The housing market was ground zero for this recession. It's where the downturn began, and it's where aftershocks continue. The federal government must continue looking for ways to help deserving homeowners and protect the nascent economic recovery....

In a win for the banking industry, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Friday to reject a measure that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to change the terms of mortgages for distressed homeowners. Known as...

The U.S. House of Representatives is likely to vote to allow bankruptcy judges to alter the terms of mortgages, a top Democrat said Thursday, ignoring the vehement opposition of the banking industry. Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.) told reporters that...

A Senate panel heard testimony Tuesday about how a Coventry couple was driven into bankruptcy proceedings, including what they viewed as a “humiliating round of credit counseling,” by the medical bills stemming from their son’s fatal illness. Kerry...

With foreclosures continuing to climb and midterm elections just a year away, Congress once again is preparing to tackle the mortgage crisis aggressively. High on many a wish list: a renewed push to allow so-called cramdown, which would let bankruptcy...

In March, the Obama administration began an antiforeclosure effort that offers lenders up to $75 billion in incentives to modify troubled mortgages. If that sounds like a lot of money, it is. But so far, it has not been enough to persuade the mortgage...

The Treasury Department said on Tuesday that only a small number of homeowners — 235,247, or 9 percent of those eligible — had been helped by the latest government program created to modify home loansand prevent foreclosures. A report released by...

With unemployment projected to continue rising, leaving more homeowners without jobs and unable to meet their mortgage payments, Congress can expect an earful from constituents about what it's doing to stem the tide of foreclosures. Against this...

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said on Monday that if the financial industry is not able to complete 500,000 mortgage modifications by November he would pursue legislation ratcheting up the pressure on the industry. Durbin is the main backer...

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank threatened to revive the mortgage “cram- down” bill that stalled in Congress this year, saying lenders aren’t being aggressive enough in modifying troubled home loans.rnrnCram-downs let...

A senior House Democrat threatened banks Wednesday that if they don't volunteer to save more homeowners from foreclosure, Congress will make them. In a sternly worded statement, Rep. Barney Frank said Congress will revive legislation that would let...

This chart shows two things, really. First, we can see the scale on which struggling homeowners have managed to keep their homes by getting lenders to rework the mortgages. Second, we can see the scale on which the sheer number of struggling homeowners...

Roughly three months after Senate lawmakers killed legislation empowering homeowners to escape foreclosure through bankruptcy, some upper-chamber Democrats are looking to revive the corpse. They hope to pressure the White House into spending valuable...

Debtors are filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in order to escape debts they can't otherwise pay. The number of Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings increased statewide by 58.12 percent from 2,839 in the second quarter of 2008 to 4,489 in the second quarter of this...

Just a few months ago, many members of Congress were elbowing their way to the microphones to bemoan the nation’s high foreclosure rate and to promise to fix it. Yet the problem remains an unsolved crisis — a crisis that is bound to worsen as the...

As he often does, President Obama took the opportunity in a bill-signing ceremony last month to remind Congress “to do what we were actually sent here to do — and that is to stand up to the special interests, and stand up for the American people.”...

One of the worst votes the U.S. Senate has made recently was on April 30, when it defeated the bill that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to modify home mortgages to reflect the true value of the home, rather than what that value might have been...

The score: Banks 1, Homeowners 0. That is because the U.S. Senate has caved in to the banking lobby and refused to allow bankruptcy judges to modify primary residential mortgages for homeowners facing foreclosure. This would have been the best way to...

Inez Love bought her dream home in Germantown four years ago, near the height of the housing bubble. Then she lost her job at a Philadelphia nonprofit group. Now Love, 59, is in danger of losing her home, too, and ending up with nothing - having...

More than 38,000 Nevada homes could have been saved from foreclosure with legislation defeated last week in Congress — done in by the one-two punch of a financial services industry that continues to have enormous sway and lawmakers unwilling to sharply...

The Obama administration sat by last week as 12 Senate Democrats joined 39 Senate Republicans to block a vote on an amendment that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to modify troubled mortgages. Senator Obama campaigned on the provision. And President...

Sen. Dick Durbin's much-discussed (and much-cussed) mortgage "cram down" legislation may come to a vote in the U.S. Senate this week, possibly as early as tomorrow. It deserves to pass. Thanks to the stranglehold that the banking industry has on...

Bankruptcy is much in the news this week with the troubles of U.S. automakers. Most bankruptcies involve everyday people who just can't pay their bills. And right now, millions of homeowners can't pay their mortgages and are sliding into foreclosure....

Seeking a new intervention for financially distressed consumers, a Senate Judiciary subcommittee yesterday heard debate on a measure that would wipe out credit card debt for people in bankruptcy. Under current law, people filing for chapters 7 and 13...

Cash-strapped families are seeking bankruptcy protection at nearly the same rate and in the same manner as they did before the much-debated 2005 bankruptcy law reform, a trend critics say proves the reform was a failure. Congress wrangled for eight years...