The Anguish Of Foreclosure

[Buster]

(CNN) -- A 90-year-old Akron, Ohio, woman who shot herself as sheriff's deputies tried to evict her from her foreclosed home became a symbol of the nation's home mortgage crisis Friday.
Fannie Mae foreclosed on the Akron, Ohio, home of Addie Polk, 90, after acquiring the mortgage in 2007.

Fannie Mae foreclosed on the Akron, Ohio, home of Addie Polk, 90, after acquiring the mortgage in 2007.

Addie Polk is being treated at Akron General Medical Center after shooting herself at least twice in the upper body Wednesday afternoon, her city councilman said.

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, mentioned Polk on the House floor Friday during debate over the latest economic rescue proposal.

"This bill does nothing for the Addie Polks of the world," Kucinich said after telling her story. "This bill fails to address the fact that millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure, are facing the loss of their home. This bill will take care of Wall Street, and the market may go up for a few days, but democracy is going downhill."

Neighbor Robert Dillon used a ladder to enter a second-story window of Polk's home after he and the deputies heard bangs inside, Dillon told CNN affiliate WEWS-TV in Cleveland, Ohio.

"I just thought she may have fell or couldn't get up or something," he told WEWS. "I didn't know [she had shot herself] until I got in there. And even when I got there, she was breathing, but she wasn't saying anything to me. I knew she needed help then."

"There's a lot of people like Miss Polk right now. That's the sad thing about it," said Akron City Council President Marco Sommerville, who had met Polk before and rushed to the scene when contacted by police. "They might not be as old as her, some could be as old as her. This is just a major problem."

In 2004, Polk took out a 30-year, 6.375 percent mortgage for $45,620 with a Countrywide Home Loan office in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The same day, she also took out an $11,380 line of credit.

Over the next couple of years Polk missed payments on the 101-year-old home and in 2007 Fannie Mae assumed the mortgage and later filed for foreclosure.

Deputies had tried to serve Polk's eviction notice more than 30 times before Wednesday's incident, Sommerville said. She never came to the door, but the notes the deputies left would always disappear, so they knew she was inside and ambulatory, he said.

The city is creating programs to help people keep their homes, Sommerville said.

"But what do you do when there's just so many people out there and the economy is in the shape that it's in?"

Many businesses and individuals have called since Wednesday offering to help Polk, Sommerville said.

"We're going to do an evaluation to see what's best for her," he said. "If she's strong enough and can go home, I think we should work with her to where she goes back home. If not, we need to find another place for her to live where she won't have to worry about this ever again."

He said that by the time people call for help with an impending foreclosure, it's usually too late.

"I'm glad it's not too late for Miss Polk, because she could have taken her life," Sommerville said. "Miss Polk will probably end up on her feet. But I'm not sure if anybody else will."

 

[Buster]

UPDATE......

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/03/eviction.suicide.attempt/index.html

(CNN) -- Fannie Mae said it will set aside the loan of a woman who shot herself as sheriff's deputies tried to evict her from her foreclosed home.

Addie Polk, 90, of Akron, Ohio, became a symbol of the nation's home mortgage crisis when she was hospitalized after shooting herself at least twice in the upper body Wednesday afternoon.

On Friday, Fannie Mae spokesman Brian Faith said the mortgage association had decided to halt action against Polk and sign the property "outright" to her.

"We're going to forgive whatever outstanding balance she had on the loan and give her the house," Faith said. "Given the circumstances, we think it's appropriate."

 

[jwblue]

.

But its not squarely on the mortgage broker.

I wouldn't think any blame would go to a broker. Why would a broker be responsible for explaining payment terms. The Banks are lending the money, they should explain the terms.

 

[Romanowski]

so your glad she killed herself essentially

no its a tragedy and deserves empathy

that doesnt mean society could have saved her or

she deserved to not have the financial burden, she pulled the trigger, and tougher people would have survived the finance situation.

its called responsibility

 

[Presto]

UPDATE......

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/03/eviction.suicide.attempt/index.html

(CNN) -- Fannie Mae said it will set aside the loan of a woman who shot herself as sheriff's deputies tried to evict her from her foreclosed home.

Addie Polk, 90, of Akron, Ohio, became a symbol of the nation's home mortgage crisis when she was hospitalized after shooting herself at least twice in the upper body Wednesday afternoon.

On Friday, Fannie Mae spokesman Brian Faith said the mortgage association had decided to halt action against Polk and sign the property "outright" to her.

"We're going to forgive whatever outstanding balance she had on the loan and give her the house," Faith said. "Given the circumstances, we think it's appropriate."

That's a great precedent to be setting. hno:

 

[ProPokerPlayer]

As i posted 2 or 3 weeks ago the rules for the FM 's were changed in the late 90's...Thats 10 yrs ago for any Biden fans. The rules allowed them to buy loans( another lessor known fact is the FM's dont make loans they just buy them) that everyone involved from the buyer, to the broker, to the bank knew that if the people missed 1 or 2 payments or were consistently late the rate would go up and they would never be able to be paid...
This was done by the Climton Admin to increase minority home sales and like all the enviromental laws they were all a part of their false economic boom..
I got 1 of these loans myself, with an income of less than 30K and a credit score of under 200 i got a 128K loan. I sold the house 2 yrs later so it was no big deal but in the terms it said they could for various reasons increase the interest rate 1.5% per yr..Figure your home loan at say 9 instead 4 and see if you could afford it either...If these people could read legaleze or do what you should do when u sign a contract for 130K...hire a frickin lawyer ...they would know that too....
So more than anyone else the Govt is responsible for the loans and most of it Pre Bush...Bush was under pressure to show he wasnt a racist as is the entire Republivcan Party so they not only continued the practice they increased the number of loans..
Everyone involved knew that if the economy got bad and interest rates went up these loans would fall through.........They did it anyway and guys like Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Obama made millions from kickbacks from the FM's to keep it going when it looked like the end was near. A tape u may have seen in the last few weeks is of Frank rebuking a Finance guy testifiying before his committe that the FM's were in big trouble....Frank called him a liar and said they were doing fine...4 years later they are broke and Obamas going to fix it......What a fucking joke.

Every home owner that got 1 of these loans should have had a person from the federal govt making sure to the point of having them sign a paper saying they knew the terms of the loan and how their payments could escalate under certain conditions...
I sold a house before i bought that other 1, i sold it for 92K to a Subway asst mgr making $6.00 an hr...She got the loan in less than a week...

The Govt is responsible, they had a horrible program that they then decided to make profits from and it all blew up..

A guy todat told me GWB has screwed up every decision he has made and thats why we need change...
I agree, he did screw up a lot of them , but he's a liberal what did u expect. The thing is he made bad decisions under our system of Govt. The change we are talking about now IS NOT reversing the bad and making good decisions from here on out ...no ITS CHANGING THE SYSTEM!!!!!!! The system that made this the greatest country in all of time....
Remeber the Russian leader who said back in like 59 or something that Communism will take over America without firing a shot....Big laughs all around at the time, what a blow hard..the guys insane.
On inauguration Day next January his prediction will come to bear.....Succession is our only hope.............

 

[asufan550]

UPDATE......

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/03/eviction.suicide.attempt/index.html

(CNN) -- Fannie Mae said it will set aside the loan of a woman who shot herself as sheriff's deputies tried to evict her from her foreclosed home.

Addie Polk, 90, of Akron, Ohio, became a symbol of the nation's home mortgage crisis when she was hospitalized after shooting herself at least twice in the upper body Wednesday afternoon.

On Friday, Fannie Mae spokesman Brian Faith said the mortgage association had decided to halt action against Polk and sign the property "outright" to her.

"We're going to forgive whatever outstanding balance she had on the loan and give her the house," Faith said. "Given the circumstances, we think it's appropriate."

This is a joke, right? I have no sympathy for the banks that wrote the loans, but I especially have no sympathy for the idiots that took them. Especially those whom are weak enough to commit suicide over it. Fuck, why the stigma about renting? It's often more beneficial than owning. Plus, these idiots can just walk away with no penalty aside from fucked up credit, but I'm betting their credit scores weren't exactly tip-top to begin with. Fuck these dumbass welchers.
Oh and GTC, fuck you especially for blaming anybody but the parties involved for this. Does personal responsibility not exist under marxism? Che Guevera was a fucking terrorist piece of shit by the way. I hate people like you that think he was a great man and worship his "legacy." Ask the families of the people he murdered what they think about him. Ask Cubans. His only legacy is one of tyranny and stupidity which cost countless lives unnecessarily. You're such a whiny-bitch loser it's disgusting.

 

[steaktartar]

Succession is our only hope.............

PPP



you really need a broad or a drink or both

 

[ProPokerPlayer]

obviously Steak "our" doesnt mean you............lol

 

[steaktartar]

obviously Steak "our" doesnt mean you............lol

lol.......i wont be going well maybe save me a spot incase it is armageedon.......i can fit in with the southern folks just fine:drink:

 

[whalewager]

I seen a guy that blew his face off with a shotgun years ago at Applebees not too long ago...he was sitting at the bar...had to get my riblet basket and leave

 

[Buster]

and now a feel good story....
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/10/28/foreclosed.home/index.html

CNN) -- Tracy Orr sat in the back of the room and prepared to watch her foreclosed home go up for auction this past Saturday. That's when a pesky stranger sat down beside her and struck up a conversation.

"Are you here to buy a house?" Marilyn Mock said.

Orr couldn't hold it in. The tears flowed. She pointed to the auction brochure at a home that didn't have a picture. "That's my house," she said.

Within moments, the four-bedroom, two-bath home in Pottsboro, Texas, went up for sale. People up front began casting their bids. The home that Orr purchased in September 2004 was slipping away.

She stood and moved toward the crowd. Behind her, Mock got into the action.

"She didn't know I was doing it," Mock says. "I just kept asking her if [her home] was worth it, and she just kept crying. She probably thought I was crazy, 'Why does this woman keep asking me that?' "

Mock says she bought the home for about $30,000. That's when Mock did what most bidders at a foreclosure auction never do.

"She said, 'I did this for you. I'm doing this for you,' " Orr says. "When it was all done, I was just in shock."

"I thought maybe her and her husband do these types of things to buy them and turn them. She said, 'No, you just look like you needed a friend.' "

"All this happened within like 5 minutes. She never even asked me my name. She didn't ask me my financial situation. She had no idea what [the house] looked like. She just did it out of the graciousness of her heart, just a 'Good Samaritan,' " Orr says. "It's amazing."


Orr says she had taken out a mortgage of $80,000 in 2004 when she first bought the home. At the time, she says she worked for the U.S. Postal Service. But she lost her job a month after taking out the loan when she says the Post Office fired her over a DWI while off-duty. She says a wrongful termination lawsuit is pending.

Without a job, she fell behind on her home payments. She sold some property in 2006 for $12,000 and paid it to the mortgage company, thinking she had done enough to save herself from foreclosure -- but to no avail, she says.

"It's just been a bad deal," says Orr, who now works at All Saints Camp and Conference Center, a Christian group with ties to the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas, Texas.

With the foreclosure auction approaching, she planned to make the nearly 80-mile drive to Dallas this past Saturday with an investor friend. But she says he ditched her at the last-minute. She went to the auction with her family, and suddenly found herself in the back with Mock.

"I always talk to everyone around me," Mock says. "I mean you can always find out all kinds of interesting things when you talk to people around you. So I just asked her, 'Are you here to buy a house?' "


Mock, who is known as the "Rock Lady" for her small business selling flagstone and other rocks in Rockwall, Texas, says she went to the auction with her 27-year-old son to help him buy his first home. He bought his home, and soon afterward Mock came across Orr.

Mock says she's using one of her business dump trucks as collateral for the $30,000 sale price. "I can't afford to just give [the house] to her," she says.

As for Orr's payments, Mock says, "We'll just figure out however much she can pay on it. That way, she can have her house back."

Why be so generous?

"She was just so sad. You put yourself in their situation and you realize you just got to do something," says Mock, who says she has trouble walking by homeless people on the street and not helping them out.

"If it was you, you'd want somebody to stop and help you."

When she told her husband of 30 years that she'd just bought a home for a stranger, she says his reaction was: "Whatever."

"He's used to it," she says with a booming laugh.

Mock says she's excited for another reason too. Orr's house is located near a Texas fishing hot-spot. "She says I can come up there and fish, and I love to fish!"

Orr, who nearly lost her home, says her newfound friend has "given me back faith and hope to keep going and hold my head up."

"Things happen for a reason," Orr says.