interest rates; with renewed help from the government. The government has revamped its Home Affordable Refinance Program or

A bill has been killed that could have led to foreclosure notices disappearing from newspapers and going to websites. The sponsor argued that the county clerks of the court should be able to decide whether to continue the decades-old practice of publishing foreclosure notices in newspapers. Or, placing them on non-newspaper websites. Newspaper officials argued

Foreclosure filings are expected to begin increasing in Florida again. So, the state court system has a multi-year plan to deal with the hundreds of thousands of expected new filings. The backlog of cases is expected to grow by another 380,000 cases by 2016. This is when foreclosures should return to their normal rate of

In May 2011, a U.S. Representative from Tennessee introduced a bill called the Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2011. The bill proposes to make private student loans generally dischargeable in bankruptcy (like they were before the revisions in 2005) as a way of addressing the mounting student loan crisis. The bill proposes to

New York’s attorney general is accusing some of the nation’s largest banks of deceit and fraud. That is because they were using an electronic mortgage registry that he claims puts homeowners at a disadvantage in foreclosures. He claims the banks submitted court documents containing false and misleading information. It appeared to provide the authority for

With student loan debt now topping U.S. credit card debt and few or no options available for distressed borrowers, America faces the very real possibility of another major economic threat. The threat that is on a par with the devastating home mortgage crisis. As bankruptcy attorneys, we have seen an increase in the last three-four

More than 40 states have signed on to a draft settlement with the nation’s largest banks. It aims at helping homeowners struggling with loans bigger than the value of their homes. However, several states including California, New York, Nevada, Florida, and Delaware remain undecided. Attorneys general from these states have issues with the deal but

The Obama administration is expanding eligibility for its Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). They are expanding it to borrowers with higher debt loads and tripling the incentives it pays banks that reduce the principal on loans. It will also offer incentives to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reduce the principal on loans; which it

A study has found that blacks are twice as likely as whites to wind up in Chapter 13