Christopher Hall stepped tentatively through the entranceway of City Hall Courtroom 676 and took his place among dozens of others confronting foreclosure purgatory. His hopes all but extinguished, he fully expected the morning to end with a final indignity: He would sign over the deed to his house ”” his grandfather’s two-story row house; the only house in which he had ever lived; the house where he had raised three children.
“This is devastating,” he said last month as he sat in the gallery awaiting his hearing. “This is my childhood home. I grew up there. My mother passed away there. My grandfather passed away there. All of my memories are there.”
A union roofer, Mr. Hall, 42, had not worked since August 2008, when the contractor that employed him as a foreman went broke and laid off more than 40 people. He had not made a mortgage payment in more than a year, and his lender, Bank of America, was threatening to auction off his house through the sheriff’s office.
In most American cities, that probably would have been the end of the story: another home turned into distressed bank inventory by the national foreclosure crisis. But in Philadelphia, under a program begun last year to try to keep people in their homes, Mr. Hall entered the courtroom with a reasonable chance of hanging on.
“All things considered, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.” – W. C. Fields
“…his grandfather’s two-story row house; the only house in which he had ever lived; the house where he had raised three children.”
“This is my childhood home. I grew up there. My mother passed away there. My grandfather passed away there.”
“He had not made a mortgage payment in more than a year…”
Ok, so this home had been in his family for 3 generations. He is 42 years old, so he has probably worked for about 24 years. The average mortgage is 30 years.
Why did this house have a mortgage at all? Gosh, after 3 generations one would expect that the house was finally paid off.
Did I miss something here?
Hey S&T of N, that was my first thought, too. I re-read it twice, trying to see why he didn’t own the house in full by now. There must be more to the story.
S&T of N and CPeet:
The story said that he took out a mortgage in the mid 1990’s to buy the house from the Grandfather. That was a fixed rate, so far so good.
Then, later, he took out a new mortgage (unfortunately, variable rate which the guy did not understand) to pay off Credit cards, and do some work around the house. The payments (on a principal of about 80K) went from around 500 to almost 1000. Then, he lost his 1000 a week job and now gets 800 per month in Unemployment.
He goofed by taking out the mortgage to pay off the bills. Now he is in trouble. I guess that the value of the house is less than the mortgage balance. (wow, a house for under 100K, That would not buy a double wide trailer and land here in the DC area).