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 Home buyers and mortgage applicants can spread out receipt of their free credit reports over the course of a year from the new, Congressionally-mandated national credit information resource -- AnnualCreditReport.com. The website goes live Dec. 1 for an estimated 70 million residents of the Western region states. The free credit program will roll out nationwide, west to east, during the coming nine months. Free reports will also be available by toll-free telephone (877-322-8228) and by mail: Annual Credit Report Service, P.O.Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. Last December, President Bush signed the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, which directed the three national credit bureaus -- Equifax, Experian and Trans Union -- to create a single, centralized source for all consumers to obtain one free credit report from each bureau, once every 12 months. How to solve Outlook Express problems
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With the certainty of sunrise, mortgage automation is on its way, a common system of electrons and software that -- says the industry -- will speed the application process and save lenders money. Savings, one can hope, that will then be passed along to consumers. A "time and motion" study just completed for MISMO -- the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization -- says that automation can slash loan costs by nearly $700 per application. Costs can be reduced directly for credit reports ($4.82), appraisal expenses ($42.07), title searches ($16.73) and flood certificates ($7.75) -- a total of $71.36 per transaction for expenses often paid by borrowers. Additionally, lenders can save $16.15 on closing costs and $161.88 on the mortgage application process -- a total of $178.04. 
It"s no surprise that interest-only mortgages have gained popularity. For home buyers, interest-only loans increase affordability -- something that many homebuyers need after the last few years of skyrocketing home prices. But interest-only loans are not just popular among buyers. Many existing homeowners are turning in their traditional amortizing loan for a lower-payment, interest-only loan. When you think about what has happened in the marketplace in the last few years, it"s no surprise. Interest rates are at record lows, and homeowners are enjoying new found wealth with the surge in home values. With this kind of combination, why would a homeowner bother to chip away at the loan balance? The answer is easy: Indeed, he may not want to pay down principal for those exact reasons.
More than half the nation"s adult population has problems comparing mortgages and negotiating loan terms and that makes them vulnerable to predatory lending pitches. While most adults are literate in the common sense of the word, too many suffer low levels of the kinds of literacy necessary to navigate the mortgage maze. Literacy is not just the ability read (prose literacy), but also the ability to apply arithmetic to numbers in written materials (quantitative literacy) and to locate and use information in charts, manuals and other texts (document literacy).