Articles about mortgage woes

October 4, 2007 6:46 PM

Looking for online newspaper and magazine articles about people who've lost homes to the recent mortgage issues, whether it's because their rates skyrocketed, they were somehow defrauded, or they bought more house than they could afford for whatever reason (even stupidity or naivete). Articles from any city are great, but I'm seeking those that tell very personal stories, where the homeowner really opened up to the journalist about how they got into their situation. Anyone seen any lately? Thanks!
posted by GaelFC to media & arts (16 comments total)

There's lots of good stuff on The Housing Bubble Blog.
posted by sugarfish at 6:52 PM on October 4, 2007

"The Poverty Business is a Business Week article exploring how subprime lending efforts can come back to haunt the borrowers.

The subprime housing market is discussed late in the article.
posted by princesspathos at 7:08 PM on October 4, 2007

The San Francisco Chronicle did a front page on this a couple of months ago, with 4 or 5 different stories with pretty personal interviews giving different reasons for mortgage problems...I am trying to find online...
posted by clarkie666 at 7:10 PM on October 4, 2007

Here's an interesting one: a sad story at Los Angeles Monthly, with a post in the LA Times housing blog that suggests that the original story was missing some key details.
posted by scody at 7:13 PM on October 4, 2007

I suspect that many people who bought more house then they could afford will, in retrospect, characterize their purchase as having been defrauded by realtors/lenders assuring the buyer that the payments were reasonable and/or their investment in the property was undoubtably wise.
posted by herc at 7:35 PM on October 4, 2007

...er "than they could afford"
posted by herc at 7:35 PM on October 4, 2007

Here you go Living the American Nightmare, four stories on foreclosures...
posted by clarkie666 at 7:38 PM on October 4, 2007

Right when the mortgage market started crumbling NPR's all things considered had an interview with a woman who was trying to buy a ~$1.5M NYC Brownstone so she had room for her two teenaged boys. She was doing some sort of high interest second mortgage to get an "affordable" monthly payment, but lenders were starting to panic and the second she'd lined up fell through. Her broker was trying to find another lender who would still give her a rate she could afford. If she couldn't put the deal together within two more days, she might well be out the $149K or so she'd put down as a deposit.
posted by Good Brain at 7:49 PM on October 4, 2007

"Sold a Nightmare," a multi-story report from the Charlotte Observer.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 8:03 PM on October 4, 2007

If you can access the site from outside Australia, this recent four corners episode had some good interviews with US homeowners.
posted by cwhitfcd at 9:03 PM on October 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

Here is a google news search for The National Training and Information Center. They are one of the leading experts on the all issues housing and have a very strong community organizing style which tends to lead itself to the narrative of the particular person who got screwed over by predatory lending.

If you dont see it there, you might try googling them in general. I would also reccomend you do the same for the "East Side Organizing Project" in Cleveland Ohio who does great work on these issues as well.
posted by jlowen at 9:20 PM on October 4, 2007

The NYT does this kind of thing regularly. Here's one with decent emotional detail about a couple of cases, especially on the 2nd page. More here and here.
posted by mediareport at 9:52 PM on October 4, 2007

Top of my feedreader seconds ago. There's a million stories like these out there on the Housing Bubble blogs these days.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:08 PM on October 4, 2007

Here's one from the Washington Post about Ft. Myers, FL.
posted by OmieWise at 6:40 AM on October 5, 2007

Related: I represent some clients who have been defrauded in the rampant scheming in the Twin Cities, so if you are looking to interview someone for a new story, feel free to contact me. The houses involved are not their primary residences, however, so it may not be what you are looking for.
posted by norm at 9:54 AM on October 5, 2007

Not quite an article, but the infamous Iamfacingforeclosure blog was the story of a hopeful real estate investor who bought heavily into the bubble market using (allegedly) fraudulent credit practises. He started the blog in order to tell his story and help try and offload the houses he couldn't sell. He took the blog down eventually, but the page I linked to has a potted history, plus a bunch of links to other related blogs and articles about him. Hopefully the blog is archived somewhere, it was quite an entertaining trainwreck.
posted by Joh at 1:11 PM on October 5, 2007