Talkin Waukesha Real Estate Weblog

I’ve seen enough foreclosures to last a lifetime. What a sad thing. Some of the homes I’ve seen were dearly loved. Not just a house, it was a home. There is a thoughtful décor in each room, neatly planted landscaping and maybe a child’s writing on the bedroom door “Spencer’s Room”. I imagine this family just fell on hard times and couldn’t hold onto their dream of owning a home any longer. These homes are in all neighborhoods, in all price ranges. The vacant houses with orange stickers on the doors and plumbing fixtures serve as reminders that they once belonged to people who started a journey they couldn’t finish.

I know a handful of people who are facing foreclosure. It’s a wretched thing. The pressure is crushing. For most people, the only way to deal with it is to simply become numb to what is happening to their lives. They can’t deal with the shame and the devastation, so they don’t. They just stop caring after a while because it’s too hard to try and claw their way out. It’s too frustrating and exhausting to call the lender and try to work something out. These financial machines can be ridiculous. A person who stops making their house payment because they hit a financial bump calls the lender and asks for a forbearance (tack the delinquent amount on the END of the mortgage) and the lender has this brilliant formula. Sure, send us two months house payments AND an extra $2,500 to boot and we’ll consider that. Huh? Apparently they don’t GET what it means to come to a mutually beneficial agreement. Hello – if someone stops making their house payment, it usually means they don’t have thousands of extra dollars sitting around. Maybe the banks WANT the houses back!

I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that of the $830 BILLION dollars being doled out of Washington, very little of it will help Spencer’s mom and dad, or your neighbor, or your friend, or your child, or anyone else who stands on the precipice of home ownership gone a-muck. Some of the proposals to give low interest rates and thousands of dollars to home buyers are just plain stupid. What got us into this mess to begin with? Maybe it was too easy to buy more than we should have. The problem is deep and wide and complex. There is no easy answer. This much I do know: just like any other dream that explodes, being foreclosed on is tough. People going through it need support and compassion.

Really nice post. Thank you for putting a face on the houses.

Comment by ohhare February 10, 2009 @ 1:59 am

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I only wish the decision makers at the banks could read this.

Comment by Leslie February 10, 2009 @ 10:14 am

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