Foreclosure Recap – Week #23

This story is evidence that the financial state of the country is touching people in all walks of life and of every economic status. The former wife of former NFL Star Bob Whitfield and the star of the Bravo Channel’s Real Housewives of Atlanta fell victim to the foreclosure due to the economic downturn running across the country today. The Sandy Springs Georgia mansion which is nearly 9,000 square feet large and worth nearly three million dollars was sold at a foreclosed price of just over one million dollars. The home had six bedrooms and eight full baths with two half baths.

From the Associated Press comes this story featuring the singer Papa Roach. It seems that the bands new effort entitled Metamorphosis was inspired by the economic crunch facing the country today. When they returned to the area where they grew up and saw all the foreclosed properties the lyrics began to flow. TO help fans that still may want to see live music but can’t afford to, the band along with Buckcherry and Avenge Sevenfold did a concert where the ticket price for all three major acts was only $40 each, which is unheard of in the entertainment area.

The Miami Herald ran a story centering on the impact that the crisis is having on the children of today. Having to deal with the stress that is happening on the home front and pulling up stakes and moving as often as some of these families have to is causing major issues with some of the children in the world. The drop out rate for these children has been on the increase. That can spell trouble both today and down the line after the economy recovers these students will already possibly be unreachable and as they grow the lack of education is going to severely impact their lives.

The Orlando Sentinal paper gives us the story of how the federal governments Making Homes Affordable program sponsored by the Obama Government is actually beginning to make a difference in some people’s situations and making it possible for some folks to actually save their homes from the foreclosure crisis. The loan modification program allows homeowners that are current on mortgages to apply for and get the mortgages and interest rates reduced and lower payments to an amount that may allow them to actually keep their homes and not fall victim to the foreclosure numbers now swamping the country.

From the Arkansas Democrat Gazette we find a story on how the market seems to be turning around in that area. It seems that the $8,000 tax break credit offers to people who are first time home buyers before the December 1 deadline is spurring a lot of people who have been rented into purchasing their first home. The lenders in the area have also seen a flurry of loans applied for as the incentives have come from the feds and the interest rates for the money that they are loaning has dropped. People still want to own homes and with the prices of housing dropping and the cost of the loan so low, it is an ideal time to buy and people that can do so are taking advantage of it.

ABC News reports on the top 14 celebrity foreclosures. This goes to show that the market decline has had a negative impact in the upper crust of the country as well. These people include Victoria Gotti daughter of the Gambino crime boss John Gotti. Sports figures Jose Conseco and Johnny Dykstra are among those being foreclosed. Pop Icon Michael Jackson is losing his Never Land Compound to foreclosure and New York socialite Veronica Hearst has also lost property to foreclosure. This doesn’t make it any easier when it happens to the average person and it doesn’t lessen the shame or the pain. It does however show how wide spread the issue has become.

This story sets a new low for the foreclosure issues in America. In Minneapolis a man was taking advantage of getting together all of his things to get them out of his foreclosed home. He still had over an hour before the deadline to be out of the home. He could hear the people outside preparing to board up the home and place the foreclosed notice on the house and so he finished up and headed for his front door for the final time. To his amazement and surprise when he tried to leave he found that they had actually boarded him up INSIDE the home and he couldn’t leave. He remained stuck inside the dwelling for a full two hours before he could be freed from his former home. The store is painful to read and show how far down we have gone.

Elkhart Indiana has been particularly hard hit in this financial crisis. The unemployment rate has skyrocketed and with that increase in unemployment has come a large increase in delinquent property that is falling into foreclosure causing the rate of foreclosure to increase as well. The silver lining to this story is that a local organization is doing what they can to help people find creative ways out of the problem and just last year helped 39 families find a way out of the problems they were having. While this is not a solution it is certainly a huge step in the right direction.

The famed St Regis Monarch Beach hotel where the AIG crew threw their big corporate retreat after they got the huge federal bail out has fallen victim to the foreclosure market. The company that owns the hotel is now I default on the seventy million dollar loan. Unless things can be straightened out the hotel will go on the auction block to the highest bidder on July 7th of this year. Since the bad press about the AIG fiasco booking have dropped over 20 percent in this hotel where the room rates run in the mid to high 300 dollar a night price point. The trouble with the drop in revenue due to bookings has been referred to as the AIG Curse.

There have been many rumors circulating about Ed McMahon being in a state of foreclosure. The good news is that he is NOT in foreclosure in his Beverly Hills home. There were some issues when earlier this year Mr. McMahon was hospitalized with pneumonia and then diagnosed with bone cancer. But a private investor bought the property, which was in distress and Mr. McMahon is renting it from them and does not plan on moving at this time.