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Since being laid off eight months ago, Deanna Steuernagel and Shawn Burke have become most disillusioned by the frequency with which they've encountered various scams specifically targeting the unemployed. Unscrupulous greed clearly holds no sympathy for the downtrodden. Considering the months of delay tactics Chase Bank has employed on Deanna's loan modification application, forestalling a decision until she completely depleted her savings, it would not surprise her to receive notice that she doesn't qualify for Obama's Hope Now program because this month she finally defaulted on her mortgage.
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In doing advance research about foreclosures in Bend, Oregon, I happened across local news coverage of a most absurd housing development. A planned community with Old World architectural detailing designed to resemble a Lord of the Rings hobbit village, the Shire represents a prime example of irrational excesses that an untrammeled housing market can nurture. I intended to take pictures of the now bankrupt and foreclosed development so I could write a post ridiculing those behind its creation, until I learned one of them had committed suicide.
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"People have tried to bribe me. I've been threatened, both verbally and with a gun," real estate appraiser Richard Hagar tells me, recounting the heady days of the Pacific Northwest's housing boom, when unscrupulous loan originators in places like Bend, Oregon would aggressively demand his work confirm a dictated appraisal value, often many tens of thousands above the actual market value. In Hagar's view, "This recession we're in was triggered by loan fraud. That's the end of it."
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Elizabeth looks weary, pale, and drawn, gently wringing her hands, toying with the hospital admittance bracelet still encircling her wrist. Slumped in the kind of canvas camping chair that makes any other sitting position a feat of strenuous exertion, Elizabeth closely watches Charles, her husband of forty-one years, as he bashes around inside the donated tent, arranging their borrowed bedding. Their 5-piece set of matching maroon luggage might not all fit inside, but the couple will have a roof-of-sorts for the night, sleeping side-by-side as two of the country's newest homeless citizens.
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Results tagged “foreclosure”
Since being laid off eight months ago, Deanna Steuernagel and Shawn Burke have become most disillusioned by the frequency with which they've encountered various scams specifically targeting the unemployed. Unscrupulous greed clearly holds no sympathy for the downtrodden. Considering the months of delay tactics Chase Bank has employed on Deanna's loan modification application, forestalling a decision until she completely depleted her savings, it would not surprise her to receive notice that she doesn't qualify for Obama's Hope Now program because this month she finally defaulted on her mortgage.
In doing advance research about foreclosures in Bend, Oregon, I happened across local news coverage of a most absurd housing development. A planned community with Old World architectural detailing designed to resemble a Lord of the Rings hobbit village, the Shire represents a prime example of irrational excesses that an untrammeled housing market can nurture. I intended to take pictures of the now bankrupt and foreclosed development so I could write a post ridiculing those behind its creation, until I learned one of them had committed suicide.Read More
"People have tried to bribe me. I've been threatened, both verbally and with a gun," real estate appraiser Richard Hagar tells me, recounting the heady days of the Pacific Northwest's housing boom, when unscrupulous loan originators in places like Bend, Oregon would aggressively demand his work confirm a dictated appraisal value, often many tens of thousands above the actual market value. In Hagar's view, "This recession we're in was triggered by loan fraud. That's the end of it."Read More
Elizabeth looks weary, pale, and drawn, gently wringing her hands, toying with the hospital admittance bracelet still encircling her wrist. Slumped in the kind of canvas camping chair that makes any other sitting position a feat of strenuous exertion, Elizabeth closely watches Charles, her husband of forty-one years, as he bashes around inside the donated tent, arranging their borrowed bedding. Their 5-piece set of matching maroon luggage might not all fit inside, but the couple will have a roof-of-sorts for the night, sleeping side-by-side as two of the country's newest homeless citizens.Read More
"I went from living in a 4900-square-foot house to living in this 29-foot trailer," Michael Babins tells me as we're chatting in the living room slash kitchen slash dining area of the Prowler Regal he has called home for the past nine months. "And to tell you the truth, I am totally content right now."
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