WASHINGTON (Reuters) – It’s time to watch Washington to see just how bad your New Year’s eve is going to be. Without any action in the Capitol, the U.S. economy is said to be poised to fall off of a “fiscal cliff.”

Projected increases in taxes and cuts in spending would throw the economy into another recession, says the Congressional Budget Office, and it could throw your family finances over the edge, according to analysts.

WASHINGTON, Oct 10 (Reuters) – It’s time to watch Washington
to see just how bad your New Year’s eve is going to be. Without
any action in the Capitol, the U.S. economy is said to be poised
to fall off of a “fiscal cliff.”

Projected increases in taxes and cuts in spending would
throw the economy into another recession, says the Congressional
Budget Office, and it could throw your family finances over the
edge, a cc ording to analysts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – It’s a sad, sticky and increasingly common situation: An elderly relative insists on managing his money, but you suspect he’s losing his ability to handle that.

The older people get, the more likely they are to suffer cognitive decline. Roughly 14 percent of people over 71 have some level of dementia, according to the National Institutes of Health. For those in their 90s, the rate rises to 37.4 percent.

WASHINGTON, Oct 3 (Reuters) – It’s a sad, sticky and
increasingly common situation: An elderly relative insists on
managing his money, but you suspect he’s losing his ability to
handle that.

The older people get, the more likely they are to suffer
cognitive decline. Roughly 14 percent of people over 71 have
some level of dementia, according to the National Institutes of
Health. For those in their 90s, the rate rises to 37.4 percent.

WASHINGTON, Aug 1 (Reuters) – Lately mortgage interest rates
have been hitting one record low after another. At the same
time, we’re seeing increases in mortgage defaults, foreclosures
and short sales in which lenders get less than 100 cents to the
dollar for the loans they’ve let. So why would anyone want to be
a mortgage lender right now?

That would be a good question to ask investors who have
thrown $6.9 billion into Government National Mortgage
Association (GNMA)-backed mutual funds in the year ending June
30, according to figures from Lipper, a Thomson Reuters company.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Coming soon to a neighborhood near you: A late-summer wave of short sales, as homeowners, mortgage bankers and potential buyers all race to settlement on bargain-priced homes that are worth less than the mortgages written on them.

“We’re seeing a rush already,” said Daren Blomquist of Realtytrac, a firm that monitors real estate foreclosures and distressed sales. “There was a big increase in the first quarter and we’re expecting that to continue.”

WASHINGTON, July 25 (Reuters) – Coming soon to a
neighborhood near you: A late-summer wave of short sales, as
homeowners, mortgage bankers and potential buyers all race to
settlement on bargain-priced homes that are worth less than the
mortgages written on them.

“We’re seeing a rush already,” said Daren Blomquist of
Realtytrac, a firm that monitors real estate foreclosures and
distressed sales. “There was a big increase in the first quarter
and we’re expecting that to continue.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Here’s an appealing idea: What if you could design your home loan so the house is paid off exactly when your kids go off to college, or when you retire? Or if you could refinance for 10, 12 or 17 years, instead of the standard 15- or 30-year terms on most fixed-rate mortgages?

Of course, most borrowers are free to prepay their mortgages, but now, some lenders are letting people borrow money for as many – or as few – years as they like.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co agreed to pay $175 million to resolve allegations by the U.S. Justice Department that it discriminated against qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers in its mortgage lending.

At the same time, the bank said it would stop making loans through mortgage brokers, who the government said submitted loans to Wells Fargo that had varied interest rates, fees and costs based only on race and not correlated to the borrowers’ creditworthiness.

WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co
agreed to pay $175 million to resolve allegations by the U.S.
Justice Department that it discriminated against qualified
African-American and Hispanic borrowers in its mortgage lending.

At the same time, the bank said it would stop making loans
through mortgage brokers, who the government said submitted
loans to Wells Fargo that had varied interest rates, fees and
costs based only on race and not correlated to the borrowers’
creditworthiness.