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Search Results for: home values increase

California Gets New Homestead

By Cathy Moran

California homestead

The California Legislature enacted a dramatic increase to the state’s homestead law at the very end of the legislative session in August. It became effective January 1, 2021. The dollar amount of the homestead increased to a minimum of $300,000 and a maximum of $600,000. Gone is the link between marital status or dependents. Every […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: exemptions, homestead

Make California Homestead Relevant To 2020

By Cathy Moran

california homestead

Governor Newsom signed the bill into law September 18, 2020! Monday August 31, the Assembly will vote on SB 832 updating the California homestead exemption to reflect today’s home values. An unexpected move in the legislature pulled the provision for updated exemption amount out of a larger bill, making it vulnerable to a campaign by […]

Filed Under: Featured

When Stagnant Home Values Mean Huge Savings

By Cathy Moran

I thought the lien stripping ship had sailed. We are finally climbing out of the worst of the Great Recession and California real estate values are recovering. Turns out, I was wrong. It’s not too late to reduce your mortgage debt by tens, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, if you live where real […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

How Rising Home Values May Threaten Your Long Term Finances

By Cathy Moran

The news on the San Francisco Peninsula is echoing reports of rising home values. That may seem like unmitigated good news. It’s hard to see a genuine recovery in California without the housing market improving. But rising home values may doom a once-in-a-generation chance for homeowners to shed the second mortgages and HELOCs that currently […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

California Bankruptcy Law Is All Our Own

By Cathy Moran

california bankruptcy law

California Bankruptcy law is a lot like a unicorn….appealing but imaginary. Instead, we have bankruptcy in California, where the landscape is shaped by community property;  state exemptions, large mortgages, and the 9th circuit court of appeals. Like the Merced River cutting through the granite of Yosemite, those factors alter the bankruptcy landscape here. Community property […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: 2016, california bankruptcy

When Chapter 20 Bankruptcy Adds Up

By Cathy Moran

looking for Chapter 20

You can look a long time in the Bankruptcy Code without finding Chapter 20. Chapter 7 is there;  so are Chapters 11 and 13.  But no 20. But you find it in bankruptcy courtrooms and in the arsenal of good bankruptcy lawyers. So, what’s up? Chapter 20 is really bankruptcy slang.  It’s a Chapter 7 case […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2016

Lien Stripping Works Without A Bankruptcy Discharge

By Cathy Moran

The waiting and uncertainty is over.  The judges have decided. Chapter 13 debtors can void underwater junior liens even if they aren’t eligible for a bankruptcy discharge in the Chapter 13 case. So says the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in a case called Blendheim, decided October 1. And so, a myriad of Chapter 20 debtors […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, Featured, Real property & mortgages

The One Fix Silicon Valley Bankruptcy Courts Need

By Cathy Moran

underwater real estate

Despite BAPCPA, the 2005 “reform” that made bankruptcy more complex and more expensive,  consumer bankruptcy is working fairly well in Northern California. The bar has learned to navigate the new law, shuffle the additional forms and avoid the events of “automatic dismissal”. We only  need one little change to the law to make relief from […]

Filed Under: Developing law

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About The Soapbox

You've arrived at the Bankruptcy Soapbox, a resource of bankruptcy information and consumer law.

Soapbox is a companion site to Bankruptcy in Brief, where I try to be largely explanatory and even handed (Note I said "try").

Here, I allow myself to tell stories and express strong opinions on how I think law should work for the consumer and small businesses when it comes to debt.

Moran Law Group
Bankruptcy specialists for individuals and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area

How Bankruptcy Works

High Income Earners Pass Bankruptcy’s Means Test

ALERT:   Being above the median income on the means test is not an automatic bar to filing bankruptcy I'm so used to railing against deliberate campaigns of misinformation about bankruptcy that I forget that there's a lot of innocent ignorance out there. Start with "qualifying" for bankruptcy. A very … Read more

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