1 minute readMonday Morning Cup of Coffee takes a look at news crossing HousingWire’s weekend desk.
Low mortgage rates are allowing baby boomers to cut down on debt levels as they refinance their home loans and sock more money away into retirement savings accounts, according to Silicon Valley’s Mercury News.
Boomers who spent the past two decades pulling equity out of their homes are now trying to save money and refinancing is one such avenue for increasing their retirement savings. The catalyst for this is record low mortgage rates that are at their lowest level since 1971 when Freddie Mac began tracking rates, the paper reported.
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California may have led the nation into a subprime housing crisis, but the West Coast state is now leading it out, according to a Bloomberg news article.
The state was home to subprime giants like Countrywide and felt the sting of dramatic home price drops and foreclosures. But now, five years after the crisis, foreclosure levels are lower, pushing overall U.S. foreclosure figures down.
Initial foreclosure filings in California fell to a 69-month low. DataQuick shows the median price up in Southern California and fewer distressed homes on the market.
A foreclosure workshop held in Illinois over the weekend drew more than 1,000 distressed borrowers, according to CBS Chicago. The Illinois Foreclosure Prevention Workshop is part of an initiative to save troubled borrowers in the state. The crowd shocked officials with HUD. Illinois faced an onslaught foreclosures after the subprime crisis and continues to deal with fears over urban blight caused by distressed, vacant properties.
kpanchuk@housingwire.com
