Home Equity Lines And Thieves

If you have a significant equity, you should check your credit report from time to time. There are identity thefts that are aimed at a good credit owners, simply because they have a substantial home equity that is untapped. It's easy to see why are home equity lines of credit and great tool for criminals to steal money.

This is a new scheme that appeared due to downfall of the mortgage and real estate market. Home equity frauds happen more often then ever, and this is why you should regularly check your account if you don't want to see your money disappear.

Few years ago, the practice of criminals was different. They used to seek people with bad home equity line of credit and get mortgages from subprime lenders. But since the lenders have experience with those frauds, they changed their way of work. Now, the choices for criminals have reduced and they are after people who have good home equity line of credit.

It is easy to find a counter for this, but you will have to pay some money. You can enroll in an identity fraud detection service to check what is happening with your account. This will cost you $10 to $18 monthly and will alert you if there are any changes and inquiries to your home equity line of credit.

Washington Mutual Cuts Home Equity Lines

Another bad news for people who need home equity loans with bad credit. Washington Mutual suspended and cut six billion in available home equity credit to their customers. WaMu is doing that in order to reduce the risk they take in a flailing housing market. They can't be blamed for that, home equity lines of credit were never a no-risk business.

If you are a Washington Mutual customer and haven't been notified of this, you probably will. All WaMu customers across US will learn of the newest change to their credit availability. Letter is on the way so be prepared to hear some bad news on your home equity line in the next several days. Of course, Washington Mutual declined to inform us on how many customers will be affected.

If a borrower’s home has depreciated, regardless of credit history, the line of credit will likely be reduced because the equity has fallen.

Seattle thrift reports $1.1 billion in bad home equity loans in the first quarter. That is 35 percent more from the same time the previous year. The company has a total of $9.2 billion in nonperforming assets for one quarter, which makes 2.9 percent of total assets. And those nonperforming assets are showing the measure of bad loans.

If we take a look on the home financing front elsewhere, the P-I had a column that contends next: although rates on the new conforming-jumbo loans have dropped down close to conforming loans, they’re still pretty hard to get. So, we are still in the same old boat, going even further in unknown direction when it comes to home equity lines, mortgage and bad credit.

With higher loan limits, which are set earlier this year by the federal government as part of an economic stimulus package, which are supposed to make jumbo loans more affordable in expensive housing markets. As expected, rates have come down on these jumbo conforming mortgages, but still these loans will remain hard for most borrowers to get. Lets wait and see what will happen in the next month with mortgage rates and home equity lines.