It hardly requires a crystal ball to foretell that this sparkling New Year will soon be sullied by the ongoing mortgage mess. Joining last year's headline-grabbing robosogners and rocket dockets will be this year's new players: the title insurance companies.
As New York Times columnist Ron Lieber recently wrote, title insurance companies will likely be the next institution to have their mettle tested by the mortgage fiasco, which is feeling more like a chronic condition than a crisis by now.
When we think of title insurance, if we bother to think of it at all, it's as the largest fee on our home settlement statement at closing. Unless we're buying the home outright, our mortgage lender requires us to purchase title insurance in case someone should turn up claiming to be the rightful owner of the property. Warning: spoiler alert.
As New York Times columnist Ron Lieber recently wrote, title insurance companies will likely be the next institution to have their mettle tested by the mortgage fiasco, which is feeling more like a chronic condition than a crisis by now.
When we think of title insurance, if we bother to think of it at all, it's as the largest fee on our home settlement statement at closing. Unless we're buying the home outright, our mortgage lender requires us to purchase title insurance in case someone should turn up claiming to be the rightful owner of the property. Warning: spoiler alert.
