Student Loans // Current

House Bill would boost Pell Grants

So long Sallie Mae. You Bitch!

bansheewail
added this
1 month ago
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1 comment

Student Loan Default Rises

up to 6.7% last year, from 5.2% previos year. 'students have options...'

ryan8566
added this
2 months ago
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0 comments

Private Student Loans: A Lesson In Debt [infographic]

Over the last 15 years, students' unmet finanial need has increased much faster than... more

digitalfever
added this
4 months ago
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0 comments

Student Loans. It Could Be Worse...$350,000 deep. Non-bankruptable.

If you are one of the nation's college graduates living with your parents, shackled... more

runningfro
added this
4 months ago
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1 comment

New Plan for College Loans: Income-Based Repayment

College students are often forced to make a decision between two life paths: one that... more

singrrr
added this
5 months ago
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0 comments

New Law To Help In Paying Back College Loans

To help new college graduates who are entering a rough job market with massive loans... more

islek
added this
5 months ago
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13 comments

The Case Against the Student Loan Industry

"If a lender makes a loan and the borrower repays it with interest, the lender... more

DeliaTheArtist
added this
8 months ago
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7 comments

BioTour on the Campaign Trail: What are YOU Fighting for? (Raise Your Hand)

The BioTour crew attends the third presidential debate at Hofstra University and talks... more

BioTourDOTorg
added this
8 months ago
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5 comments

Will forgiving student debt stimulate the economy?

Many of you have probably already seen the Facebook group created by Robert Applebaum,... more

abbym0308
added this
9 months ago
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83 comments

Student Loans May Delay Ability to Buy Homes

When you have a lot of student loan debt you may be debating when to buy a home. If you try to buy a home at the same time that you're repaying your student loans you may be spending a significant amount of your income on repaying debt. Aggressively paying down student loan debt and paying a mortgage may leave you little money for other things in your life.

Question: I'm a full time student who's about to graduate this year. My plans are to hopefully begin the process of buying a home 6 months after I start working. How will my student loans affect my ability to qualify for a mortgage loan?

I expect to have $100,000 in student loans. Also I should have started repaying these loans at the same time I'm trying to qualify for a mortgage?

Answer: Like so many students, you're graduating with what amounts to a mortgage on your education. In fact, some people have home loans this big!

The monthly payment for your loans (referred to as the "debt service") will be subtracted from the total amount you can use to pay for your mortgage, real estate taxes, homeowners' insurance and total debt.

Lenders will commonly allow you to use up to 28 percent of your total gross monthly income for your mortgage, real estate taxes and homeowners' insurance payments. You will be able to spend up to 36 percent of your gross monthly income on your total debt. If you get an FHA loan (as opposed to a conventional loan), you'll be able to stretch those debt-to-income ratios a little higher.

It's possible that with your student loan monthly payments, you may not be able to afford to buy anything until you've paid down those loans significantly. If your income is high enough, you may be able to afford to buy even while you begin repayment.

I'd take the safe road: Don't begin to even look for a home until you know how much you'll be making, and what kind of a bite your debts will take out of that monthly income. And remember -- if you spend 43 percent of your gross monthly income on your mortgage, taxes, insurance and student loans, it can eat up as much as 65 percent of your take-home pay, leaving little for everything else in your life.

For more help calculating these costs, please read my book: 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask (3rd edition) to help you get started (it's available in most local libraries).When you have a lot of student loan debt you may be debating when to buy a home. If... more

IlyceGlink
added this
10 months ago
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0 comments

Higher Education May Soon Be Unaffordable for Most Americans

As a witness to the impending debt of higher education this comes as no surprise to... more

goingforawalk
added this
12 months ago
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2 comments

Hefty Pay Raises for Administration on California Campus

The chancellor and governing Board of Trustees of the California State University... more

justright
added this
12 months ago
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1 comment

ANP: College Debt 101 in Bloomington, Indiana

Students face mounting debt as economic crisis unravels. Is Sallie Mae poised to... more

Vierotchka
added this
1 year ago
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13 comments

Young and Entitled for Obama

Senator Obama talked about green jobs and the promise of a new energy economy. I posited that government’s bipartisan management of ethanol, a single energy product, has been so clownish and corrupt as to bring into question goverment’s ability to manage an entire energy economy, one that will presumably have lots of products, many of them more complex than corn-gas, and most of which presumably do not yet exist. I ask if this gives Miss Williams pause. It gives her none. Her response, which is expected, is that if only we get the right people into office, government will be good at doing things that government has never been good at doing before. She really, really seems to believe this when she says it. Sen. Obama seems to believe it, too. I ask Miss Williams how the government should go about bringing us into the clear bright day of green jobs. She answers: training. I ask her if she means that the government should begin training people for jobs that do not exist. She answers in the affirmative. She smiles.

The belief that having the Right People in office means that we can repeal reality is, of course, superstition. But there is nothing of the messiah-seeker in Miss Williams. She doesn’t make one think: drooling devotee. She makes one think: community organizer.

Organizing for what? The answer to that can be found here at the “I’m Voting For ...” site put together by Campus Progress. On this site, youngsters deliver short video sermonettes on the issue that matters most to them in the upcoming election, e.g. “I’m Voting For ... a New Foreign Policy,” “I’m Voting For ... College Affordability.” The website catalogues the invincible sense of entitlement that characterizes progressive politics, particularly among the young. One poor dear moans, Michelle Obama fashion, that he is going to have to borrow money to pay for law school. Another speaks very sadly of her late mother’s health-insurance travails. At some point, it became obvious to these young people that the chief administrative officer of the federal government is ex officio responsible for loaning them grad-school money and overseeing their moms’ health-insurance plans.Senator Obama talked about green jobs and the promise of a new energy economy. I... more