In our last blog post, we discussed the increasing number of debt settlement companies choosing to skirt the new regulations provided by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in September. Today, we will look at how these companies are bypassing the rules and taking...
Debt settlement companies do not have the best reputations. Horror stories of consumers paying thousands of dollars while receiving no benefit from these companies run rampant. Still, progress was made in September, with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) imposing new...
The state of Florida experienced a 42 percent drop in foreclosure activity for the month of November. As promising as this might sound, the decrease was expected and does not signal an improvement for the housing market. Rather, the plummet is attributed to the...
In our last blog post, we looked at an analysis by the Associated Press (AP) that measured economic stress for states and counties across the nation. Its analysis for the month of October revealed that economic stress is down overall. However, elevated bankruptcy,...
While some progress is being made in restoring our economy, Florida continues to face challenges. An Associated Press (AP) analysis of economic stress nationwide for the month of October shows that economic stress is down. However, some areas, including Florida, are...
There is a new trend in foreclosures. More homeowners are choosing to ditch their second homes when the property is worth less than the mortgage balance, even if they are still able to afford the payments. This is known as strategic default, in which a homeowner...
By the end of the year, more than 1.6 million people are expected to have filed for bankruptcy protection in 2010. Many of these consumers have been financially devastated by the recession and chose to start fresh in the new year by filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy....
Following the recession, the number of consumer bankruptcy filings in 2010 is at the highest level since the bankruptcy laws were reformed in 2005. However, recent trends show that bankruptcy filings are slowing. In fact, there were 114,587 personal bankruptcy filings...
In our last blog post, we discussed the United States Trustee Program's (USTP) increased scrutiny of foreclosure defense attorneys are hoping for a comprehensive overhaul in banks' foreclosure practices. If more courts refuse to accept banks' claims at face...
A new trend has emerged that has identified more elderly Americans struggling under the weight of credit card debt and medical bills, causing them to resort to bankruptcy in retirement. Recent statistical data has backed these findings up, reporting that Americans 65...
