Quick Action Stops Foreclosure In Baltimore

July 30th, 2008

This story has a happy ending when quick action stopped a foreclosure in Baltimore. Wilbert and Patricia Savage lived in a neat house. But when two mortgage payments were missed, 75 years old Wilbert began to despair. Suddenly he remembered a housing counselor named Roy Miller who worked with a non-profit body. Roy had helped other neighbours who had been in similar foreclosure related trouble.

The couple went to meet Roy who took the initiative in calling on their lender. Jointly they were able to work out a viable repayment plan. It was something the Savages would never have been able to do on their own.

Foreclosure numbers are increasing all across the country but Belair-Edison has suddenly emerged as an island of refuge. It is a model that can be emulated elsewhere says the local housing officials. During the last ten years Belair-Edicon took on the character of a lower and middle-income region situated on the borders of East Baltimore. It has suffered from high foreclosure numbers. Within ten years starting from 1993 one in three families or individuals have lost their houses to foreclosures. But those were the peak years. Since then the numbers have fallen by over a third. Thomas E.Perez, secretary of labour, licensing and regulation in Maryland, said that the credit goes mainly the Miller group – Belair-Edison Neighbourhood Initiative. The firm took the help of public records and grass roots marketing to reach out to the high-risk borrowers before they fell too deep into the foreclosure well. The general tendency is that people feel ashamed and try to hide behind a shell of silence and inaction. But this delay spells disaster, commented Perez.

The Savage couple had bought their house in 1988 for $55,000 with a loan that carried a low interest from Veterans Administration. By 2006 they found repair and other bills had piled up. Offers came for refinancing. From an advertisement announced over the radio they discovered that for a loan of $117,000 they would have to pay $800 per month. At that time the offer seemed reasonable. But last autumn the payments adjusted and spiked to $1,181 causing them to fall behind in monthly payments.

Miller is now helping the elderly couple to refinance through the city to a low cost loan. For the first time the couple found some advice about budgeting and has begun to cut down on non-essentials like lottery tickets, eating out and extra shopping.

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