Reader comments
Faces of foreclosure

I don't feel sorry for her one bit. I haven't been able to afford a house so I haven't bought one. When did qualifying for a loan turn into being able to afford it. She should feel ashamed.

What is even worse is that I am in that middle income range where I have to pay taxes can't afford a home in Utah - thereby not getting the large tax deduction. In effect, I am paying for her stupidity or dishonesty. Shame on her and people like her. People like me are tired of bailing people like her out! Be responsible and pay your debts!

"We have a lot of middle and upper class that just bought way more house than they could really afford."

Bingo! Enough said.

Personal responsiblity, folks. Personal responsiblity. Don't buy it, ifyou can't afford it.

To the first two posters. I don't think you read the article correctly. It sounds like these people were not trying to scam or cheat. They were just too trusting. Also, life happens and bad things happen and it is not always something we choose. Job losses occur, accidents happen, life happens and even when we make right choices others may not. It is sad but true. I think the whole country is learning a lesson right now and I for one am hoping it makes us all stronger and wiser.

I can't agree with the comments more. We have one kid, and I made well over 80K a year, and we still don't dare to buy a house. Why would these people making 52K think they can afford one???

Yes, everyone feels bad when they see the faces of families who are losing their homes. What about the faces of people who haven't been able to afford a home because prices were driven up by wild speculation and people buying way above their means? Oh, yes. These people are called RENTERS. Which is exactly what will become of those who lose their homes.

Everyone ignores the happy faces of the families who are now able to afford a home because the market is correcting.

Ignorance, blind trust, and deception in lending are responsible for the housing market collapse. All are to blame but the lending market put the squeese on buyers at closing with threats and law suits if they didn't sign the altered contracts put before them. The legaleeze of contracts that only a lawyer and supreme courts understand are also at fault. I also blame city planners, zoning departments, and councils for some of the blame in allowing unethical business to operate in their cities. After all, the cities approve unethical business licensing and home building. Cities need to be held more liable for who they allow and give licenses too. Many cities give licenses without any background checks or the standards of businesses operating within the cities. City leaders knew of these pending problems with new home owners and in many contracts demanded the indemnification of the city of any liability on the part of builders and lenders. Although city laws and codes demand that a businees obey all laws of the city, state, and federal government. This fraudlent and corrupt mortgage crisis was preventable. Now its time to watch the credit card collapse for the same reasons.

It's interesting that the local media were cheerleaders for this debt fueled house bubble, even long after it was very apparent that things were tanking. Now they run articles like this when even people living under a rock know there's a BIG problem.

Local government officials are scrambling to vote themselves raises before the public realizes what they are doing. They know that voting themselves a raise a year from now will cause an uproar.

They are also looking under rocks to figure out how to get into everyone's pockets. They are looking to hike fees right now but will search for more ways to pic our pockets clean. What they need to do is start firing government employees and stop doing projects that are just their personal pet projects and are not essential services.

She had to have some idea that her son was, or might be a deadbeat. To find out two weeks before foreclosure is a joke. Foreclosure doesn't happen in a short amount of time. This is housing welfare, and the taxpayers have to pick up the tab. Listen closely to obama's acceptance speech,and ask how are we going to pay for all the promises he made?

Helping someone else buy a home is one of the worst money decisions you can ever make. Cosigning on any loan effectively makes you responsible for it, so in this story she did do it to herself.

She did get herself into this mess - She bought a house she couldn't afford and she signed a mortgage that she knew she wouldn't be able to afford within 5 years.

How do you determine when you are buying too much house? If someone made $50k/yr and bought a $200k house and provided a small down payment that is relativaly conservative. If someone made $100k/yr and bought a $400k house, that too is relatively conservative. If they both lost their jobs, is it reasonable to say one bought too much house?

$80K per year and can't afford a house? Either you are holding out for something out of your price range as well or not being very smart with your money...

People buy homes because rent money is money down the drain. Granted, people buy homes out of their own price range to live in upscale neighborhoods or simply because the have tastes well beyond what they make. However, $80K a year and can't afford a house is sloppy money management.

This article failed to mention the difficult position the rest of us are put in when a nearby house goes into foreclosure.

My neighbor didn't work for years because of some bad decisions that led to trouble with the law. He lived off the equity he had in his home. Now he is gone and the home sits empty with huge foreclosure warning signs taped to the front windows and a yard going to ruin.

My home value and the value of homes in my neighborhood is falling because of this blight and his poor choices.

As many posts have previously mentioned, the poor decisions of others always seem to have have some impact on those of us who try to be responsible. Bummer...

My sister and her husband have insisted on living beyond their means all their married life and before. Each of them went into marriage with well over 10 thousand in credit card debt. After marriage, they went to fancy resturants, bought expensive clothes, went on numerious vacations and then went into bankrupsy and lost a condo.

Since then they bought a house they can't afford, and are about to lose that too.

I have tried talking to both of them about how to handle money, they appear to agree with what I say, then go and do the same thing.

As a result of their stupidity, their kids have a much less sense of security and they are going through a lot of stress.

I have a hard time seeing how two people can be so dumb, especially when one of them is related to me.

We live in an old forlorn house. I would love to move to a bigger, newer house but because my job is uncertain, we stay put. We've built up enough savings so that if I lose my job we can still make mortgage payments for 3 years. 36 payments.

Losing your job should not be an excuse for foreclosure. Mortgages are for 30 years, while people on average change their careers (not jobs, careers) 4 times in their life. If you can't make a couple of mortgage payments without a job, you bought too much house.

Maybe a reporter should come to my shabby old house, and write about my small bathrooms, my old linoleum floors and my lack of air conditioning. You could call it "Faces of Financial Responsibility."

Thanks for sharing in this public forum. What a numbscull.

Jobs are iffy, house payments are for 30 years. People are being irresponsible if they don't buy LESS house they can afford and then save the difference for an emergency. One should be out of debt and have an emergency fund BEFORE buying a house.

I know of people who the husband AND the wife have to keep their job or they can't afford to make the payment.

Too many Americans insist on living to near their means, then when unfortunate circumstances strike, they are not prepared.

We have many silly and foolish people here in America.

If you think rent is throwing money down the drain right now, try home ownership. The value lost on homes per month for the next year and a half in SLC will be around 0.75% per month...using a median price of $275k that is just over $2k per month. This does not include your monthly P&I payment of which most is rent anyway (see interest expense). So guess what....rent becomes pretty cheap when you consider the alternative ina bloated market.

SL County had record sales years of ~18,000 homes annually in 2005 and 2006. According to the article ~13,000 homes will go into foreclosure. It looks to me as if the inventories will continue to build putting even greater downward pressure on home price and having a snowball effect on more foreclosure. When the finally tally is counted in 2009 my guess would be the number will be closer to 20,000, not 13,000.