| Northeast not immune from foreclosures
As mortgage foreclosures increase nationally, the Northeast has not been as hard hit as other parts of the country. But the region is far from immune. At Consumer Credit Counseling Service of NH-VT, a nonprofit credit counseling and education organization, housing-related financial counseling has doubled in the past 12 months. "We're seeing a significant increase in families that are unable to keep up with payments on their subprime mortgages" said Kerry York, executive director of CCCS NH-VT. After a year or two of low interest rates on an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM), many are now reeling from higher interest rates as their mortgages reset. "Recently, we met with a family trying to deal with a rate increase on their ARM. The rate change increased their monthly mortgage payment from $1,300 to $1,750," York said.
Q & A: Alok K. Bohara
But, I began taking interest in policy research, and started applying for Ph.D. programs in the US. After getting my Ph.D. from the U. of Colorado, Boulder, I spent a year as a visitor in the economics department, holding a joint appointment at a Research Center at CU. Following some American fellow students' advice, I applied for some academic and non-academic positions. The University of New Mexico with its Ph.D. program turned out to be a good match for me. Tell us also about how you managed to “survive" initially as a foreign faculty member, and rise to the ranks of a full professor. In technical fields like engineering and IT there are a lot of opportunities because of the private companies' needs and demands. Plus, you do not need Ph.D.s to land a good job in these fields.
How to guarantee misery
IT is one of the saddest emails I've received in a long time: A retired couple wrote last week with a tale of financial woe that started with them going guarantor for their son to buy his first home. In a domino effect, his small business, which has loans secured against his home, is in financial trouble. The house's value has fallen, the business is in trouble, the bank is recalling its loans, the son doesn't have the money and his retired parents face losing their own home and having a pretty lean retirement. Helping first-home buyers to achieve the great Australian dream is a terrific objective and recently many banks have made it easier for friends and family members to go guarantor for the loan. Call me old-fashioned, but I always believe if you can't afford something then you save a bit longer rather than overstretching and, in this instance, running the risk of breaking families apart.
How To Get Your First Mortgage
Editor's Note: First time home buyers can be confused by the process. There is the loan process, pre-qualification, looking for a home, documents for title, loans, insurance taxes etc. Here is an article on the subject: When it comes to lifetime markers getting a first mortgage is a major event. With a mortgage you''re magically transformed from occupant to owner and from tenant to titleholder. Applying for a mortgage used to be seen as a battle of sorts, a competition where the only winners were those who sold headache remedies and paper by the truckload. But now finding the right mortgage is faster and easier than ever -- but only if you know how to make the system work for you. If you compare loan applications today with the ordeals of even ten years ago you can see a marked difference.
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