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‘Extreme Makeover’ Home Could Be Foreclosed

December 8, 2008 RSS Feed Print

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This seems a lot sadder than the other stories I’ve seen about potential "Extreme Makeover” home foreclosures:

A Michigan family of deaf parents who had their home renovated on the ABC TV Show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" so they could better care for their blind, autistic son, has hit financial turmoil and is in danger of losing the property.

From the The Macomb Daily, via Zillow:

"My husband got laid off for a time and insurance wouldn't cover Lance's autism therapy and some other things like his vision and special dental work[," said homeowner Judy Vardon.]

The family had debts of $20,000 for the boy's therapy alone.

The mortgage was resold to different companies three times since then and the interest rate on the loan went up to more than 11 percent. Each time the mortgage was sold the interest rate went up.

The pre-makeover monthly house payment of roughly $1,200 has since nearly doubled to $2,300, The Macomb Daily reported.

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if it makes you feel better Carl, I am a liberal, I voted for Obama, and agree with you.
Also, the socialist in me says, why are we donating to keep a poor family in style when we could be helping multiple familys live within their means. All individuals regardless of party affliation should be able to agree to live within their means.
now, when my loan was bought my citibank they did try and give me some crap about lowering my mortgage insurance %. I have a 3% deduction to get a lower monthly rate. They said they have a rule of 1%. I said, I could care less, that wasnt in my contract. they said, your correct, we cant make you, but you reallly should. I said bite me. Some people are easily duped. My guess is they did something stupid liek take out a 2nd mortgage with an arm...some people were not meant to have money.

heather of TX 5:17PM December 17, 2008

Even though you are partially right for the reasons that the mortgage rate went up but he is not whining.If your mortgage payment doubles all of a sudden, can you still aford it? Who knows maybe you are a millionaire with all your money under your mattress. Stop being a Whiner yourself because you or your party lost the election. It seems very obvious to me that the GOP was or is still in power during this Financial Meltdown. Own up to your party's economic screw-ups,it happens under your party's watch or while in power. So Own up to it, thats the way it works. As far as Obama being a liberal, it must scare you to death because he is not even in office yet and listen to you. But I can tell you one thing, Obama cannot possibly do worse than the GOP even he tries really hard for the next 4 years. Dont worry he will clean the mess that the GOP left behind. P.S. Most of the people who lost their jobs did not do so voluntarily, just a reminder.

FRANK PASSE 12:27PM December 17, 2008

I've watched the show and often the home is given to the owners free of any mortgage. There was another Extreme Makeover family who borrowed against their mortgage-free house and went into foreclosure. It's unfortunate that these MI folks fell onto hard times (i.e. unemployed and medical bills) but so have 1M other Americans. What is missing here are the facts. How did they get to the point of foreclosure? It is because they took out a mortgage that they could not afford. Home equity is an option but a loan is not a handout, it has to be repaid. If you don't have the money to pay your bills then how will you pay the mortgage? I'd prefer to have a house and pay the medical bills when I can and change my standard of living (yes, I've been there, unemployed and living on dwindling savings during the height of the housing boom so I could have easily taken equity out of my house and get into a low adjustable rate but I didn't because keeping the house and not getting deeper in debt was more important and I survived and still have the house).
The mortgage problem today is not entirely the lenders' fault but also the borrowers who used their homes as piggy banks, whether legitimately like this MI family or to fund a free spending lifestyle. Interest rates don't go up each time the loan is sold. Interest goes up if you refi at a higher rate (which gets higher as your credit risk goes higher) or its an adjustable rate or teaser rate loan.

GK of WA 3:49PM December 15, 2008

‘Extreme Makeover’ Home Could Be Foreclosed

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