PHOENIX -- During the great housing boom, homeowners nationwide borrowed a trillion dollars from banks, using the soaring value of their houses as security. Now the money has been spent and struggling borrowers are unable or unwilling to pay it back. The delinquency rate on home equity loans is higher than all other types of consumer loans, read more >>
OFF THE CHARTS; Default Rates Easing, Except on Credit Cards
WILL credit card users ever be more willing and able to pay their bills? More than a year after the default rates on most kinds of consumer loans began to decline, the proportion of credit card loans going bad continues to set new highs. An index of new defaults, the Standard & Poor's/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices, showed this week that read more >>
Banks Resist Plans to Cut Mortgages
In a rebuff to the Obama administration, two big banks on Tuesday drew a line in the sand on cutting the mortgage balances of beleaguered homeowners, saying that the tool would be applied sparingly. The idea of reducing loan principals last month became a centerpiece of the administration's efforts to help seven million households threatened with read more >>
