I know someone who lost her home last year, but it was as a result of having some 'addictions'.
Everyone else I know is fairly secure...having not bit off more than they could ever chew.

Sue

I don't know of anyone in forclosure, but that doesn't mean they aren't. It's not exactly something you advertise to your friends and family, is it?

We know plenty of folks who are definitely struggling. Especially since DH deals professionally with them by the dozen every day. Some are victims of the economy. Some are victims of bad circumstances (unexpected expensive illness, other household or family emergencies). And some are their own worst enemies--making bad financial decisions, insisting on spending money they don't have so they can 'keep up with the Jones' or have the latest new toy on the market.

We are almost there. The house is on the market...not one looker in 9 months. The housing market in FL is flat. The mortgge company calls monthly, but they haven't started foreclosure procedures yet.
Our business is off 95% from last year. There are no jobs. There are 14,000 construction workers out of work. FL is in a sad state of affairs.

My sister lost her home in forclosure, but that was about 7-8 years ago. Her own fault.

I know of no one else, ever, who had a house foreclosed on them.

I know of one house that was foreclosed. It's next door to my mother. The husband and wife both died. Their unemployed daughter inheirited the house. She took out a home equity loan, couldn't make the payments and the bank foreclosed. The bank now owns the house. They let it go. The roof is caving in and the lawn hasn't been mowed in a year. Yikes!

So sad to hear msmarion. They also stated that the hardest hit areas are California and Florida.

A few months ago DH and went to look at some cookie cutter model homes just for fun. The sales lady told me that the reason the housing market is so bad is because of these types of homes. In my area a new home starts around $235,000. if you have that much money for a home then why not buy new. Everyone wants to pick put their own carpet, paint, and cabinets. Why buy used when you can afford new. Buying a home has become like buying a car. Often i hear "I dont want someone elses problems." Now there are more homes then their are buyers. One of the things that i liked about my OLD home was the established neighborhood. I hope you sell soon!

I don't know anyone who is in foreclosure now, but we "stole" our house 14 years ago because it was in foreclosure. We were lucky that we were in the right place at the right time. And the sellers said we were a godsend to them because they were able to walk away with a few dollars.

There are quite a few in our surrounding neighborhood...But the problem in our township, too many large expensive homes...The builders are constantly building these mansions, no starter homes to be had...And it seems, everyone buying these homes, is trying to keep up with the Jones's...Both have to work, they really can't afford to have a family and most of the homes don't have furniture. It seems too many couples don't realize, there are other things that eat up their money besides that house payment.. It's a scary situation, one I would like to be in.....

irishdancersgram,

You'd like to be in??

I think you made an error in typing.

Not my cup of tea.

I'm happy in my rental home - $470./mo. ... and the landlord helps with the power, as it feeds his shop, as well.

I figure that I can stay there ... as long as I can drive.

ole joyful

My Son confided in my Daughter that he is behind on his house payments, but trying to keep up. He is in the AC Business. His income is mainly New Home Start Up and Installations.

They have basically stopped producing "cookie cutter" houses for now. They are over built.

I am 80 Miles West of Houston, but Houston Builders are moving closer and closer every year to my little town.

Ten years ago, you couldn't find a house in this area to rent or buy. Now there are empty houses everywhere.

Gayle

Makes me wonder why "new housing starts" is one of the indicators used to determine the state of the economy.

Ole Joyful, Boy what a typo... I sure wouldn't want to be in that situation.....Like you, not my cup of tea....

My DH and I have been very, very lucky. We've owned 2 houses and never had a mortgage and we're sure not going to start now....

i do have to agree these huge homes with "jumbo loans" are one reason why the mortgage industry is in such sad shape...the a/r/m loans were the only way people could get in the "jones" houses...

My sister and her dh lost their home after 9-11-01. They owned a couple of stores in Hawaii and depended heavily on tourism. After a few months of only a little of it they lost their home. They are renting now and it is nothing fancy, but it's a roof over their heads. Business has picked up but is no where near what it was before that fateful day.

There are three homes I know of in our neighborhood that were foreclosed on. The young couples who moved in did so via " creative financing ". When the adjustable rates started climbing they got in trouble. What I don't understand is why two of them trashed their houses before moving out. One of them smeared feces on the dining room walls and pulled sheet rock from several walls. The counter tops were damaged beyond repair. The people who bought it after the foreclosure got a heck of a deal, but they also had a heck of a mess to clean up.

Linda

We are closer than I'd like to think.

DH is in construction and was laid off 7 times in 2007. He's employed now, but not in his field, and at a significant pay cut. As a nurse, I thought at least I'd have a stable job, but my hospital just laid off 4% of it's staff. Thankfully, my job was spared, but we don't know if more cuts are coming or not. The mortgage isn't behind right now, but we're literally paycheck-to-paycheck and we're just one more lay-off away from losing it all. Even WalMart is on a hiring freeze, there are just NO jobs, not even part-time right now.

Our house just came off of the market this last December, but we'd had it for sale for the last 2 years (original listing was in December 2005). We're considering relisting - though I know there aren't any buyers out there right now - just so that I can feel like we're being pro-active. I don't care if we rent for the rest of our lives, I want OUT of this mortgage and the constant fear of foreclosure. We were very fortunate in that we bought when prices were low and got a very low rate on a fixed mortgage, but then again DH was making significantly more money at the time. We're not frivolous with our spending, we don't have a single credit card, and almost never go out to eat or to the movies. I just don't see any light at the end of our tunnel, I don't see us ever being able to get ahead.

LOL I don't mean to be full of such gloom-and-doom, but that's the reality of my personal situation, and I know that it's not a rare one in the area that I live in.

april

My relative is expecting to loose his house, mostly his fault due to poor choices. Sad, he also got his hours cut.

I don't know of anyone except XDH that has had their house foreclosed. I asked a friend in Petaluma, CA, and she said there are a lot in their area. That might turn out to be a good thing for their DS and DIL who will be buying this year and might be able to pick up a foreclosure. Their DS finishes his medical residency in June and has a job waiting for him at Kaiser-Permanente. Kaiser offers their new physicians a $100,000 interest-free loan and the payments don't start for 10 years. The loan is for a down payment on a house. Houses in that area sell for the $500,000s.

No, don't know anyone in foreclosure. I do know people who overspend and are in bad financial situations that may someday affect whether they can afford their homes.

Both homes on each side of us have been foreclosed on. Both were due to their own faults. The latest one is really sad. The guy just will not stay at a job but a month or two. My hubby says they deserve what they got. It did not have to happen..

Our house was a foreclosure....we got a deal on it considering the area and the price of NEW ,TINY houses here.Our house is HUGE....to big actually but we like the area and have nice size front and back fenced in yards.We live on a dead end street...so not many people right around us.

Our next door neighbour,but sadly it was because of missmanaged finances on their part.
Frankly with their spending habits,we were surprised it didn't happen sooner than it did.
With all the financial stress,they've now separated and are losing their marriage as well.Sad sign of the times.......

House next door sold this week, after being on and off the market for over a year. House down the block still on the market for about 2 years.

Lots of these foreclosures were those crazy loans made to people who could not afford the house in the first place.

People trashing a house that's being foreclosed on isn't unusual accoring to my realtor friend. I viewed two homes with her that looked wonderful from the outside, but once you got inside - oh brother. Fixtures pulled out, sinks removed, appliances filthy and so on. My realtor friend said it's becoming more and more common as more people go into default.

I know one,My husband built thema home.One day he stopped in to pick up a check.The guy says come here I want to show you something.Here after getting a loan to have his home built he goes to another bank gets a loan,doesnt even mention hes building a home and buys 2 brand new ford mustangs and a new ford truck.Wheres our money oh he doent have that .so were forclosing on his home.Hoefully resell it get our money...

Where do you find out about which homes are in foreclosure in your area? Through banks or where?

What a shame that some folks can't seem to see more than about 6" beyond the end of their nose when it comes to wise use of money!

And for many, the price of the unwisdom is fearfully high! A pain that goes on for years!

ole joyful

We have a lot of homes up for sale in our neighborhood. I have no idea if they are foreclosures or not, but I would guess that many are a result of mortgages that are now ballooning and they can't or won't be able to make the payments.

A really tough situation for many.

If some of you with mortgages have been skating close to the line financially, I hope that you will try to cut back on non-essential expenses, to build yourselves a cushion, in case of some unexpected problems.

Losing a home usually means losses of many thousands of dollars. With a lot of heart-ache thrown in.

Please try your best not to be lackadaisical about financial issues now ... be careful.

Think things through carefully. Build yourself an emergency fund available for use if things get tough.

A cushion, even a small one, could save you from disaster.

"For want of a nail, a shoe was lost; for want of a shoe, a horse was lost; for want of a horse ... ", and the problem escalates ... a long way.

ole joyful

My husband wants to buy a house..however the only houses in our area worth looking at..that give us even an extra bathroom (we live in a small 3 B 1 Bath) would cost nearly his whole months salary. I'd definately have to have a job to pay all the other bills..

No thank you!

There are lots of homes in my area up for foreclosure,and many of them because they didn't do their homework,fixed,versus adjustable,and didn't think to factor in the yearly taxes and other things.And so many of them live well beyond their means.Big suvs and in some cases 2 or 3 of them,big screen tvs and such.I'm sure you get the picture.What's so bad is i live in an older neighborhood,built in the 50's.
Kathi

Our home was a foreclosure when we bought it 5 years ago. We got a great deal on it! We were lucky that it wasn't your typical foreclosure. They didn't purposely trash anything. However, since buying this house we've had our own financial troubles. I pray we never lose this house.

There are five homes on my side of the street, including us, and we are soon to be the only one occupied. There is also one more empty across the street. One was the result of a divorce. The husband left and she couldn't keep up with the payments. The one on the other side tried for a long time to sell his house but as the market slid he wound up being upside down in his mortgage. Two other families just up and left in the middle of the night. Both of those families I miss so much. They were both so nice. One I know moved to Texas (I'm in California) so he could try and find work and she could be closer to family. The other makes me so sad. They were really taken advantage of with their mortgage and believe it was because of a language barrier. She is a young mother and a cancer survivor. He worked two jobs and they ran a home business. They just recently had their third baby. I hope things work out for them. They all just let the banks have the houses back. The last one is on the other side of me, their house just went up for auction today. Although I really feel for the kids, I don't feel so bad for them. They are both lazy, county assistant sucking, I guess I should stop with that. They took on a load of foster kids to help pay their bills but complain now that the states budget cuts are forcing them to have the kids placed somewhere else. They are down to just one girl and the rest of us moms on the block just love her. She's fifteen and we all wish we could keep her. None of us are actually in a position to do that, but we like her better then anyone else in that house. We've been trying to prepare our own kids for the day she leaves. I figure as soon as the county gets word of their financial situation, they'll take her, and that will really be a sad day.