Just 49 percent of homeowners in America now believe their home is worth more than they paid for it. Rasmussen Reports has asked that question for years, and it has never before fallen below the 50 percent mark. This represents a sea change in personal finances that challenges core assumptions about the way our economy works. Most Americans were br...

If Mitt Romney is to have any chance of beating President Barack Obama in November, he must win a larger share of the Hispanic vote than current polls suggest he will. And he won't unless he solves his immigration problem. It's a problem of his own making. He decided that beating up on illegal immigrants would boost his popularity among those suspi...

Walking away from a home mortgage is a bad idea. At least, that's the view of most people, as indicated in a new survey by FindLaw.com Many homeowners continue to wrestle with the fallout of the housing crisis. A majority of Americans say that simply walking away from a mortgage shouldn't be an option for homeowners, according to FindLaw.com's surv...

Home sales are on an upward swing in most areas of the country, but the growth is slow. A key reason for the continued sluggishness of the home-buying market is the mindset of many prospective buyers that prices have not yet reached bottom. They are waiting for clear signs of a positive turnaround in home values. In the meantime, they are renting a...

It was predictable that President Barack Obama would pander again to entitlement sentiments. This time involves the misguided belief that everyone is entitled to homeownership, even at the government's — the taxpayers' — expense. But the president's audacity is a bit much to take, even for an election year. Obama wants to effectively ba...

Obama's latest homeowner mortgage relief plan is perfect for him: It both is consistent with his ideology — duh — and allows him to buy more votes with someone else's money, all the while pretending there is in fact such a thing as a free lunch. The painfully superficial liberal approach to poverty gets old, as does its corollary tenet ...

Only a president long shielded from criticism and accountability could make the kind of State of the Union speech President Obama did Tuesday night. It's hard to know where to begin, given his repetition of tired ideas from his previous SOTUs, his taking credit for successful policies he resisted and omitting failed ones he promoted, his numerous m...

Strategic defaults, the practice of homeowners defaulting on their mortgage even though they have the financial capability to make the payments, is on the rise. The primary reason is the increasing number of underwater home loans — mortgages that have a higher balance than the property is worth in today's market. Also, another key motivator i...

All of the post-mortems on the CNBC Republican debate have focused on the sad but hilarious senior moment Gov. Rick Perry suffered when he couldn't remember the third federal agency he wants to eliminate. There's no doubt that it'll go down in history as one of the most embarrassing debate moments, but what also stood out as perplexing and stunning...

Can America have an economic recovery without strong increases in consumer spending? Can consumer spending rebound given the jobless situation? And will consumers ever be willing to go deeply into debt again to finance their spending? Those are just some of the issues raised by the latest Heartland Monitor poll sponsored by Allstate and the Nation...