Help To Foreclosure Victims

Posted in Foreclosure Victims, April 29th, 2008 |

Metro bus driver Eduardo Montesiro was one of the many house owners who crowded in to attend the Watsonville housing symposium held to help foreclosure victims last Saturday. It was organized by credit and mortgage specialists. Attendance was free.

Eduardo somehow slipped through the foreclosure net that trapped about 250 house owners in Santa Cruz County last year. In Watsonville he manages two mortgages. It is a balancing trick as he juggles to keep his income feeding rising payments while looking after his spouse and two children. Unfortunately he feels that by the end of the year he will have to surrender. The future looks bleak.

Eduardo was one of the participants at the workshop that was conducted both in Spanish and English. The aim was to help the borrowers to be realistic about their income-expense ratio and face up to the fact about keeping up with their mortgages.

The Latino families have been the worst affected by the foreclosure tornado raging through California. At the root are the sub-prime adjustable rate mortgages that were peddled to vulnerable borrowers. Today it has hit the general economic health of the region. The Hispanics are at the receiving end especially because of language problems, scant knowledge about mortgage implications and adverse changes in income patterns.

Owning a house is part of the Latino culture. Nobody understands it better than Maria Enomoto a consumer credit counselor. She was one of the prime movers of the workshop. A house translates into success. She has worked with many families ranging from professionals to field workers. She notes that the majority spend all their income battling with mortgage payments – there is very little left over for survival essentials like groceries or gas. So they dig into credit cards – something which cannot be sustained. The agency Enomoto works in, will start a new office in Watsonville office at 240 Westgate, Suite 240. She told the foreclosure victims that the first thing they should do is to be realistic and evaluate their income with their expenses.

On an average the first time Latino buyer is 24 years old , while a white buyer will not indulge in a house until the person is 32. The former does not have any idea about the loan implications and complications. The mortgage company should be contacted for loan modifications but this cannot be done unless the party is able to pull along.