I talked to my former boss last week. She stopped in at work just as I was about to go on break, so I pent the entire time chatting with her. Her youngest daughter and her husband are going through a tough time right now, financially. Before they got married they decided they were tired of renting and decided to buy a house. And why buy a pre-existing home when they could build one?? So they got approved and had the house built. Odd little things have been happening since they moved in. All the little things have added up and since then the husband, who made really good money, has lost his job.
So they decided to get their loan amended, because of course everyone knows that the powers that be want families to keep their homes now, right? They struggled through the process, which included sending in their paperwork 4 times, and finally got approved. Their amended payment? $70 less a month than it was. And when the daughter talked to a friend who works for the bank that handled everything, she was told to consider herself lucky that they'd even been approved and not to bother appealing, because they'd never get more off. Apparently it's a long drawn out process in which most are not approved, if they aren't so frustrated by the entire process that they give up!
With one in every 136 U.S. housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the third quarter of 2009 (realtytrac.com), you'd think that banks would finally be willing to take something rather than getting stuck with another property they can't sell. After all, half a mortgage payment for a few years is better than none, right?? But banks don't see it that way.
I don't know about elsewhere, but here in my town, banks have to pay for upkeep on homes they own. Lawns must be maintained or the city will send a company to take care of it and bill the bank. And of course over the winter at least, banks have to pay for heat or pipes will burst and they'll never sell the property!
Seems like a lose, lose proposition for everyone if you ask me...
