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Rolex: The Best Post-Bubble Rolex Watch Values By Melrose Jewelers (Marketwire)
Melrose Jewelers, USA's #1 Online Rolex Retailer, Today Announced the Top 10 Best Values for Rolex Watches, Post the Housing Bubble-Burst
Immigrants Can Help Fix The Housing Bubble (Immigration Portal)
The Obama administration should seriously consider granting resident status to foreigners who buy surplus houses in this country. This makes more sense than the president's $275 billion housing bailout plan, which Americans greeted with a Bronx cheer.
Foreclosures Continue To Rise In South Florida (Miami Herald)
The number of foreclosures in Miami-Dade and Broward continued rising last month, as mounting job losses crippled borrowers' ability to make mortgage payments. Lenders lifted previous foreclosure moratoriums and resumed legal action against delinquent accounts.
Des Plaines Seeks Grants To Help With Rising Foreclosures (Daily Herald)
With home foreclosures rising, Des Plaines city officials say they will try for federal housing grants to help address the problem.
GM CEO Warns Bankruptcy More Probable (Reuters Via Yahoo! News)
General Motors Corp Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said on Friday the automaker could still restructure out of court, but warned it was more probable GM may need to seek bankruptcy protection to complete that process.
Foreclosures In March Hit Record Locally (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Lenders opened the floodgates by lifting a moratorium on foreclosures in March, resulting in a record number both in Clark County and nationally, a foreclosure expert said Thursday.
U.S. Foreclosures Up 24 Pct In 1Q (The Newton Kansan)
The number of American households threatened with losing their homes grew 24 percent in the first three months of this year and is poised to rise further as major lenders restart foreclosures after a temporary break, according to data released Thursday.
Foreclosures Rise In Morgan County (The Fort Morgan Times)
Home foreclosures are up again in Morgan County.
The Housing Pox: Is It Nearing An End? (KiplingerForecasts.com)
The long and painful bloodletting in the U.S. housing industry is finally starting to rebalance the market. But good health is still a long way off.
Mississippi Foreclosures Buck National Trend (Jackson Free Press)
New foreclosures in the Magnolia State remain relatively low despite other states reporting rates as high as one in every 55 homes.
Yellen Says No End To Recession In Sight (Nasdaq)
(RTTNews) - San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen says the Fed's monetary policy may have played a role in the U.S. credit boom and the resulting housing price bubble. But he added they were by no means the only factor.
Housing Market Cooling - Comment On This Story (The Sudbury Star)
The worldwide recession and nickel industry woes have combined to prick the local housing market bubble. According to the Sudbury Real Estate Board, a total of 350 homes changed hands locally through the Multiple Listings System in the first three months of 2009, down from 636 a year ago.[...]
Scammers Prey On Home Foreclosures (The Paris News)
With home foreclosures on the increase, so are scam artists.
Housing Starts Resume Decline (Zacks.com Via Yahoo! Finance)
We need to get rid of the huge inventory overhang -- which was at a near record 12.2 months in February -- before the housing market can really stabilize.
GM CEO Says Bankruptcy Probable But Not Preferred (AP Via Yahoo! News)
General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said Friday that a bankruptcy filing is "probable" because of the restructuring goals GM must meet to get more government loans, but that isn't the company's preferred option.
Pa. Woman Forges Bankruptcy Seal To Save Electric (AP Via Yahoo! News)
A Pittsburgh woman made a fake federal bankruptcy court seal on a document in hopes a utility company wouldn't cut off her electric service. Dorothy Hunt, 41, pleaded guilty to the counterfeiting charge Thursday and faces up to five years in prison when she's sentenced Aug. 6.
Rob Shapiro: The Housing Crisis And Our National Attitudes Towards Saving (HuffingtonPost)
The Great Depression deeply affected the attitudes of the generation that came of age in the 1920s and 1930s. For example, it made the country...
GM CEO: Bankruptcy 'Probable' (Washington Post)
Automaker's chief says company still intends to restructure its business outside of bankruptcy.
G.M. Hopes To Make Deadline But Is Preparing For Bankruptcy (New York Times)
The chief executive said the automaker was developing a restructuring plan while simultaneously readying itself for a potential bankruptcy filing.
GM CEO Says Bankruptcy 'Probable' (Washington Post)
General Motors chief executive Fritz Henderson said the automaker still intends to restructure its business outside of bankruptcy, but a filing is still "probable" given all the concessions it must achieve with such a short deadline.
New Laws Help Reduce Foreclosures (Modesto Bee)
Let's call this positive news about foreclosures: The number of Northern San Joaquin Valley homes repossessed by banks during March was the lowest for any month during the past year.
A Quick Bankruptcy For G.M.? Not So Fast (New York Times)
Any hope of a high-speed bankruptcy by General Motors faces a serious obstacle: a judge — not the Obama administration, not G.M. management and not the company’s creditors — would reign in court, The New York Times’s Jonathan D. Glater writes.
GM Readies Plans For Bankruptcy It Hopes To Avoid (Reuters Via Yahoo! News)
General Motors Corp Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said on Friday the automaker was readying detailed plans for a bankruptcy filing that now appears more likely even as it races to complete a business plan under federal oversight.
Group Calls For More Federal Funding To Fight Foreclosures (KYW News Radio 1060)
Members of a coalition called "Save Our Homes"  were among those on Friday calling for HUD or Congress to provide funding to help the unemployed avoid foreclosures.
High Volume Gets Blame In Theft Case (Arizona Daily Star)
The sheer volume of mortgages generated at the height of the housing bubble made it difficult to quickly discover acts of fraud and theft committed by employees at Title Security Agency of Arizona, the company's president said Thursday.
Confessions Of A Money Manager: One Reason Housing Is Weak - Fannie Mae (The Capital Times)
We hear this constant refrain that the banks aren't lending money, particularly money to buy homes. So I did a little snooping -- actually I started by going to the bank that holds my home mortgage, seeking to re-finance -- and lo and behold, I found out some very interesting things.
Chamber Will Hold Housing Summit (The Oak Ridger)
The Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a "Summit on Housing" from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday.
Icahn And Oaktree Said To Push For MGM Mirage Bankruptcy (New York Times)
Will it be pistols at dawn in Vegas for Carl C. Icahn and Kirk Kerkorian? The activist investor and private equity fund Oaktree Capital Management have amassed hundreds of millions of dollars of MGM Mirage bonds and have told the troubled casino firm it should quickly overhaul its massive debts in bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Las Vegas Braces For Commercial Foreclosures (Las Vegas Sun)
A tsunami of commercial real estate foreclosures is on the horizon and is threatening banks and undermining developers who are already struggling with high vacancy rates. It’s another looming blow for many banks that are sweeping up after the financial wave of the residential real estate bust. Since the first of the year, a growing number of developers of offices, industrial space and retail ...
G.M. Hopes To Make Deadline But Is Preparing For Bankruptcy (New York Times)
The chief executive of General Motors , Fritz Henderson, said Friday that “it is still feasible” for G.M. to meet the administration’s demands by June 1 without filing for bankruptcy, but he acknowledged that executives were preparing to seek court protection if necessary, The New York Times’s Nick Bunkley reported.

Bankruptcy Means Testing Under the New Bankruptcy Law

Jameson Joyce

The rush to file bankruptcy ahead of the new bankruptcy law is over. Now what? Did you miss the boat if you didn't file bankruptcy before the new law went into effect?


Absolutely not. Although the new bankruptcy law has made it much more difficult to file bankruptcy, most attorneys are finding out that the new bankruptcy law is manageable and filings are on the rise.


One of the most confusing parts of the new bankruptcy law is the bankruptcy means test.


In an effort to stop bankruptcy abuse, Congress decided to implement a step to the bankruptcy process called the "bankruptcy means test".The new bankruptcy law requires a test to be performed by every debtor prior to filing bankruptcy. The actual test is alot like doing your taxes. The means test revolves around the median state income for the state in which the debtor will file bankruptcy.


The bankruptcy means test is used to determine what type of bankruptcy a debtor can file. The bankruptcy means test is an attempt to make chapter 7 available to only those debtors who absolutely need to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy. Most people trying to file bankruptcy want to try to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy which can wipe out most debt quickly; a chapter 7 case is usually completed in about 90 to 120 days with no required repayment plan. The other type of consumer debtor bankruptcy is a chapter 13 bankruptcy which requires a debtor to make repayments to the bankruptcy court over the course of 3 to 5 years.


The means test is designed to weed out those people who don't really need to file a chapter 7 in the hopes that more people will have to file a chapter 13 bankruptcy and pay all, or a portion, of their debt back to their creditors through a court ordered repayment plan. Remember, the new bankruptcy law was funded by creditors so it only seems logical that the law would encourage the repayment form of bankruptcy.


The actual means test can be quite simple if a debtor is below their median state income. If a debtor is below the median income for their state, the debtor can file a chapter 7 bankruptcy. Debtors who exceed the median income may still be able to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy but they must complete several additional steps in the test that are far more complicated. If a debtor fails the means test, the debtor is not prohibited from filing. However, a debtor who fails the test cannot file a chapter 7.


To find your median state income and learn more about the new bankruptcy law, visit bankruptcyhelponline.org.

 


Jameson Joyce is a legal writer for legalhelponline.org and Direct Lex, the global legal resource solution.

 

 

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