mortgage payments

The alleged Times Square car bomber, apprehended last month on suspicion of leaving a homemade bomb in his SUV, is on track to lose his Shelton, Conn., home to foreclosure.

The suspect, Faisal Shahzad, 30, is in jail without bail for five felony charges. To avoid foreclosure, he is being ordered to repay $213,000 to Chase Home Finance LLC, part of the JPMorgan Chase conglomerate, by July 31.

Several media sources are reporting that Shahzad stopped making his mortgage payments in June of last year, the time when federal authorities have said that he returned to Pakistan to visit a terrorism training camp.

So why didn't the delinquent mortgage payments clue in government officials earlier?

Check out Diane Keaton's latest project (a house, not a movie), or pick up some pointers on savvy homeownership - like whether to pay extra towards your mortgage, and how to lower your home's assessment. It's all in our top posts on HousingWatch this week.

1. Donald Trump's Foreclosed Condo Hotel in Fort Lauderdale Leaving Buyers in Legal Hell
Buyers in Florida who were seduced by the Trump name to put down deposits on million-dollar condos are having major regrets now, as the property slips into foreclosure before even being finished.

2. Does it Make Sense to Pay Your Mortgage Down Early?
Think you're being virtuous by agreeing to your lender's offer to let you pay a little extra towards your mortgage each month for an early payoff? See our assessment of why it might be a better deal to put that "extra" cash somewhere else.

Every month, my mortgage company gives me the same offer: Would I like to pay a little extra to lower the debt on my home mortgage? Even small additional payments, made over time, could chop years off the time it takes to repay my home loan, according to the bank.

It always seems like a virtuous, prudent thing to do - but it almost never makes good financial sense, according to a recent breakdown of the numbers in the New York Times.

It turns out that with interest rates so low, relatively few people benefit financially by paying off their home loans early, at least compared to their other options. The rest of us are much better off taking our surplus cash - if we have surplus cash - and investing in something like a retirement account or a health savings account, particularly if that investment is also tax deductible.

The number of homes seized by banks, sold at foreclosure auctions, or that slipped in default dropped by more than 7,000 (or 2 percent) in February, according to data firm RealtyTrac.

That's great news for anyone worried about the value of their home or the strength of the economy.

For months, the threat of a new wave of home loan foreclosures has been the monster under the bed for housing economists. There are now about 1.8 million homeowners who are several months late in their mortgage payments, according to recent reports. If they all lose their homes, the deluge of new foreclosures could damage banks, again, and send home values back down, again.

You're strapped - down to your last $1000. Who do you pay first: your credit card or your mortgage?

The answer might surprise you.

New studies show that the fiscal downturn has gotten so bad that consumers are now choosing to pay off credit card debt before making their mortgage payment.

How far would YOU go to make your mortgage payments?

A brief article caught my eye on Reuters this morning that got me wondering -- and Googling -- to see to what extent some folks have gone to keep from getting evicted from their homes.

The article was about a 73 year old Florida man who was busted late last week in Tampa for allegedly holding up not one, but three different banks over a one-month period.

In each holdup, where no weapons were used, James Bruce reportedly demanded six $100 bills.

Tampa Police spokeswoman Laura McElroy told Reuters that Bruce admitted robbing the banks, claiming he needed the cash to pay the mortgage on his house. "He called it a repayable loan," McElroy is quoted as saying.