MnIndy Video: Facing foreclosure, homeowner vows to stay put

If Rosemary has lived in this house for 26 years, why is her 30 year mortgage not almost paid off? Oh, it is because she used her house like an ATM and refinanced twice! Sure, she wants a bail out! She wants all of us who worked hard, saved our money, put 20% down to pay her way so that she can spend her time being a community activist, rather than working a regular job.

The commentators keep saying she should be able to “stay in her house”. Well guess what: it is not her house. She sold whatever equity she had in the house for cash up front during the refinancings. It is little different than a renter who does not want to pay rent. Should they be allowed to stay in “their house”? No, because it is not “their house”…

what, are you part of the roving real estate comment spam brigade that goes around and comments on every article about foreclosures?

of course its her damn house. she’s lived in it for decades. enough said.

i don’t think there’s a single issue right now that has as broad community support as resisting foreclosures. ask the people on rosemary’s block what they think – come on down to the house. virtually the only naysayers are people who don’t live in the community, trying to assert their feeble authority by making decisions for people who do.

Great video, Paul. This is a good example of the consequences of predatory lending.

There was major marketing done by Lenders to refi your house and take cash out to pay off bills. And I can think of 3 prosecutions of crooked brokers, appraisers, and title company staff who committeed fraud,, whether is putting in false income amounts, or inflated appraises, or signing off on numbers that didn’t add up. Just in state of MN this was done to 1000′s. One broker committee fraud on over 300 mortgages. The crooks went to prison, but that didn’t help the home owners.. they still were left with mortgage. I work for a lender so I know what i am talking about. People lose jobs, they get divorced, medical crisis arise, and yes people also make some bad choices,,… but there were also mortgage products.. like adjustable arms, interest only, etc. that the government allowed to be sold. And now, a person can’t even sell the home to get out of the situation. I applaud Rose for staying in her home.. because I know for a fact, the lenders aren’t doing much to help.. at least not yet.

haloka,

>> she’s lived in it for decades. enough said.

If somebody lives in a house for decades and then sell it to a bank, is it still theirs? Is this not what happened here? I certainly do not know most of the details of the situation- just what has been published. I would be grateful if you could fill me in on the details. In interviews, it has been disclosed that this homeowner refinanced twice. This implies that she took money out of the house (i.e. sold equity to a bank, or in this case GMAC Financing) twice. So, where did the money go?

I do however regret saying:
>> so that she can spend her time being a community activist

Every single person should be a community activist. As soon as I sent send, I was reminded of a quote by Thomas Jefferson:

“To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers.” –Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:39

It is unfortunate that this ‘home owner’, rather than trying to reduce her debt, perpetuated it by continuing to make devil deals with the banks. It is also unfortunate that we are reaching a point where, in order to bail out those who decided on the ‘easy money’ option (i.e. speculation on housing) that those who did not play loose, take silly risks, and succumb to the siren song of mortgage brokers are going to be forced to pay for those who chose to live easy these past years. Many a hard worker are going to be taxed out of their houses so that we can ‘bail out’ those who gambled.

Do not get me wrong- I think we should line many a banker up against a wall. But we also need to remember that for every debt there is a counter party. And for a large part the counter party (i.e. the entity to whom the money is owed) is now a pension or fund. This means that if we forgive the debts of those whoes gambles are now falling apart, we are robbing those who are depending on those who signed a contract saying, “I will pay back the money for this house”.

So, could you haloka- or some investigative journalist – please (before you ask for public support for this former home owner) please provide a detailed accounting of how this situation came to be? Again, where did the money go?

Haloka,

You still there? I was still hoping you would find out where the money went and let me know… If I stop by your squat can I have a full accounting?

Enough said.

The problem, as I see it, is that “we the people” are not stepping up to the plate and telling OUR government what needs to be done.

Rather than bail out the people of the U.S. so they can afford to keep business thriving, the government spent MORE money bailing out corrupt businesses.

We should be concerned when our leaders talk about businesses like they’re people and people like they’re consumers.

Our government no longer has a stake in “we the people.” It is now “we the corporations” who so easily gain from all that is ours. I think “anonymous” is taking Jefferson’s quote out of context: He isn’t saying that if we let our country ride into debt, that we must sit back and pay the consequences. Rather, he’s saying that we must not let it happen to begin with, but that if it does happen (and this is where you need to read between the lines and understand context) we must rise above it, conquer it if you will.

I don’t understand why some people are so quick to judge individuals while our government hands out BILLIONS to the businesses that hold a large part of the blame! We need to rise up to the occasion and take no more! Why should we be forced out of our homes (there is a difference between what is your ‘home’ and what is your ‘house’) and made to work extra hard to get by when there are BILLIONS being spent to save some companies who put us into this mess? The only ones to gain from that are big-whigs who own those companies.

Flood the U.S. citizen-community with cash and people can make their payments again, they can work less and live more.

But then again, if we’re just going to watch politics like it’s a spectator sport and let companies play an active role- maybe those entities deserve a better fate than “we the people.” Corporation is the new citizen.

[...] on monthly payments after her adjustable-rate mortgage increased from $1,200 to $2,200. MnIndy interviewed Williams and some of her supporters back in [...]

[...] view interview with Rosemary, visit: http://minnesotaindependent.com/30582/videofacing-foreclosure-homeowner-vows-to-stay-put Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Mortgage defaults are now shifting to prime [...]

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26 years ago there were not any mortgages with payments that dramatically increased.
This woman has already received more money from her house than most people get after fixing up their house, selling it and paying a Realtor their comission.
I have NO SYMPATHY for this woman.