SavvySugar

NJ Woman Bakes Her Way Out of Foreclosure

SavvySugar — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:30:40 -0700

Mortgage apple cakes are the tastiest thing on the menu for one New Jersey homeowner. Angela Logan must make a $2,559.54 payment on July 26 if she wants to keep her home of 20 years out of foreclosure, and because of a successful bake sale it looks like she'll meet the deadline.

Logan cooked up the idea to sell apple cakes for $40 each in order to pay her mortgage, and as of Tuesday, she had more than 500 orders, including one from Hong Kong. A health official warned her that it's illegal to use her house as a commercial kitchen, but Hilton Hasbrouck Heights is allowing Logan to use its kitchen, where she's able to bake 10 cakes at a time.

The actress/stand-up comedian blames her financial troubles on a home improvement project that went wrong, and the fact that several of her paychecks were frozen when one of her talent agencies shut down. Logan is now studying to become a nurse to have a more secure career, and says she "won't stop baking until people stop ordering."

How Money Are You: Famous Home Foreclosures

SavvySugar — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:30:11 -0800

Millions of home foreclosures have resulted from Americans biting off bigger mortgages than they could chew, and even celebrities made money mistakes that led them to the brink of losing their homes to the bank. Some of them weren't able to turn things around and did in fact lose their homes. Do you know which celebrities have found themselves in the middle of a foreclosure mess? Take the quiz!

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Woman Buys Foreclosed Home For Distraught Owner

SavvySugar — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:30:25 -0700

Many people are reluctant to give anything to strangers that isn't unwanted clothes or out of fashion furniture, but Marilyn Mock has gone above and beyond in dishing out Good Samaritan deeds. When Marilyn purchased a foreclosed home for the stranger who was watching her home being auctioned by the bank, she surprised everyone but her husband, who is used to hearing about his wife's giving tendencies. His response to the news? "Whatever."

Tracy Orr, the owner whose home was being foreclosed, is hardly saying whatever to the stranger who paid $30,000 to save her house. The two women met just minutes before the auction began, when Marilyn struck up small talk with Tracy and asked her, "Are you here to buy a house?" Tracy was unable to contain her tears as she told Marilyn that her house was being auctioned off. After that simple exchange, Marilyn decided to bid on the home so Tracy could continue living there. She can't afford to just give the home to Tracy but said, "We'll just figure out however much she can pay on it. That way, she can have her house back."

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Should This Extreme Home Makeover Family Be Forgiven?

SavvySugar — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:04:03 -0700

This is one Extreme Makeover: Home Edition story that may leave you with a bout of frustration rather than a waterfall of tears. Some of the 1,800 volunteers that worked night and day to build the Harper family's new four-bedroom home in 2005 are reeling with aggravation after learning the family's home will be auctioned due to foreclosure.

The donated materials used to build the home are valued at about $450,000, and the construction company donated an additional $250,000 for a home-maintenance fund and scholarships for the family's three kids. Rather than be satisfied with this generosity, the Harpers decided to test their luck and used the home as collateral for a $450,000 loan to start a construction business that ultimately failed.

The mayor of Lake City, GA, helped construct the home for his city's residents and had this to say about the unhappy ending: "It's aggravating. It just makes you mad. You do that much work, and they just squander it." Do you think they should be blamed for making a careless decision, or should they be forgiven for trying to continue bettering their lives?

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Do You Know Anyone Whose Home Has Been Foreclosed?

SavvySugar — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:28:08 -0700

The number of foreclosures in California may have jumped 261 percent in the second quarter of this year, but it's certainly not the only state whose residents are suffering from the loss of their homes. RosaDilia had this to say about her brush with the issue:

I really feel for the people who are losing their homes. A good friend of mine just lost his home in FL despite his efforts in avoiding foreclosure. The home went down in value by 45 percent and he was so devastated when he had to move I almost cried.

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News Flash: California Foreclosures Jump 261 Percent

SavvySugar — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:02:17 -0700

Last quarter's real estate reports are in and the results aren't pretty. They revealed the number of foreclosures in California compared to the same time period last year rose 261 percent (no, that's not a typo). Such a dramatic situation comes with a scarily simple story: Buyers got into the housing market during the boom, usually financing their purchases with more than one loan, and have rather swiftly been crushed by the bust.

During the second quarter 63,061 homes were foreclosed, up 33 percent from the first quarter of this year. Home prices have continually fallen, making it difficult for homeowners to sell their homes and have enough to completely repay debt. Most of the defaulted loans were made between September 2005 and November 2006.

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Gone Are the Days of the McMansion?

SavvySugar — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:30:24 -0700

US home foreclosures are still occurring at record rates. July's foreclosures were up seven percent from June and 32 percent from a year earlier - one in every 355 households with a loan got a foreclosure filing. The jump can be partly attributed to the rising unemployment rate as people lack wages to pay their mortgages.

The good news is that new homes being built are seven percent smaller (about the size of one average-sized room) than homes built in the last 15 years. Hopefully, the downsizing means some people are smartening up and not biting off more than they can chew.

Sarah Susanka, author of the book The Not So Big House, commented, "As more and more people build or remodel homes that satisfy in quality rather than quantity, there will be a huge shift in what we perceive as desirable." What do you think - will there be a permanent shift to more modest homes?

Drinks on the House For Those in Foreclosure

SavvySugar — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:03:45 -0700

Bars usually don't have much to worry about during a tough economy, but some are reaching out to their communities with the friendly gesture of a free drink. Padre's Modern Mexican in Phoenix, AZ, isn't fresh in offering recession happy hours, but it's the first to give out a complimentary beverage to anyone who brings in a foreclosure notice.

Nobody has claimed their foreclosure drink yet but Padre's has other plans in the works to attract Phoenix's penny pinchers. The next promotion will extend free round-trip rides on Saturday nights so patrons don't have to use up expensive gas. Sounds like the making of a party bus a la my college town, but this promotion doesn't make me as uncomfortable as the foreclosure free drink special.

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Should Celebrities Rescue Homeowners Facing Foreclosure?

SavvySugar — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:33:40 -0700

Shaquille O'Neal's in-box has a couple thousand emails from homeowners across the country facing foreclosure in the near future. Word that a plan is in the works leaked out last week when Shaq visited Orlando City Hall to discuss a way for the basketball giant to help people stay in their homes.

The rough idea is that Shaq would buy the mortgages of people whose homes are in foreclosure, and then give the homeowner a new mortgage with more manageable terms. Curtis Cooper, an Orlando Realtor and mortgage broker working with O'Neal, relayed Shaq's sentiments: "He said 'Let's just go out and help as many people as we can.' He's sincere about it."

Should other celebrities follow this example to try and help the millions of homeowners facing foreclosure?

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News Flash: 1 Million Homes in Foreclosure Is a Record

SavvySugar — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:03:24 -0700

The number of homes facing foreclosure in the US continues to climb and is currently over the 1 million mark, which is significant because it's the highest rate ever recorded. One million homes comes out to about 2.5 percent of the loans serviced by members of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Other cheery figures from the MBA's first quarter report: 3 million home loans (6.4 percent) have missed at least one payment, while 737,000 are at least three months past due but not in foreclosure just yet.

Approximately half of the homes in foreclosure are spread among six states - California, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Ohio, and Michigan. Jay Brinkman, MBA's vide president for research and economics, commented, "Clearly things in California and Florida are going to get worse before they get better."

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