Life on the brink of foreclosure

Harewood a quiet subdivision in Maryland's Prince George's County is one of the richest black neighborhoods in the United States for families like the blue tangs who are immigrants from Ghana buying a house here was closely linked to achieving the American dream a friend in our church who is a housing agent took us to this neighborhood and it was beautiful community I mean I thought well this is the place I want my family to live and we were excited I mean the kids were excited we're buying a house everyone is gonna have their room no more sharing with visitors we actually believe that we made the right decision it's the height of the bubble because then immediately after that then there was the best and everything was coming down a lot of things that we didn't know about you know until we got in and at that time things were going back I mean not only for us but everybody in the country everywhere a reminder tonight just how fragile the housing market is 23 percent of homeowners nearly one in four are what's known as underwater on their mortgages meaning they owe more than their homes are worth since last summer Americans have seen their investment shrink and their property values plummet we are going through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression one of the places hardest hit by the crisis was Fairwood and like so many others the blue tangs were severely impacted back in 2005 when the mortgage market was thriving the botting say they were told they could afford a house worth around six hundred and seventeen thousand dollars they made all their mortgage payments for about two and a half years but they were financed with a subprime loan which reset to higher payments often called shock payments the bwahhh tanks could not afford the higher amount and during the mortgage crisis they could not refinance now they haven't made a payment in more than six years also a few years after moving into the house comfort lost her job determined to work she started small businesses she could manage from home she loves baking so during the time when we got orders financial stress we decided well why don't we use the same thing that you love to do as a way to get some income at least every week I sell pastries in front of the church I do that just to raise some funds just to help me during the week for guys or few things sometimes it makes you feel kind of down I mean I've completed my bachelor's degree they saw it and then two years later I finished my masters and it saw it but I encouraged myself because somehow it looks little my little dress of water forms a mighty ocean comfort eventually found part-time work in the home health care industry and still sells baked goods as well her husband Kofi continues to work in information technology and together they earn about a hundred thousand dollars a year but it's not enough to cover their debt which has grown to nearly 1.4 million dollars some of their debt is from student and car loans and some is from money owed on another property but the majority is from the Fairwood house which is now only worth 60% of what they originally bought it for distraught by their financial situation the bois tangs look to their church community for support we have prayer sessions right be times when we pray and people bring what what do you needs are and over and over these people were in the same boat like we where indeed many of the bought Ang's neighbors have also struggled to keep their homes in fair would half of the loans made between 2006 and 2007 went bad you have all these letters of embody you threatening you obviously place nights I mean everything just interests faster it's a feeling that you've lost everything despite years of living in limbo the boîte eggs haven't given up they're now working to get a loan modification and still hope to save their home

Channel: Washington Post

Views: 75,843

Keywords: mortgage meltdown, pg county, foreclosures, economic crisis, finances, loans

Id: waNLk5LOfY8

Length: 4min 46sec (286 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 27 2015