A paraphrased version of the old TV campaign for the Marines comes to mind.
“Join the Not-So-Few, The Even-Less-Proud. The Foreclosed.”
The home I have loved for the last six years is fast becoming the anvil around my neck, as I feel my family’s financial future pulling me deeper into an abyss of uncertain lender waters; navigating the uncharted territory of loan modification forms and the ever-nagging question, “Now what?”
Like most people, I go to work every day, and pay my bills on time. But the mortgage could start slipping.
Before you say, “Well, how many credit cards did you max out?” or “Bet your car payments are a killer,”
We have no debt. No car payments and no, no ARM.; only this huge albatross (If you want to call 1,477 square feet huge).
My hours have not changed, but I’ve taken a small pay cut I have yet to get back, if ever. My husband’s hours at his company have fallen sharply over the last four years. We’ve managed. But it’s become apparent as our home’s value has dipped, and we are not earning any more, holding onto the house just might not be possible or even worth the fight, in the end.
You might be asking yourself why I would want to talk about this in public; lay my financial soul bare. But, I see first-hand what it looks like on paper to lose your home. And behind each document, there is a family’s struggle. A struggle no one talks about, out of shame and embarrassment.
Pages and pages of Trustee Sale Notices fill the newspaper, making something we wish would be private, so public, as it announces that each home will be sold at auction. There is small comfort in the knowledge, that sadly, we are hardly alone.
Irony abounds in our scenario. I won’t name the place where I work, but notices like these are what keep my paycheck coming.
It’s easy to get angry; ill-equipped local bank branch employees, offering little more than a phone number to a recorded line and a sympathetic smile. For Sale signs line the streets in front of vacant homes for months at a time, further bringing down the value of the neighboring homes, when they are finally sold for a fraction of what the folks next door paid; begetting more of the same, maybe two houses down.
The idea of living in a rental, which was so abhorrent to me only a few years ago, as I chased the American Dream, is sounding so much more appealing than I’d thought possible. If something breaks, it’s not my problem, money left after paying half of what our mortgage payments are to be able to actually…save! Or even… have fun with!
I can’t help but wonder how many people are thinking the same thing I am.
I will do what I can, and prepare for an outcome that might mean upheaval for my family for just a little while.
For now, I am taking consolation where I can get it. It could be so much worse; compounded by credit card debt, collection calls or car repossession. In the end, after the dust settles and we are in a place to lick our wounds, we will rebound.
We’ve joined the ranks.
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Kelly Sinon can be reached at sksinon@aol.com.
