When you take out a mortgage to pay for your loan, the last thing you want is to end up paying more on that mortgage than your house ends up being worth. Often you get lucky, and the real estate value grows faster than your loan accrues interest, but especially during this recent financial crisis, 25% or the time this has not been the case. Negative Equity A report from First American CoreLogic, a real-estate information company based in Santa Ana, CA, states that in the 3rd quarter of 2009, ... Read Full Story

Black Friday officially kicks off the holiday shopping season and on this day, incredible deals, mall-wide sales, and huge discounts are available for just about every conceivable item out there from toys to HD TVs, socks to gadgets. At the same time, retail stores are looking to end the year with leaner inventories and are trying to lure consumers who, for the most part of this year, have kept their wallets shut tight, to snap up the best items that they have to offer. But while consumers ev... Read Full Story

When we first released this article last week, and said we would follow up once the CD and checking specials became available. Well, here is the updated article, with the two new deals that became available today: In seven days, the biggest shopping day in America, if not the world, will take place. The infamous “Black Friday” is approaching and next week millions of consumers will be waking up to stand in the 4am lines to ensure that they capitalize on every available deal. ING D... Read Full Story

A while ago we wrote an article about state programs that reached out to the unbanked populations in their state. It seems that now the issue has gained federal attention, as the FDIC Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion (ComE-In) has announced that it will hold a meeting on the unbanked population on December 2nd, 2009. Unbanked and Underbanked Households The meeting will primarily focus on analyzing the data received from a supplement on unbanked population that the FDIC added to the Bu... Read Full Story

‘Tis the season for many consumers to wake up early, leave all their cares behind and hit the retail store to get deals they have been craving all year. It’s that special time when parents make sure they have their kids’ request memorized and target those products as soon as they enter the store. Last year’s Black Friday saw many retail stores have what seemed to be an abundance of inventory and hence prices were pretty much slashed by half. This year these stores have adjusted st... Read Full Story

It seems that the tough financial times have not made Scrooges of New Yorkers after all. A recent statewide poll conducted by the Siena Research Institute (SRI) showed that holiday spending in New York will, for the most part, remain unchanged this holiday season. Holiday Spending Resists Financial Hardship About 45% said that they intend to spend about the same amount this year, while a slightly higher percentage or 48% said they are going to spend less. At the same time, less than 10% of th... Read Full Story

As anger has grown over the bailouts being provided to banks considered “too big to fail,” there has been a discussion gaining momentum about whether or not banks should be allowed to grow big enough that their failure would pose a threat to the national economy. Last week, members of a House committee voted to to give government new power to downsize large private companies that pose this risk, something that till now has only been available in a situation where anti-trust laws have been br... Read Full Story

If you’ve been watching mortgage rates for the last few weeks, you have seen them slowly inch downward, which is no small feat, as many of them were already resting at rock bottom levels at the beginning of this month. However, this week, just when you thought they couldn’t go any lower, rates dropped again, putting the national averages at the lowest rates we have seen yet. 15-30 Year Fixed Rates Surprisingly, our 15 year national average is the lowest, with a rate of 4.56%. T... Read Full Story

The name Ben Bernanke has become synonymous with this financial crisis, and this could be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how the Senate Banking Committee feel about his actions thus far as they consider his renomination as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Senator Chris Dodd stated that the date for this review has been set for December 3rd of this year. Ben S. Bernanke Answering the Hard Questions When Bernanke was nominated for another term by President Obama la... Read Full Story

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has already closed 124 banks to date and with that record number of bank failures, you would think that they’d be about done already. But there’s more to come yet. The agency said Tuesday that the number of ‘problem banks’ that have made it to their list has reached 552, the highest level in 16 years. FDIC Improved Bank Earnings On the one hand, banks and thrifts across the country collectively have reported third qu... Read Full Story