This story is humbling, but these folks could have short-sold this house years ago and gone back to living in their townhouse. How many people are not paying their mortgage, and not getting foreclosed? Hat tip to Nathan for sending this in from the wapo:
A decade ago, Comfort and Kofi were at the apex of an astonishing journey they had made from Ghana in 1997, when they had won a visa lottery to come to America. They did not know it at the time, but they were also at the midpoint in their odyssey from American Dream to American Nightmare.
Today, they struggle under nearly $1 million in debt that they will never be able to repay on the 3,292-square-foot, six-bedroom, red-brick Colonial they bought for $617,055 in 2005. The Boatengs have not made a mortgage payment in 2,322 days — more than six years — according to their most recent mortgage statement. Their plight illustrates how some of the people swallowed up by the easy credit era of the previous decade have yet to reemerge years later.
I fail to see how anyone living for FREE in a house for over 6 years is a victim.
From the article he made 86k she made 30k. They borrowed 493k at 6.1% 5 year ARM that would go to 8.3% after 5 years.
He lost his job before CLOSING on the House. This means they likely never made a single mortgage payment.
BTW they also owned ANOTHER house during this time.
There’s more but I stopped reading when I started getting frustrated. These are full time scammers. The banks are stupid for financing them but if they were forced to foreclose on the property EVERYONE would be better off…
1. The buyers would not be living for free
2. The bank would be much more careful about who they lend to in the future
3. Buyers that can perform would move into the house
This is a great example of what is wrong with housing. This is why housing prices are so high and inventory is low.
Let’s see now, they will go to court to throw the person not paying the rent for their house out, but will not make one mortgage payment on the house they are living in (nothing about property taxes HOA etc. in the article)for 6 years. That makes them victims and the person not paying the rent a dishonest swine. Sounds like Ghanian UBUNTU to me!