Gov. Ted Kulongoski took a few minutes Wednesday to cap a years-long effort to include birth control in health insurance coverage.

He signed House Bill 2700, which requires health plans to provide prescription-drug coverage of birth control, and hospital emergency rooms to make available emergency contraceptives to victims of rape and incest.

The first measure was introduced by the Oregon Women’s Health and Wellness Alliance in 1993.

“The women of Oregon have worked tirelessly for nearly 15 years for the passage of these measures,” Kulongoski said. “I am proud to have been part of that fight, and even more proud to be here as we celebrate this victory.”

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Removing name from title won’t relieve responsibility for loan

DEAR BOB: My parents divorced in 1995. The judge gave the house to my mom, but she had to either sell it or keep it and refinance the mortgage. She wanted to keep the house. But she couldn’t refinance because her debt-to-income ratio was too high. So my mother gave me a quitclaim deed, signing the house over to me, and I helped her refinance with a new mortgage. Now I want to get my name off the title and put my mother back as sole owner, as she desires. If I do that and my mother dies, am I responsible for the mortgage payments although I don’t hold title? What do I need to do to quitclaim the house title back to my mom? Do I need to go through a title company? –David P.

DEAR DAVID: If you are now on the title alone, you can sign a quitclaim deed to your mother. However, you will still remain liable to make sure the mortgage payments are made even when you don’t hold title to the property.

When your mother dies, the title to the house then goes to whomever she names in her will or revocable living trust.

You don’t need to go through a title company to quitclaim your title to your mother. The deed must include a legal description of the property, usually with its parcel number, and your signature must be notarized so the deed can then be recorded to transfer title to your mother. For full details, please consult a local real estate attorney.

Found here.

U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott has introduced the Unemployment Insurance Modernization bill.

The proposed law would transform the unemployment insurance program to meet the growing needs of a workforce that’s changed dramatically since the program’s inception. The current unemployment insurance program fails to provide any assistance to two-thirds of unemployed workers, many of whom lost their jobs because of an economic downturn or technology and global competition, McDermott says.

“Just because the transition to a global economy is inevitable does not mean that economic threats posed to American workers are inevitable too. We can provide workers with a safety net woven in the 21st century, to meet the needs of a new era” McDermott says.

“This bill gives the states the federal help needed to seriously modernize the nation’s unemployment program to address the gaps that have left out the growing ranks of low-wage workers, women with families and the long-term unemployed in today’s increasingly unstable economy,” says Maurice Emsellem, policy director for the National Employment Law Project.

Found here.

There are specific reasons to consider a home mortgage refinance loan. The most powerful reason among them is the requirement to cut down monthly payments, by opting for a lower interest loan. If you get a new APR lower by at least two points, or by 0.5 %, you can opt for a home mortgage refinance loan. Refinancing is not a free of cost affair, it involves expenses like home re-appraisal, attorney fees, and loan application fees – all can add up to $ 500 or $ 750. Then again, this amount is considerably lower when compared to the hundreds of dollars you save every month for ten to twenty years.

Another reason can be moving into the security of fixed rate loans, especially when you sense that the there are chances for your adjustable mortgage rate go up in the near future, say less than a year. This is a good pre-emptive move, to stay afloat in changing financial conditions.

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Elmwood Park — In a ground-breaking New Jersey legal case, Phillip C. Wiskow and Carey A. Donovan, lawyers for an 86-year-old Clifton man who was brutally beaten while fighting off a carjacker in 2002, have finally compelled his insurance company to pay for his disabilities under New Jersey’s Uninsured Motorists Law.

As a result of the carjacking, the victim suffered debilitating injuries, including a fractured hip, which required multiple surgeries and a hip replacement.

An active, healthy man before the attack, the part-time handyman can no longer work or even do normal everyday activities, such as dressing without help, and must use a cane or walker.

The victim’s insurance carrier, New Jersey Manufacturers, refused to pay on the grounds that (1) the injuries were sustained while the carjacker was outside the vehicle and the carjacker did not become an uninsured motorist until he got into the car and (2) the victim’s injuries resulted from the beating rather than the actual operation of the vehicle.

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More undocumented immigrants are able to buy homes
Despite being in the U.S. illegally, undocumented immigrants can legally buy a house.

Certain lenders don’t ask for immigration papers. And buyers using a special tax ID often don’t need a lengthy credit history.

That has allowed many undocumented workers to realize the American Dream, experts said, while contributing to an upturn in the real estate market.

For Jorge and Maribel, a couple from Mexico who have lived illegally in Houston since 1996, an Individual Tax Identification Number, known as an ITIN, and a Texas driver’s license were enough to secure their mortgage, allowing them to purchase a home in 2002. (more…)

Let me say right at the top that I like reverse mortgages. But I’m not a very sentimental guy, and I don’t have a bunch of potential heirs who need my money and my assets.

But I’m jumping ahead of myself.

A reverse mortgage is a simple concept: Anyone age 62 or older can tap the equity in their house by having a mortgage company give them money.

The mortgage company gets its money back, with interest, when your house is sold.

It’s a sad fact that many people have more money locked up in their homes than they do in liquid retirement accounts. Eventually, those people can become house rich and cash poor, unable to make ends meet when big health bills come due.

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Mortgage is a term used to denote the pledging of a persons property (typically) as a security when a person borrows money from the lenders. In most countries and their jurisdictions, loans secured on real estate are called mortgages. But, there are a few exceptions and few restrictions as well. There might be some jurisdictions in which only a piece of land can be mortgaged. But on the whole, mortgage generally refers to putting up your real estate as security. Thus, it is a secured loan with minimal risks to the lender.

Suppose, you have an old loan and you want to repay it. Well, then you can take a new loan to repay the outstanding debt. This, in essence, is what mortgage refinance is all about. When a person goes for a refinance loan, he/she is actually going for a secured loan. Through this process people replace an existing loan that was secured by the same assets. The most common reason why consumers go for refinancing is home mortgage. (more…)

Retirees should look at other ways of supplementing their income, write Mark Armstrong and David Johnston.

AS THE oldest of the baby boomers retire, more are turning to reverse mortgages to supplement their income beyond super and the pension to maintain their lifestyles.

According to Trowbridge Deloitte, the reverse mortgage market ballooned by 80 per cent last year. By December, more than 27,500 Australians had drawn on the equity in their homes, with loans totalling $1.5 billion. We believe this trend is set to continue.

Reverse mortgages enable owner-occupiers with no debt on their homes to draw on a portion of their equity, either in a lump sum or in instalments.

Lenders market the loans on the basis they pose a relatively low risk because borrowings are capped at 20 per cent of the property’s value. In one sense, they are right. If a home is worth $500,000 and the owner borrows $100,000 at 9 per cent, the interest bill after the first year will be $9000.

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WASHINGTON — Home building posted a small gain in April, but permits for future construction plunged by the largest amount in 17 years, a sign the nation’s housing industry is still in a deep slump.

Construction of new homes and apartments rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.528 million units in April, an increase of 2.5 percent from the March level.

Even with the improvement, housing construction is 16.1 percent lower than a year ago, reflecting the amount of the slide since a five-year boom in housing ended last year.

In a troubling sign for the future, builders cut their requests for new construction permits by 8.9 percent in April. That was the sharpest drop since a 24-percent fall in February 1990, another period when housing was going through a significant downturn. The slide pushed the annual rate for permits down to 1.429 million units, the lowest level in nearly 10 years.

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