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Officials report boost in registration of elderly, disabled

Steve Carbo, of the Democracy Project, a New York-based advocacy group that pushed for broader voter registration, said Iowa did far better than many states in implementing the provision.   Voter registration among the disabled and elderly in Iowa increased eight-fold between the 2000 and 2004 elections, Secretary of State Chet Culver said Wednesday.
In the media

STATEMENT: Voting Rights Groups Applaud Iowa For New Voter Registration Efforts

Des Moines, Iowa — Today, national voting rights groups ACORN, Demos, and Project Vote released a report highlighting Iowa's "best practices" for offering voter registration in human services agencies offices, as required by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). The new study, A Promise Unfulfilled: Ten Years Later, finds most states noncompliant with this NVRA requirement, known as "Section 7", more than a decade after it was passed into law.

Press release/statement

Why Refi?

People ages 45 to 59 are the most likely to refinance, according to Demos, a nonprofit public-policy organization in New York City.   The real estate bubble will eventually burst, says Cary Silvers, vice president of New York City--based GfK NOP, a market-research company that in 2004 gathered information on boomers' attitudes toward refinancing.
In the media

How Much is Your Home Really Worth

When an appraiser overvalues a home that can lead to an upside down mortgage where you end up owing more than the property is worth. "This is a major problem," says David Callahan, with an advocacy group called Demos that recently looked into just how widespread the problem is.   Appraisal experts and consumer advocates alike are now sounding an alarm about a startling problem that could have you borrowing more than your home's actual value.
In the media

Mortgage fraud huge in Florida, FBI report says

According to a study released in April by Demos, a public policy group in New York City, people are borrowing more than their homes are worth, and as a result, the amount of home equity has fallen from 68 percent in the early 1970s to 55 percent last year. Florida's red-hot real estate market may have a serious downside. Fraud.

In the media
Noelle C. Haner

Support mixed for mortgage cap plan

Javier Silva of Demos, a New York-based think tank, yesterday opposed any change. Raising the limit would extend a dangerous trend of loosening lending standards to enable consumers to buy homes they can't truly afford, Silva said. "The answer is to find ways to lower home prices, not simply raise debt limits to allow inflated prices to soar even higher," he said.   A proposal to reduce housing costs by relaxing federal lending limits in pricey real estate markets drew a mixture of praise and sharp criticism yesterday from real estate analysts.
In the media
Emmet Pierce

Homeowners: Upside-down is no way to be

Demos's senior research associate and author of A House of Cards: Refinancing the American Dream, Javier Silva, said that, even in the absence of a real estate crash, many families "are facing a financial crisis," partially because they've taken on more mortgage debt.   As more and more people have rushed to be homeowners, they actually own less of their homes than they have in decades...adding another risk factor to the overheated real estate market.
In the media
Les Christie

Showing Appreciation: Inflated appraisals can create a house of cards

But a recent report by Demos, a think tank in New York, said the refinance boom has put many homeowners at financial risk because inflated appraisals that are used to refinance homes can leave homeowners with negative equity in their properties.   As falling interest rates transformed millions of U.S. homes into virtual ATM machines, critics say the real estate appraisal system has become rife with conflicts of interest as inflated appraisals justify ever-riskier loans.
In the media
Steve Adams

Young Adults Falling into the Debt Trap

The study revealed some startling results that suggest a college education has become unaffordable to many young adults. For example, more students are taking on debt to finance their college education because of a shift in federal student aid programs. In 1980, the most common form of college funding was federal grants, which amounted to 52 percent of the government's student aid system. Loans followed at 45 percent. But by 2000, loans had risen to 58 percent of the student aid pie while grants dropped to 41 percent.
In the media