Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Extreme foreclosure: Home editon
This is just unfortunate. A recipient of a free home from the "Extreme Makeover" show mortgaged the crap out of it and is facing possible foreclosure. This family also received $250,000 for college scholarships for their three children and a home maintenance repair fund in the deal. I wonder if that money was put into trust, or if they spent that away too? My bet is on the latter.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
The same thing will happen over and over with some folks on any financial gain perceived to be free (gov't provided money included).
Only when they must produce for themselves can some people realize that they'd better start making better decisions.
It's painful for others to see and more painful to refrain from 'helping', but giving away houses and money does not help some people and can actually hurt them in the long term.
In this case, these people rec'd the home as entertainment for us because we would all like to be the compassionate givers and like to see the thrilled response. But the reality is quite different.
To underscore, there was a traumatic story written in the Wash Po mag about the guy who won the biggest WVa lottery - ended up with a dead granddaughter from drug overdose provided by the money he gave her, divorce, penniless, etc..
This was a problem even before the bailout- still largely voluntary for lenders to participate.
People play fast and loose with their own finances these days. I don't know if it is the reality show mentality that everyone thinks they can live like Donald Trump, but we are a culture that does not value living within one's means. A perfect example is the dumbass woman in Columbia who bought a $545,000 house and her - she was a single mom- only source of income was a home daycare business. Add to that extremely high variable rates, and it's no surprise she's been foreclosed on.
What made her think that she and her children needed or could afford a house costing in excess of a half a million dollars on a single income in an industry not known for exorbitant profit?
Most of this foreclosure "crisis" is people reaping what they sow.
Post a Comment