Asset Protection/Preservation

Low-wage jobs can be unstable, leaving families struggling to cope with employment gaps and financial emergencies that can strike without warning. About four in five low-income families are "asset poor," lacking enough liquid savings to live for three months at the federal poverty level without earnings. In this essay, McKernan and Ratcliffe suggest a cluster of policies that would improve financial markets and savings opportunities for low-income families across the life cycle.

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With millions of American families facing foreclosure and the U.S. Senate moving toward approval of a compromise bill, the public policy center Demos takes stock of the housing market crisis and the federal response to date. The findings of a new Demos report--"Beyond the Mortgage Meltdown: Addressing the Current Crisis, Avoiding a Future Catastrophe"--show that, beyond the terrible consequences families face in this crisis, the housing market is in short- and long-term economic peril.

The new report "Shredded Security: Overdraft practices drain fees from older Americans," shows that overdrafts triggered by debit card use hit people at or approaching retirement age hard even though they use plastic less than younger debt-card holders. The cost – $1.65 in fees for every $1 advanced – reinforces CRL's previous research, which found that overdraft fees are disproportionate to the amount advanced to cover a purchase: Unauthorized overdrafts cost Americans $17.5 billion in fees for $15.8… more

America’s Rental Housing- The Key to a Balanced National Policy is the Joint Center for Housing Studies’ latest look at rental housing issues, and in particular the effect that current mortgage market meltdown is having on the wellbeing of renters and the construction and preservation of the rental housing inventory. Its goal is to provide public policy makers, state and local housing agencies and private business leaders engaged in the rental market with information about the role of rental housing in the national housing agenda,… more

Is the American Dream slipping away? One in 33 current U.S. homeowners may be headed toward foreclosure in the coming years because of subprime loans, according to our new report, Defaulting on the Dream. In some states, the crisis is particularly acute—in Arizona, for instance, one in every 18 homeowners could lose their home; in Nevada, the ratio is one in 11. The problem hardly stops there. Because of foreclosures in their communities, an additional 40 million homeowners may see their property values and… more

Jointly authored by a number of distinguished scholars and leaders from across the political spectrum, For A New Thrift powerfully addresses the linked problems of overindebtedness, lack of savings, and growing inequality in the United States. The focus is on institutions. When a society creates democratic institutions to encourage thrift, more people are likely to engage in the positive activities of saving, conservation, and asset building. When a society fails to nurture such institutions, limits access to them, or supports… more

In recent years, a majority of subprime loans made in the United States have been originated by mortgage brokers, who can properly be characterized as the "engine" of the subprime market. The rapid growth of subprime lending was fueled by thousands of mortgage brokers across the country delivering billions of dollars of subprime loans to mortgage lenders, who in turn packaged and sold them to Wall Street investors. Because of their major role, mortgage brokers have had significant influence in… more

In 2003, First Nations Development Institute (FNDI) issued its first report on predatory lending in Native communities. This second report expands upon its analysis, updating information on the prevalence of predatory practices and adding new information from more recent quantitative data sources. It provides an analysis of survey data collected from attendees at the National American Indian Housing Council meeting in May 2007; survey data collected from Native users of selected Voluntary Income Tax Assistance sites; geo-coded data of payday lenders, bank branches, and Native community… more

The payday loan industry is one of the fastest growing segments of the consumer financial services market in the United States. The purpose of our study is to design an environment similar to the one that payday loan customers face. We then conduct a laboratory experiment to examine what effect, if any, the existence of payday loans has on individuals' abilities to manage and to survive financial setbacks. Our primary objective is to examine whether access to payday loans improves… more