Illinois Bankruptcy Lawyer Blog

Recent changes made to the Home Affordable Refinancing Program (HARP) by the O'Bama Administration will allow some, but by no means all, homeowners to refinance to a lower interest rate and save on their monthly payments - even if they would not ordinarily qualify for refinancing from their lender.

Those changes to HARP cut fees for borrowers who want to refinance into short-term loans and pay off their loans faster. The changes also permit borrowers who owe more than 125% of their home's value - i.e. that are underwater - from accessing the program.

To qualify borrowers must have a mortgage that

1. Is now owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac
2. Was sold to one of the agencies on or before May 31, 2009
3. Is now worth between 80% and 125% of your home's value
4. Has never been refinanced under the HAR program before
   

Step #1: Find out if your mortgage is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac

Step #2: Contact a HARP-approved lender to discuss your refinance options

Have any feedback? E-mail me to share your thoughts or leave a reply to this post.

I harbor no love for The New York Times, which I consider to be arrogant, liberal, and self-satisfied. But I have to give credit where credit is due. The Old Grey lady has managed to capture the dramatic story of America's post-war economic rise and fall in these chilling graphics.

 I would have thought the Wall Street Journal or The Economist might have done it instead, but there you go. 

And the numbers tell us we've gotten ourselves into a real mess. Although naturally the Baby Boomers - America's spoiled children - rode the fat part of the curve in the 50's and 60's,  leaving ensuing generations to foot the bill. How typical.

Welcome to the 21st century's Lost Generation.

According to the American Bankruptcy Institute, interpreting the data supplied by the National Bankruptcy Research Center, the number of consumer bankruptcies filed last month was 11% lower than it was last year. That fact is also consistent with the 2011 trend of fewer new filings each month than in the same month of 2010.

All of which sounds promising until we remember that last month 113,432 Americans still had to file bankruptcy to ward off severe financial turmoil, much of it due to their upside down mortgages and ever-sinking home values: trends that have not changed in 2011.

According to ABI Executive Director Sam Gerdano, consumer bankruptcies are declining due to the deleveraging of credit card accounts by consumers and the fact that new credit is so hard to get. 

Again I ask: how is that good news? No new credit? What if you need new appliances? A new vehicle? What if you are in a once-in-a-lifetime cash crunch? I guess it's alright as long as it's some else's pain. 

But hey, at least the August filings represented a 1% decrease from July. I know, I'm not that impressed either. Hey O'Bama, where's your messiah now? But seriously... the President had better do something or he'll end up as a one-term-wonder.

Borders announced it was closing its remaining stores and would not emerge from bankruptcy. This probably doesn't come as much of a surprise. I didn't realize Borders was still around. Full article here.

College Illinois lets parents invest today and lock in tuition for their kids down the line. Now Attorney General Lisa Madigan has opened a review of the program. The commission has run a deficit of over $300 million for 2 years due to lax investment practices like its $12.8 million in Shorebank Corp., which collapsed last year. Spokespeople for the commission say they were attempting to keep pace with the cost of higher-education ... but lost everything instead. Oops! Now it looks like the system is out of money; and since investments are not guaranteed, the investors (parents) appear to be out of luck.

Via couriernews.suntimes.com

Could it be that public-sector employee unions in Illinois are out of control? Not according to the lobbyists, lawyers, and shop-bosses who would be thrown out of work if public-sector employees had to work for a living instead of sponging off the State. If you ask them everything is fine. But pieces like this one in the Chicago Sun Times tell a different story.

The way they tell it, the Illinois public-sector employee pension system holds $60 billion of assets but has $200 billion in legacy liabilities. 9% of the paycheck of each State worker or teacher is therefore supposed to go towards fixing the problem. But the problem is that instead of money being invested and the proceeds used to make payments to retirees, contributions are going straight to retirees.

In other words, the system is a Ponzi Scheme and by 2018 all of its assets will have been liquidated so there won't be anything left to pay employees - former, current, or future.

So why are the teachers and other public-sector employees in Wisconsin acting like victims? Aren't public-sector employee unions the ones that broke the system in the first place along with the corrupt politicians who allowed them to play kick-the-can with the future?

That does it. I'm moving to China. I heard they haven't grasped the concept of Unions yet.

Yesterday a measure to raise the national debt ceiling was defeated in the House of Representatives by a vote of 318 to 97. Get the full story here.

If the bill had passed, the statutory limit on public debt would have been lifted from $14.3 trillion to $16.7 trillion ahead of a deadline on August 2. In short, it looks like the House voted for fiscal restraint instead of towing the typical tax and spend strategy that has kept the Democrats in power for 50 years.

So is this a sign of the Apocalypse, or have legislators been sufficiently terrified by the throw-the-bums-out results of the mid-term elections to start acting in a (somewhat) fiscally responsible manner?

I tend to think the latter. So, uh, thanks Tea Party.

Quoted from Chrysler Repays Billions, Was Bailout Worth It?

This article in CNNMoney identifies 9 credit cards industry experts told CNNMoney were among the worst in America for nose-bleed interest rates and ridiculous fees. Here's the list:

1. Applied Bank Unsecured Visa Gold Card
2. First Premier Bank MasterCard
3. Baby Phat Prepaid Visa RushCard
4. Hooters MasterCard
5. The Shack Credit Card
6. Shell Select Member Card
7. Visa Black Card
8. JCPenney Rewards Credit Card
9. Household Bank Premium Platinum MasterCard

quoted from RealEstateUS

Foreclosed and Bankruptcy Homes Led to Population Decline in Chicago -> http://goo.gl/epKjA #foreclosure

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here's a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter,Nc reads This blog is on fire!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 12,000 times in 2010. That's about 29 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 109 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 493 posts. There were 26 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 2mb. That's about 2 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was January 6th with 171 views. The most popular post that day was Recent Law School Grad? Open a Bankruptcy Practice!.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were thebklawyer.com, bankruptcylawnetwork.com, mha-law.com, search.aol.com, and en.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for do i qualify for bankruptcy, suburbs, bankruptcy blog, do i qualify for bankruptcy in florida, and do i qualify for bankruptcy in california.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Recent Law School Grad? Open a Bankruptcy Practice! December 2009

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do you qualify for bankruptcy? take the instant means test January 2009

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household size and median income (IRS v. Census Bureau) July 2007

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Buying Distressed Assets Under §363 of the Code March 2007

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how to get kicked out of your home or appartment March 2007

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