FED Chairman Ben Bernanke’s Childhood Home Is Sold After Foreclosure
Travis Jackson walks through his modest ranch house, admiring the kitchen’s built-in spice rack and the red-oak floors. He draws back the curtains, and sunlight illuminates the pride on his face.
The young banker just bought Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s childhood home at a foreclosure sale.
“This is where it all happened,” marvels Mr. Jackson, a 27-year-old loan officer at First Citizens Bancorp, which is down the street from the old Bernanke place. “Kind of a surreal feeling, isn’t it?”
Mr. Bernanke’s family sold the property more than a decade ago. It ended up on the block late last year after its former owners fell behind on their mortgage payments.
The small town that gave the Fed its chairman is suffering more than most from the financial and economic crisis he’s struggling to fix. Already hit by the long decline of the local tobacco and textile industries, Dillon County is facing a fresh assault of plant closings and layoffs that have pushed its unemployment rate to 14.2% — almost double the national average.
[ online.wsj.com ]
Cave Owners Are Next to Face Foreclosure
You’ve heard plenty of stories about foreclosures, but the latest victims of this brutal recession are about to lose their cave.
That’s right. For nearly five years, Curt Sleeper and his family have lived in a cave. His mortgage is about to come due and, like millions of other Americans, he can’t refinance.
So now, the 17,000-square-foot, subterranean home is being auctioned off on eBay. Sleeper and his wife Deborah bought the cave outside St. Louis in May 2004 for $160,000. To pay for it, they sold their old home, TV and even the DVD collection. They made a 50 percent down payment and borrowed the other $80,000 from the seller. It was a five-year loan with a single balloon payment at the end. The Sleepers now have until May 1 to pay off the remaining $83,000 or sell the property. It’s not a foreclosure sale yet, but if they can’t come up with the money, they risk losing the house.
Besides the initial $80,000 payment, Sleeper said he spent another $150,000 on renovations to the cave and the surrounding 2.8 acres he owns.
The original plan was to refinance. But Sleeper, a self-employed computer consultant, said banks struggle to appraise the cave since there aren’t any comparable properties nearby or, well any comparable properties at all. So while he might have received a loan two or three years ago, today he is in a bind.
“Right now, banks are not interested in anything odd,” Sleeper said.
[ abcnews.go.com ]
How to Choose Mortgage Life Insurance Company Online
Choosing the right mortgage life insurance company online can be a daunting task, especially if you want your loved ones to truly be protected in the event of your untimely passing. Mortgage life insurance protection is really essential to anyone who is paying on a mortgage, because we never know what can happen in life… and the internet is a great place to shop for this insurance because of the wide range of choices available.
The first thing you will want to do is find some good options. Look up some different choices, compare prices, and find like three or four that you feel good about. Then, really research these final three. Check to see that they are legitimate, look for some third party reviews on the company, and check to make sure that the company is official and professional. Once you have verified that your choices are all legitimate, you are ready to start choosing your plan.
Find out what plans the companies offer, and choose the plan from each company that best suits your needs. If one company doesn’t have a plan for you, than forego it. Once you have picked out plans from all of the companies, than you are now ready to compare prices. Check the plans, prices, etc…. and decide on two companies that would be the cheapest out of your top three or four.
Now, with your decision limited to two companies, do some serious research on each. Call the companies and ask them questions. Ask them how easy it is to file a claim, or ask them what it takes to claim money. Once you have thoroughly researched both of your final choices, you will probably have one that you will feel better about. This is your company.
Choosing the right mortgage life insurance company online can be a bit of a difficult task, but remember, as with any other decision, that the key to making the right choice is careful scrutiny, research, and question asking. This is the best way to choose the right company. Unfortunately, there is no magic company that is the best… but there IS a company that is best for you… and by doing your research and planning carefully, you will find it. This is a true blessing that you can provide your loved ones with in the event of your death, and I believe that if you care enough about the future to do this for your loved ones, than you will do what it takes to choose the right life insurance mortgage company.
‘A Cop Is Inspecting Foreclosed Home’ - Winner of the World Press Photo of the Year
A picture of an armed sheriff moving through an American home after an eviction due to a mortgage foreclosure won the top prize in the World Press Photo competition.
Jury members said the strength of the photo by Anthony Suau for Time magazine was in its opposites - it looks like a classic war photograph, but is simply the eviction of people from a house.
Chinese Are Going To Buy U.S. Homes
Attracted by the real estate plunge on the other side of the globe, Chinese homebuyers are gearing up for visits to the United States this month to buy cheap homes.
A pioneering house-buying team of 20 to 30 people, organized by Soufun.com, one of the largest real estate portals in China, is scheduled to the United States on Feb. 12, according to an article on Soufun.com.
It is said more than 300 Chinese have registered so far on the website for a 10-day house-buying trip.
The U.S. mortgage crisis and the downturn in the global economy have presented people with a golden opportunity, said Liu Jian, an official of the Beijing-based real estate portal.
The trip, which costs up to 25,000 yuan (3,500 U.S. dollars) per person, will focus on cities with huge ethnic Chinese populations including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York, Liu said.
The prices of houses targeted by Chinese buyers are between 3 million to 5 million yuan (400,000 to 700,000 U.S. dollars), he said.
The applicants include real estate professionals who want to investigate in the U.S. real estate market, and parents who want to buy houses for their children studying or to study in the United States.
How an Austrian Man Bought a Luxury Villa Just for $128
Walter Egger never had much luck with lotteries. That all changed Tuesday, when he won the raffle of a luxury villa worth more than euro830,000 (about $1 million) in Austria’s southern province of Carinthia.
The 51-year-old father of three, who runs a home for the mentally ill in the Carinthian hamlet of Zweinitz, bought a euro99 ($128) raffle ticket in the hopes of becoming the villa’s new owner.
Raffle organizer and former villa owner Traude Daniel said the 9,999 tickets sold out within days in early December. The 60-year-old said she even got inquiries from as far afield as the United States and Brazil.
“The response was amazing … we got e-mails from around the world,” Daniel said.
Daniel said the 4,305-square-foot house was on the market for about half a year before she came up with the idea of the raffle.
The raffle has inspired several other home owners across the country to try their luck lottery-style.
Juergen Tatscher, who is planning to raffle off his luxury mountain bungalow, says it’s an ideal way to cover one’s costs if selling property the regular way proves to be tough.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Tatscher said.
But not everyone is as enthused.
“I’m skeptical … if people are seriously interested in a particular property, they’ll make a bid the regular way,” said Friedrich Noszek of an association of Austrian property owners.
[AP]