How can a 2 bedroom house in SL with bugs, mice and worms? be worth 120 thousand? or 90 thousand? This is ridiculous. How can a house be worth 600 thousand? The prices are ridiculous! Give me the days when we built a new two story on an acre and a quarter for 160 thousand and that included the land. Why do people have to be so greedy. No wonder kids aren't getting married these days.

J Lee reports: "she was forced into a desperate situation".

Who forced her? That's a pretty bold statement with nothing to back it up. Short of any evidence that shows she was forced, one would be inclined to believe that Ms.Hernandez made some poor financial decisions that resulted in her inability to make a promised payment.

I guess that doesn't sound as good as "forced" or "crisis", huh?

This is lazy reporting which shifts the blame of a defaulted loan to... no one.

Namfan, why so negative and judgemental? I think "forced into a despearate situation" refers to her finding out about the homes bad condition the day of closing, and being told she would lose her deposit if she backed out, so she felt forced to go through with the deal.

When I decided to get married I would have lived in a closet if need be, in order to be by ourselves, and enjoy ourselves with each other as much and for as long as we wanted.

Almost two years and an overseas tour later we almost did just that. However we where able to move into Base Housing and then we had too much house.

Living with your relatives is not a good thing, which is why we had a housing boom after WWII. A GI being able to buy a house with little or no money down.

My wife was able to buy our 1st house on her own. Later in Hawaii I finally used my GI Bill Benefits and have the house I own now. Which lost $45,000 in value but is still worth almost twice what I paid for it.

I think prices are adjusting to what they really are as opposed to what they where inflated to be.

I understand the compelling personal reasons for getting an ARM but when the ARM Kicks in they want an ARM and a leg.

Now people are upside down and taking a loss when they try to sell.

"forced into a desperate situation"... Duh. Did we borrow a little too much money? What an idiot. Forced? Give me a break. Try accepting some responsibility for your dumb decisions. Don't worry though. Barack Osama will change everything when elected....

The example in this article is important. To say "she was forced into a desperate situation", is a responsible and appropriate position for her to have taken. I venture to guess that we will find many people across this country who will do the same - and rightfully so. As home values continue to decline, more and more people will find themselves in the same circumstance. And if you can get the investors to absorb the loss, a short sale is the way to go. If you wait too long, forclosure may be your only option.

If you bought a home that is currently worth less than your mortgage, what does that matter if you intend to live in it for 10-20 years? It will regain value eventually.

Oh, you mean you bought the house intending to resell it at a fabulous profit in 18 months?

Oh, you mean you bought the house and then refi'd to take money out when the house appreciated quickly?

Oh, you mean you bought a house with no money down, negative amortization, and a variable interest rate, and you can't afford your current payment?

Also party to this are the taxing authorities who have ***tripled and quadrupaled* the taxes valuations in the past 10 years. Do they benefit financially from such an upward tax valuation or are they a disinterested third party adjusting rates to maintain the same cash flow relative to the booming population count? And don't forget! When the population grows we have more -- not less -- people to pay for the infrastructure, city council, mayor, etc -- in other words there should be economies of scale. Instead we have seen opportunistic municipalities "piggyback" on this inflated growth to benefit their own financial coffers. Will the tax valuations go back to what is actually required for an ever increasing density of housing? I doubt it. Instead the municipalities will find some other excuse to continue raising taxes.

Wow - we've got some bitter people out there. People aren't perfect. They make mistakes. Life doesn't go according to plan. Bad things happen. Can we all try to make more prudent decisions? Of course. But sometimes you do get burned.

Last year my wife and I sold our house in MA at a loss. We were living well within our means when we made the purchase. It was just a bad time to sell, but we were "forced" to, due to a required job change and cross-country move.

Someday we'll have the guts to explore the role immigration played in the mortgage meltdown. Today is not the day. But if you look at the foreclosure heat map and overlay the census data on the foreign-born I think you'll see a pattern emerge, South Texas being the exception.

My sibling out of state is in a position where either a short sale or a forclosure is imminent with a large house lived in for over 15 years. How did this happen? In this case home equity loans as well as a downturn in the local economy were both culprits.

Some might decry poor personal money management, a factor here, nevertheless it saddens me to think of this couple nearing 60, to have such financial problems after their children have been raised.

Just a year ago we were talking about a "Housing Crisis" because home values were to high. Now it's a "Housing Crisis" because values are to low. That's the sensationalism of the media for you... I just wish we could return to normal without "forcing" the public to pay for it.

I agree with "Name" 100% If the house was a good deal when you bought it then why is it not a good deal now? Simple, because you found out the house down the street is selling for less and you got greedy!

Judge not folks, one never knows when one will lose their job and find the house payment a great burden. As a single(parent) income earner I needed a break to buy a house for my children but it was one within my means and thank God I am able to continue making the payments so long as I have a job of which I have had the same with for 20 years but daily it is held over our heads they need to cut - until you understand the circumstance you will not understand the great loss to anyone who has been given a chance to buy a basic home - not everyone has the McMansion in the sky - not everyone has bought over their heads -- not everyone gets the GI bill and thus lets be more compassionate in our judging. Young people of today though can't start out on the low end they have to start out on top and that is their pitfall

"But the increase in short sales and foreclosures has contributed to the decrease in home prices along the Wasatch Front and the rest of the state, he said." (Per Dave Anderton of SLC Board of Realtors.

The decrease in home prices in SLC is a good for society and eventually the economy. Of course real eastate agents do not like that.

This real estate bubble in SLC will bust just as much as the rest of the "World" real estate bubble is bursting.

Amazing how drunk with greed and desire to have a "Big" house has hit SLC citizens. The house flippers have had a good time and bragged continually about the money they made.

Now collectively the 401K statements of September 2008 reflect this bust. And those sparty pants flippers are complaining on how much money they have lost in their 401K.

So on to greater adventures. There is a law of cause and effect that cannot be violated. It never has and never will. "NEVER" . SO. BE. IT. 41CADILLAC

My home is worth more than I paid for it two years ago. However, I paid the required 20% down. As a result the home is still worth more than I owe and I can afford the payment.

What happened here was someone that was loaned 100% or more of the value of the home. It is the bank and customer who listened to the bank who are at fault here.

Name, you are right on target. We simply need to become a responsible people. Take a risk and you may win and you may lose. Too many people are finding that their reckless behavior isn't paying off.

What about the realtor they hired who gave false information? The sale should have been contingent on the results of the inspection; not just having it done. The greed that has helped this inflation nightmare is shared by realtors who will do almost anything for a sale. Most are not "professional" and they take no responsibility for their errors. I don't believe in needless litigation but she should sue the realtor.

Every one of them will give you the sales pitch about how much safer they will be with an agent "representing" them. When the agent lets them down (after collecting an unrealistic commission), they should have accountability along with irresponsible lenders and buyers.

With inflationary prices out of control from artificially increased housing values the agents continue to receive commission based on inflated values of homes, further driving the costs up. The work is the same on two home sales; yet the agent gets so much more money for selling the higher priced home. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see this is a flawed system.

Shame on investors too. They greedily gobble up affordable houses that owners could buy and improve themselves. They're "flipped" and affordability disappears.

Will we see the day when the citizens of the USA start moving to Mexico to seek their dream of home ownership?

He or she is correct....when did buying a home mean you were going to live in it and raise a family...not just make money on it...I also blame some of the big builders..cost of buildig materials have not gone up that much..but land they purchased and sold for $35,000 a lot and now ask over $100,000, we should al rebel and let the greedy builders sit on those lots..we all need to take a step back..

"Forced", yeah forced!!! The banker, real estate agent, and previous owner all head a gun to her head and said BORROW THIS MONEY that we know you can't pay back! Give me a break!!! It's called lack of personal responsibility! We (My wife & I) ended up buying in Roy because we were physically RESPONSIBLE and bought something within OUR BUDGET that we could afford that wasn't in a drug/gang/high crime infested neighborhood. It's called being RESPONSIBLE adults! You don't have to have a BRAND NEW HOUSE because Joe Blow Homes just built a new subdivision, besides why pay $250,000 or more for a home when you can't tell your house from your neighbors except for the number on it? America has gotten spoiled rotten, and wants everything given to them, and when they make a mistake that is their own fault they were "Forced" to do something to lose their wonderful too expensive house/car or whatever it was, to begin with! Bring back the days of LIVING WITHIN OUR MEANS!!! I love my NEW 1975 home, and when we have the money I will remodel the less than perfect kitchen, until then I will enjoy it the way it-is!

Why is everyone looking to blame someone for their problems?
No one asked for this market to collapse. Even the smart guys got caught as well. They are living in bigger houses with values dropping just as fast.

Do your best to be happy and work hard. It's easy to complain. Be different.

She's forced? We were on the other end of a short sale 5 years ago, getting our current home for a steal. Short story, the couple had bought it only 9 months earlier (too young and too poor for this house) and sold it for $30k less than they paid. We paid 20% down and have seen the value double, and then fall slightly, in those 5 years. Lucky us! On the other hand, our lender, COUNTRYWIDE, foolishly lent 2 adults a lot of money when they didn't have jobs and only had the down payment. We got an ARM which we quickly refinanced to a fxed rate. We did have strong work histories and good credit but I've always thought they were stupid to let people who were unemployed purchase a home. No need to look too far to understand the housing crisis.

AMEN! Can you imagine an influx of immigrants going to Mexico demanding English be tuaght to their children in schools, free health care, free food, housing subsidies, etc.?

In the old days an appraisal told you what a home was worth. Then things shifted to market analysis. It would make a lot of sense if a new home was valued as the sum of its parts plus a reasonable percentage for the developer. Existing homes could be valued similarly, based on their condition.

I've been married 16 years, have 4 children and no home of my own because I KNEW IT WAS NOT AFFORDABLE for us, under our circumstances. It may not be possible for several more years. I'm not after the life everyone else has; I do what I think is right for me and my family -- and consider the cost.

Unless you are a citizen of Mexico you are not alloud to own land in Mexico. I have some friends that have leased a spot on the beach, they were able to build a small cabin but they can never own it because they do not have citizenship.

Cougar Keith: What do you mean by being "physically responsible"?

Whatever happened to Caveat Emptor?

Why is everyone a "victim" in the subprime meltdown? Except for those nasty "predatory lenders" who apparently make you take on a bad mortgage at gunpoint?

When my wife and I bought in February of this year, it was a real pain getting approved. Our credit was not perfect. But my re-enlistment bonus was seasoned funds, right on the barrelhead, and we paid some debts off while securing a fixed-rate loan on a MODEST rambler in a MODEST suburb in a MODEST incorporated area up by Hill AFB.

The key here is that my wife and I knew, before going into it, exactly how much we could afford to pay each month, and we never let ourselves look above that.

Half the reason we have so many people losing homes, is that they used NO COMMON SENSE when selecting a home to buy. Duh. If you can't afford a $3,000 monthly payment why are you looking at a $375,000 house???

I think the Realtor took advantage of her and was pushy cause he wanted his commission to pay for all of this debt payments. The home prices will continue to fall. Note to sellers: you will need to furthur decline your listing prices or else you will not be able to sell. 2nd note: Don't laugh when you get a low-ball offer....your lucky you even have an offer.

Let's get to the bottom line....

The reason for the sub-prime mess is clear and simple. "Greed". Most everyone living on God's greeen earth want to get a good deal. The problem is that some people will force it, lie to get it, manipulate others, etc.

I don't fault Elevia (and others in her situation) for wanting a better life and a decent home. All of us do. However, I would expect that along the way, she got bad advise, used bad judgement, got taken advantage of, and so forth. She has learned a painful lesson.

The real bad actors in this mortgage mess are probably not so much the Elevia's of the world, but the government policy makers, brokers, lenders, real estate agents, speculators, that pushed and lived off of sub-prime loans.

If no one would lend the Elevia's of the world more than they could realistically and reasonably repay, things would be a lot different.

CougarKeith: I completely agree with your comments above. It all comes down to living within your means and being responsible. My wife and I bought our house in Murray 20+ years ago - (actually had it built) - modest size, but able to raise our family (5 children) in it. Sure, it would have been nice to have a bigger house with more space - houses kept getting more expensive and elaborate - actually know of several people who did trade up to more expensive homes - with new mortgages and increased payments. But glad we made do - only 4 more payments and the mortgage is paid off !!!

Hey, at least these short-selling people are trying to do what they can to live up to their financial obligations. It's far better than those that choose foreclosure. It's just irresponsible to foreclose on a home for anything but the most extreme of circumstances. I can't believe a foreclosure only stays on your credit report for 6 years. It should be at least 10 years, if not forever, for such a huge amount of money.

Hey, If I went in at closing and was told at the last minute that the house had problems, and that I may lose my ernest money if I back out. Hmm. Lets see, I have purchased 2 homes and the ernest money I put down was 200 dollars on the first and 500 dollars on the second. Even If I had put 1,000 down as ernst money, How stupid is it to say, well, I am committing myself to this house for 30 years, at 1,000 payments per month, and will own a house I do not like but I just don't want to lose my ernest money so, I will do it. That my friends was a bad decision.

my husband and I make a decent living. I'm not ashamed to say we've been blessed with an income above utah average, but not a huge amount over. We purchased our humble home 7 years ago based only on my husband's income. As children have come along, we've struggled financially to pay for all of our medical costs, increasing cost of power & food, childcare, etc, etc. We haven't had a real vacation in 9 years, have adopted thrifty and frugal purchasing habits, and drive old beater cars until they wear out.

So I've been asking myself for years; how can these people who make less money than us afford new homes? Is there some secret I'm missing? Sad this lady was led to believe she could own a home, but it really is a dream for some (maybe most?) folks.

My frugality, hard work and wise purchase will be great when our home is paid for in 7-8 years. I guess people don't want to hear what is really required to be an American homeowner - they want it all free and quick; twice the size of what I've worked so hard for, for half the price.

We have family that purchased a "starter castle" in Utah County that could've easily housed three families. Now they're letting the home go into foreclosure because of investments that went sour. Their fault? Yes! It all boils down to greed. This awful real estate market is a result of both poor and afluent folks living beyond their means, along with negligent lenders looking to profit by any means.

To the person "forced" to sell at a loss when moving from MA. I currently live in MA, if my employer asked me to relocate today I wouldn't be "forced" to sell. Why you ask? Because I am renting - which is the prudent thing to do if you are not going to be in an area for at least 5 years. I certainly understand that the job market is unpredictable - but you CHOSE to buy a home in the first place. You CHOSE to accept the request to move for your job rather than find a new one here. You CHOSE not to rent your home until prices came back up. I commend you for keeping your word, taking the loss, and moving on.

I wish people would stop blaming banks, lenders, termites, realtors, government, jobs, illnesses, and every other conceivable entity or happenstance for their inability to honor their commitment to pay for the debts they freely accepted. Where's the line of people who made thousands of dollars during the BOOM by listening to greedy lenders and want to pay back the money they made?

If you are looking to understand why our economy is in a mess and why CA and other states are in near bankruptcy this article should help enlighten you. While illegal immigration isn't totally to blame, it is certainly one of the biggest contributors. This lawbreaker and all others like her need to go home now and let us try to fix our country and after we do she can apply to come here legally. In the meantime please spend newspaper space talking about the plight of Americans and what we are going to do about that instead of crying over lawbreaking free loading aliens who are only making our problems in this country far worse.

As a single parent with hardly any income at all, I managed to acquire two properties and $3000 in monthly mortgage expenses. At the time, I was intelligent, educated and well-connected so I knew to get fixed rate mortgages. But, why did these companies lend to me, when I did not qualify at all for a mortgage? It was greed and the ability to dump the mortgage instrument onto some other company. In no way do I consider myself a victim, in fact quite the opposite. I'm a person willing to take calculated risk and I took advantage of the easy credit to build up my assets.

Needless to say, these companies kept on calling me and trying to convince me to take out a $700,000 mortgage on my property and buy more properties. I didn't take them up on it, because I thought that was too much risk.

In a portion of these foreclosures, these predatory lenders are to blame because they took advantage of ignorant, unintelligent people who had no idea how to go about purchasing a home. These people were not taught by schools or parents how to purchase a home. They relied on their lenders.

intresting how Salt Lake county does not consider forclosures in your compairables, forclosures surley help determin the value of homes in your neighborhood.

Crooks!

I have been watching this market for the last 18 months, waiting to jump back in. One thing that I have discovered is how absolutely clueless 95% of the realtors out there are. They have absolutely no idea what is going on in the housing market. All they want to do is sell a home. There is a complete lack of integrity. Hear me now when I tell you that your realtor does not care about you, how much you make, if you are overextended, or are about to make a bad decision on a home. They have no idea if the market has "bottomed out". Now is not a good time to buy. Last year was not a good time to buy. When the market bottoms will be a good time to buy. When is that? When prices don't drop for 6 months. One good by product of the collapse is all the lame realtors will be weeded out.

To those of you dumping on the first poor couple becuase they didn't live within their means need to get a grip and learn. A 129,000 mortgage is usually quite affordable. You don't get luxury but you should get more than worms and roaches. Unfortunatley the mistake this family and many others make is you don't consider what it might cost in home repairs.

What's changed that they have to give up the house? I am watching the value of my house decline, too. That's OK, because the fundamentals to support it are still there. Our employment situation is stable. Payments aren't going up. We need a place to live. And I believe the value will return. So the value has gone down, how are people forced to sell there house when it does? Could it be they yarded every nickel out as it increased because we're all now entitled to the boat, truck and plasma tv? And did so, as mentioned earlier, with a shady variable rate fine print mortgage that slapped them silly? No one is forced to make bad financial decisions. But they are their own victim when it bites them. We'll all suffer for this foolishness short term, but in the long run things will be better. And I'm looking for a deal on a truck and tv someobody has to unload.

A friend just told me she was ready to buy a house that was in foreclosure by the bank. Price offered was $140.000. She and her husband placed the offer but never heard back from the bank. Later they found out the house went into auction and guess what, the realtor bought it for $80.000. When she asked the realton why the bank would put a house in auction when they got an offer for a higher price, the realtor just got mad and hang the phone.

Another friend instead is batling the payments because she was told the interest was fixed and trust the realtor when reality was.. it's variable.

In this stormy times, realtors are out fishing for their own benefit.. as usual.

All must understand that banks thrive when the citizens are split and and create a whats fare or not. We have a great problem that either needs to be addressed at the corp of the problem, mortgages, or spend hundreds of billions bailing out wall st. and corrupt insolvent banks. Take your choice. Having done no less than 9 mortgages myself in my life, I did 2 in 1999. Was amazed at that time the effort put fourth by the lenders to try to sell me on the adjustable rate and how it could be ready in just 5 days. I can see why this was so attractive to young first time home buyers. Yes people fell for it and signed on the line, but the lenders in knowing most would fall in trouble pushed them anyway. Fix this problem and let all these adjustable loans be re written and it will stabalize the market. People not in trouble, stop pounding your chest like your some kind of hero's cause you paid yours on time, unless you like seeing billions go to Wall st.

Did they look at the home before they purchased it? Did they have an inspection? Ignorance at it's best says that I made a stupid mistake and it is your fault because I am an idiot.

In the example here this short sale by those involved have made out better in the last three year of their mortgage than if they had rented. They paid nothing down and interest only for this subprime mortgage. If they had a 10% down and 30 year mortgage it probably wouldn't be threatened with foreclosure.

The short sale gets them off the hook better than a renter that is evicted for not paying rent who is likely at least three months behind. The short sale does less harm to their credit rating than the evicted renter. In addition their monthly payments have been lower than if they had rented the same home.

Worst of all, it is possible for these folks to have someone come in and buy(not a friend or family, but anyone else) the property at the short sale price, and then turn around and sell it to the original owner, whose credit has not been harmed by the short sale, at the lower price. This is going on all of the time.

Several years ago a rule of thumb was that you should get 1% of the market value of rental property per month to make this a viable investment. My daughter lives in Irvine, CA and is paying $1800 per month rent on a house with a market value of $600,000. According to the old formula, she should be paying $6,000 per month. What that tells me is that people have been investing in real estate and expect to make a profit on the increased value of the property and not on rent. Speculation, speculation, speculation. The bubble had to burst sometime.

Regardless of the individual circumstances, my hat goes off to those who are willing to honor their obligations as best they can.

"A $129,000 mortgage is usually quite affordable." Since when did the absolute value of a mortgage have anything to do with affordability? What makes something affordable is not how much it costs but how easily you can pay for it (all of it). This $129,000 mortgage was clearly not affordable in this case.

Why didn't the new owners fix the problems themselves? So they didn't get as good a deal as they wanted. They cannot hire an exterminator? How much would that have cost them? Then the article continues with some guy overpays in Lehi, refinances, spends all of the money and gets divorced, and we're supposed to feel sorry for him?

There are many sympathetic stories out there. These two are not among them.

BooBoo - Your example of feeling forced is yet again reduced to making a bad decision. If you discover that the house is in bad condition at the closing, rather than when you are considering making the purchase decision, then congratuations, you made a bad decision. There was no force applied.

Words mean things. Forced means things. Taking the less painful option of short selling vs. foreclosure isn't being forced, it's making a better decision based upon the choices offered to you.

She chose the better option, but if she would have just forced herself to do some due diligence she would have been OK.

Incidentally, if the house was was represented to be in better condition than it actually was the law provides recourse and any real estate agent worth his weight in skin would have assisted her in that recourse.