If you lose your job in Pennsylvania, but your credit has been okay up until then - help may be forthcoming.  The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency offers help where all that’s needed is a break.  According to CNN Money.com, candidates are carefully screened but the end result is it gives people who have recently lost a job the chance to find another one without losing their house in the process.

“You must have a reasonable prospect of resuming full payments within 36 months and of paying the mortgage in full,” [Brian] Hudson [program director] said.

Loan payments are made directly to the servicers and a lien is placed on the property. The aid is repaid at a 5.25% interest rate over 10 years on average, though the borrower’s financial circumstances are taken into account.

Bravo to Pennsylvania for offering this amazing program to its citizens who are trying to survive the hardships of this economy!

Photo by mknobil via flickr creative commons.

If only I had a stack of gold this high.

Want to learn what the Federal Reserve does in plain English?  Click here to watch a tour online, order a video, or order a free booklet.  Brought to you by the St. Louis Federal Reserve.

Described as a bill the banking industry will “love,” the efforts to reform the financial regulatory industry may not do much to help consumers.  The bill would create a consumer protection agency, but the bickering has begun over whether it should be a stand-alone agency or brought into the Federal Reserve.

I have to stand with the critics on this one when they argue for giving it a stand-alone status.  According to MSNBC,

Critics of the idea of turning over consumer protection to the Fed argue that the central bank badly stumbled in applying its existing consumer protection laws to clamp down on bad mortgage lending during the housing bubble. Simultaneously protecting bankers and consumers, they argue, is an inherent conflict of interest.

If bankers and lenders LOVE the idea of the agency being housed with the Fed and are doing everything in their power to lobby for this, then it really should go somewhere else.  I have long argued that as a real estate agent, all of my work is HEAVILY monitored.  We answer first to our clients, then our brokers. After that, the state regulates us along with our local association, state association AND national association.

Why shouldn’t lenders be afforded the same set of rules as agents?  They are - after all - the ones who actually have their hands on the sensitive financial information belonging to customers.

But that’s just my opinion.  What do you think?

There’s one lender on Facebook who I haven’t blocked.  He does talk about mortgages about once every two weeks to once a month like this,

Hey Facebookers….rates are starting to move north, don’t miss your chance to lock in a low rate on a refinance or purchase. Contact me with details!

But he also talks about other things like his car breaking down or family picture day.  It’s the real him who happens to work with lending.  On my own Facebook site, I don’t talk about real estate a lot.  Yes, I do discuss it like anyone else would talk about their own jobs, but I don’t hammer people over the head with it.  I want to be sincere.  I want my Facebook friends to be my real friends, not just viewed as clients or customers.  I fear that I’m too casual, though. I need to listen more to the real social networking experts. Whether you’re a lender, a real estate agent, or just someone who offers a product or service, Sarah Dopp’s advice is good.

1) make sure that EVERY SINGLE THING you put out to the world supports that lovable, human image that you have of yourself.

2) make sure whatever you say is put into words that you would actually say out loud to another human being in person.

If it doesn’t pass those tests, don’t write it.

I’ll cheer to that!  Be careful with how you market yourself on social networks.  People are watching, listening.  And then they may not.

The long-anticipated increase in mortgage rates has begun, but at just over 5 percent, they are still favorable for buyers.  According to MSNBC.com, the best rates are assigned to 15-year mortgages rather than the typical 30-year funding plans.  One reason mortgages have remained low is because the Federal Reserve has been buying new loans, however there is fear that when the program stops in March rates will skyrocket,

Some analysts fear that once the central bank stops, mortgage rates could spike due to a lack of willing buyers, hurting the recovery in housing and the overall economy. But government officials have been optimistic about that the Fed will be able to end its program without a major disruption.

In my own opinion, I believe the real estate market will be shaken when the April 30th “under contract” date arrives for the $8000 first-time home buyer tax credit.

Trying to repay credit card debt can be devastating, especially when the debt amount is so high that you never get in front of it when making the minimum payments.

Growing up, I always heard you should have one credit card in case of emergency.  My parents were talking about having them if you were on a trip and your radiator went out, for example.  Unfortunately with the economy today, paying the power bill to keep the house full of kids warm during the winter has become the new emergency.

As a result, more and more people are suffocating under credit card debt and the relentless collection companies calling sometimes a dozen times a day to collect.  It’s no wonder that people keep it a secret and many people do, according to CNN Money.com,

Hidden debt is a common and insidious problem. “It’s a form of cheating so subtle you don’t even know you’re doing it,” said Bonnie Eaker Weil, a relationship expert and author of the book Financial Infidelity. “It’s a power struggle that can be more harmful to a relationship than adultery.”

I’ve reached the point in my own life that when I get an envelope in the mail promising me a silver, platinum or gold card with no interest payment for a year, I just put it in the shredder.  Sometimes enough is enough.

Photo by squeaky marmot via flickr creative commons.

When people lose their homes, the dark times in their lives can eventually be overcome.  By hard work, attention to bills, and saving when possible, a good credit score can be rebuilt.  However, what people are only now realizing is a bad credit score doesn’t just prevent you from buying a home.  Now low scores can prevent affordable purchases, dictate that you’ll live somewhere bad, and even stop you from getting a job.

Let’s say you need a car to get back and forth to work.  A low score doesn’t necessarily mean you CAN’T buy one, it means that you’ll pay out the nose on your higher interest rate.

A low credit score and foreclosure will also be found if you’re renting an apartment or house.  Savvy landlords check your payment history because they don’t want to become another statistic on your list of nonpayments.

What’s even worse - in my opinion - is that now employers check those scores, too.  MSNBC.com reports that bad credit can become a barrier to finding a job,

There are no hard numbers on how often poor credit reports thwart someone’s effort to find a new job. Many applicants will never know; employers aren’t required to explain why a candidate was turned down for a job.

But a recent survey by the Society of Human Resource Management found that many employers use credit checks to screen job candidates. Of the roughly 350 employers who responded, 60 percent said they checked credit histories for some or all job applicants. That’s up from 43 percent in 2004 and just 25 percent in 1998.

A friend of mine just lost out on a job because of her credit score.  She has worked for me in the past so I know from personal experience that she is smart, dedicated, and relentless in getting the job done.  I’m sorry she won’t have the chance to prove this to the other would-be employer.

Mortgage companies may be breathing a sigh of relief right now because fewer homeowners were delinquent in their mortgage payments this past quarter than the one before.  According to CNN.com, this could mean that the mortgage market is starting to heal,

This figure is significant because it shows a reduction — even if just slight — in the volume of loans heading toward the foreclosure process. This has not happened since 2006.

Always being an optimist, I hope the healing has begun.  However until I stop hearing about friends who’ve just received their formal foreclosure notice, I’m not buying into this sunny outlook quite yet.

There are thousands of homeowners huddled in their houses today, hiding in the giant shadow of looming foreclosure.  I talked with one earlier today and our conversation turned to the phenomenon of Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure.

Sometimes mortgage companies will agree to work with homeowners, but only if they can prove their ability to pay future house payments if a loan modification is granted.  Other times, it’s simply better for the homeowner to cut his/her losses and walk.

Before you take that drastic action, however, it’s ALWAYS better to stay in contact with the lender.  See if they can help.  In most cases, people have confided in me that the mortgage company won’t do anything until they’ve missed X number of payments.  After this has happened, they are told they won’t help until they get caught up.  O.o

Every now and then, however, a mortgage company will realize it’s more sensible to work with a homeowner and accept a deed in lieu of foreclosure. The company will tell a homeowner they can remain in the property for a certain amount of time, but will need to vacate by a specific date. The homeowner has the opportunity to find another place to live (and is sometimes paid so they don’t destroy the property), while the mortgage company saves on the massive cost of performing an actual foreclosure.

I just asked a local lender about the possibilities of a Deed in Lieu Of from his company. He advised homeowners to contact the Loss Mitigation Department, but overall that they would allow the Deed in Lieu Of was very rare.

Read more about other options other than foreclosure here at Being Frugal.

Nevertheless, good luck!

A couple of years ago a friend of mine became the loan manager at a local bank.  She called to tell me the incentive for opening a new account was $100 and if I referred anyone, I’d get a $50 referral fee.  I signed myself and one other person up.   My goal was to deposit money in that account that would be used for my daughter’s baton classes, coaches, and other fees.

Unfortunately, the market dried up so the account at there for nine months with $70 in it.  I finally screwed up my courage - she was a friend after all - and asked if she’d be insulted if I just closed the account (I need the $70 for groceries at that point… sad but true.)

It was hard to break up with the bank, but I’m not the only one doing it.  In fact, CNN Money says more and more people are closing their accounts as a way to show their displeasure over the growing fees banks charge and the resentment over them taking bailout money and then paying big bonuses to executives.

Barry J., who detailed his switch from Bank of America to Southeastern lender Regions in an email, said he had just become fed up with the $8.95 monthly maintenance fees on each of his three accounts.

“When I was closing my accounts, [Bank of America] would call me with a survey to see if it was the fault of any their customer service people or tellers or bank managers,” he wrote. “They never asked if it was the additional fees they were charging.”

We don’t like the nickel and diming, folks.  Further I’d much rather pay fees to a local company that reinvests in my own area.