Saving Your Home When Facing Bankruptcy
Stay put while you start fresh A bankruptcy can be stressful enough without worrying about uprooting your family. When you file for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the majority of your assets—including your house—may be sold by the bankruptcy trustee in order to pay your creditors. However, there are a few circumstances in which you may […]
Head-scratching reality: positive-equity foreclsoures
Here’s a misnomer and term that will undoubtedly give more than a few of our readers in Texas and elsewhere pause: positive-equity foreclosure. The home foreclosure process has always been centrally associated with negative equity, that is, properties in which homeowners’ outstanding mortgages exceed the estimated market value of their homes. A phrase commonly used […]
Texas residents, be wary of loan modification scams
Many Texas homeowners who are struggling to make their mortgage payments month after month may consider working with their lenders in order to obtain loan modifications. While this can be helpful in some cases, homeowners need to ensure that the terms really protect their interests. And, borrowers also need to make sure that the modification […]
Bank seeks foreclosure on Texas property belonging to heirs
For residents of Texas who have been negatively impacted by the economy, home foreclosure is an all-too-real consideration. When faced with financial duress, it’s important for homeowners to understand their rights and options. Not every case must end in foreclosure. There are legal avenues, such as certain forms of bankruptcy and debt relief, that can […]
The state of the economy: coping tactics and debt relief
Though the stock market ended the year on a resurgent note, it is becoming clearer all the time that Wall Street is not Main Street. Nearly four years after the official end of the Great Recession, numerous indicators point to the difficulties that many people continue to have in the current economy. In this post, […]
Residential foreclosure update: data trend for Texas encouraging
One of the important threads we’ve been following in this blog is home foreclosure. The real estate crisis and the Great Recession that followed left huge numbers of homeowners underwater on their mortgages. Many of these homeowners have been unable to keep up with their payments, and there has been wave after wave of foreclosures […]
Rebuilding credit after bankruptcy: yes, it’s doable
Facing up to financial life in modern-day America often involves tradeoffs between short-term and long-term goals. For example, someone who is in urgent need of debt relief may try to just tough it out a little longer, rather than biting the bullet and filing for bankruptcy. Sometimes people do this, in part, because they’ve heard […]
Bankruptcy filings and the economy: connection not always simple
The relationship between the overall economy and bankruptcy filings is not as simple and straightforward as it might seem. To be sure, the Great Recession and its uncertain aftermath have resulted in lost jobs and depleted asset portfolios that have led many people to file for personal bankruptcy. But it may be that sometimes the […]
Credit scores and dating dynamics: couples and shared finances
Years ago, the rock singer Alice Cooper recorded a song called “You and Me” that contained the line “we share a bed, some popcorn and TV.” It isn’t clear from the song whether the couple is married. But Cooper could easily have included the word “finances” along with the popcorn. After all, couples, even those […]
Bankruptcy and the government shutdown: possible effects
What effect will the partial federal government shutdown have on bankruptcy proceedings? As with so many other aspects of the shutdown, there is a short answer and a long answer. The short answer is easily enough stated. Federal bankruptcy courts remain open. In this post, however, we will discuss some of the ways that the […]
