Selectively edited quotes from Bloomberg:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=akOEPec30TR4&refer=home
Robert Murray of Middletown, New Jersey, said he didn't pay enough attention when he took out a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage in 2002. This month, his payments ballooned to $1,800 from $1,300. Because he makes about $90,000 a year at his Newark Liberty International Airport maintenance job and hasn't missed a payment, he said he hoped he might be a good candidate to refinance.
For now, Murray will struggle to make his monthly payments, foregoing vacations, restaurants and perhaps parochial school for his 5-year-old daughter. He yearns for help from the government.
Since the value of his home has declined from the $265,000 he owes on two mortgages, Murray's equity has vanished. If Murray were to apply for an FHA-insured refinance, he'd be out of luck.
Murray borrowed more than his home is now worth, so he would have to write a check of at least $45,000 to close a refinance. He doesn't have the cash.
``I'm way upside down,'' Murray said. ``The payments will kill me now. I don't know what I'm going to do.''
The Federal Reserve Bank pumped $62 billion into the banking system on Aug. 9 and Aug. 10 in an effort to soothe a credit crisis. Murray said the Fed should do the same for borrowers.
``If they gave us that money, we'd be able to be out of this predicament,'' he said.
Replies
13
Meow
"He yearns for help from the government." 
...what, he wants some gov't classes that teach one how to pull their a$$e$ out when getting a mortgage?
...what, he wants some gov't classes that teach one how to pull their a$$e$ out when getting a mortgage?
SoWal Expert
Making $90K a year as a maintenance guy, he must be in a union. 
SoWal Expert
No sympathy here! He makes roughly 2x my salary and pays 2x my rent with his escalated mortagage payment, can I claim hardship too?
Give me a REAL story of hardship!
Give me a REAL story of hardship!
Edited
Beach Fanatic
The best finanacial rule of thumb anybody ever gave me was to live like you made half of what you actually do.
If this guy making $90k lived like he was making $45k, this would not be an issue.
If this guy making $90k lived like he was making $45k, this would not be an issue.
Beach FanaticAuthor
Give me a REAL story of hardship![/QUOTE]
It IS a story of "real hardship."
Self-imposed, of course.
It IS a story of "real hardship."
Self-imposed, of course.
SoWal Expert
It IS a story of "real hardship."
Self-imposed, of course.
They tried to make it sound like he was living on Spam and donating plasma for $ to make ends meet. My point was that his current lifestyle wasn't exactly poorhouse material and I wanted a better story of woe - not someone crying foul while living my relatively posh lifestyle.
Edited
Beach FanaticAuthor
My point was that his current lifestyle wasn't exactly poorhouse material and I wanted a better story of woe - not someone crying foul while living my relatively posh lifestyle.
Oh, I agree with your point of view: this guy made his
own problems and now wants a bail-out.
By the way, looks like someone else has some
debt troubles as well;
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070919/debt_limit.html?.v=3
Oh, I agree with your point of view: this guy made his
own problems and now wants a bail-out.
By the way, looks like someone else has some
debt troubles as well;
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070919/debt_limit.html?.v=3
SoWal Insider
Here's some more Florida folks in need of a handout:
High-end home owners feeling squeeze
By PAT BEALL
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 16, 2007
It turns out the rich are not so different after all.
They default on mortgages, too.
In the first six months of this year, 10 Palm Beach County mansions and a $2 million homesite headed for the auction block to satisfy lenders. Owners of another 43 high-end homes were notified that they could lose the elegant roofs over their heads.
Versailles, Olympia, Frenchman's Creek: Few of the region's gilded, gated communities are escaping financial fault lines.
"Luxury consumers are resilient, they are not immune," says Milton Pedraza, founder of the Luxury Institute, a New York-based research firm. "I think a lot of wealthy people saw easy money and started thinking they were geniuses. As we all do."
Local buyers of million-dollar homes are stumbling over some of the same loan terms tripping up borrowers of smaller sums: Tiny starting interest rates that balloon out of control, double-digit interest rates and contractual barriers to refinancing.
Not every big-money foreclosure in the first half of this year stemmed from dubious mortgages. Sometimes it was the borrower who crumbled. A slice of Manalapan waterfront linked to convicted telephone calling-card scammer Willoughby Farr went back to the lender. Joseph Sutera, a pharmacist serving 16 years in prison for his role as architect of a $10 million fake prescription claim scam, is losing his home.
Then there's Preben Olesen, last seen thriving atop millions of dollars of harborside real estate on Grand Bahama Island. Those properties include a $12 million home with an indoor, chandelier-lighted boat slip.
Olesen stopped making payments on his Palm Beach Gardens home in November. Though both Olesen and his ex-wife are on the mortgage, "This foreclosure is a result of Mr. Olesen deciding to relieve himself of all assets," according to attorney Joel Weisman, who represents Olesen's former spouse in a protracted divorce. Preben Olesen did not return calls for comment.
High fliers reach too high.....................http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localn...s/epaper/2007/09/16/s1a_HIGH_FLYERS_0916.html
.
High-end home owners feeling squeeze
By PAT BEALL
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 16, 2007
It turns out the rich are not so different after all.
They default on mortgages, too.
In the first six months of this year, 10 Palm Beach County mansions and a $2 million homesite headed for the auction block to satisfy lenders. Owners of another 43 high-end homes were notified that they could lose the elegant roofs over their heads.
Versailles, Olympia, Frenchman's Creek: Few of the region's gilded, gated communities are escaping financial fault lines.
"Luxury consumers are resilient, they are not immune," says Milton Pedraza, founder of the Luxury Institute, a New York-based research firm. "I think a lot of wealthy people saw easy money and started thinking they were geniuses. As we all do."
Local buyers of million-dollar homes are stumbling over some of the same loan terms tripping up borrowers of smaller sums: Tiny starting interest rates that balloon out of control, double-digit interest rates and contractual barriers to refinancing.
Not every big-money foreclosure in the first half of this year stemmed from dubious mortgages. Sometimes it was the borrower who crumbled. A slice of Manalapan waterfront linked to convicted telephone calling-card scammer Willoughby Farr went back to the lender. Joseph Sutera, a pharmacist serving 16 years in prison for his role as architect of a $10 million fake prescription claim scam, is losing his home.
Then there's Preben Olesen, last seen thriving atop millions of dollars of harborside real estate on Grand Bahama Island. Those properties include a $12 million home with an indoor, chandelier-lighted boat slip.
Olesen stopped making payments on his Palm Beach Gardens home in November. Though both Olesen and his ex-wife are on the mortgage, "This foreclosure is a result of Mr. Olesen deciding to relieve himself of all assets," according to attorney Joel Weisman, who represents Olesen's former spouse in a protracted divorce. Preben Olesen did not return calls for comment.
High fliers reach too high.....................http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localn...s/epaper/2007/09/16/s1a_HIGH_FLYERS_0916.html
.
Edited
Meow
...dammmm, shoulda' bought stock in Kleenex.
SoWal Insider
bunch o babies!
SoWal Insider
You ain't kidding. 
Edited
Beach FanaticAuthor
"This foreclosure is a result of Mr. Olesen deciding to relieve himself of all assets,"
Pardon, but is this analagous to "pissing away" money??
Pardon, but is this analagous to "pissing away" money??
Beach Fanatic
This Mr. Murray, the mechanic, obviously has other problems with his money management if he is in so much trouble (2 suv payments perhaps?).
Assuming his wife doesn't work, his monthly gross is 7500. Even his new adjusted payment of 1800 is just 24% of his gross, below even the most conservative guidelines of 28%.
If those payments are 'killing him', then he needs to look at where the rest of his money is being squandered. Aside from the fact that it's an adjustable, this mortgage is not his problem.
Assuming his wife doesn't work, his monthly gross is 7500. Even his new adjusted payment of 1800 is just 24% of his gross, below even the most conservative guidelines of 28%.
If those payments are 'killing him', then he needs to look at where the rest of his money is being squandered. Aside from the fact that it's an adjustable, this mortgage is not his problem.
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