Your Money ;
; Foreclosures may soon exceed 3. 5 million.
; A second wave is hitting fixed-rate loans.
; What does the mess mean for home values?
Foreclosures
Through the
Roof
Rodney Barber got laid o; from his job at a television station in
September on the same date he was hired 26 years ago. He col-
lects unemployment, but it doesn’t cover his daily living expenses.
Now the 50-year-old broadcast technician, who’s trying to get
his fixed-rate mortgage modified, worries that he is just months
away from losing his three-bedroom home in suburban Atlanta.
Across the country in Visalia, Calif.,
81-year-old Dorothy Lotenero fears
she’ll be thrown out of her home of
38 years, the place where she raised
her family. The soft-spoken retiree,
who lives on $1,600 a month, can’t
a;ord the $2,200 payment that her
interest-only mortgage will soon
rise to. She’s now waiting to hear
if the bank will go through with a
threat to foreclose.
Troubled homeowners like Barber
and Lotenero may benefit from a
foreclosure freeze that many lend-
ers put in place this fall following dis-
covery of widespread irregularities
in legal paperwork. But the relief is
unlikely to last.
By Carole Fleck
Continued on page 20
Rodney Barber
50, Lawrenceville, Ga.
Unemployed, job-hunting
The problem: Barber, a wid-
ower, lost his job after 26 years
and can’t pay his fixed-rate
mortgage. He owes $135,000
on his home, but it’s worth less.
What he says: “I’ll have to go
to a shelter if I’m forced out
of this house. I have no family
to turn to. My brother lost his
house, and I’ve been helping
him. Even if I am forced out, I’ll
bounce back one day.”
Outlook: With no job, a loan
modification by his lender
seems unlikely.
;
Photography by Jason Florio
