Polls
Login
RSS Feed: Local News
RSS Feed: Sports
RSS Feed: Voice
| Fighting off foreclosure |
|
|
| Written by By Danielle MacMurchy / Tracy Press / | |
| Saturday, 05 April 2008 | |
|
A line stretched outside the door of City Hall this morning for a workshop meant to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure. Organizers would normally chalk up a crowd of 200 to a successful weekend event, but these were apologetic. “I guess I can say that I’m sorry that you’re here, because that means you’re in this unfortunate situation,” Mayor Brent Ives told the attendees. He and state Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani co-hosted the event. Many arrived at the workshop frustrated, while others were hopeful. Nearly all of the threatened homeowners walked in hugging their loan papers, in search of help.
Bertram L. Johnson, a 45-year-old father of three, said help
is what he got. Johnson bought his home in He’s tried to work with lenders from Washington Mutual to secure a 30-year-fixed loan. Johnson said the lender could only freeze his monthly rate for five years. “I don’t want to be in the same place I am five years from now,” said Johnson, who still owes $420,000 on his home, which is now valued at only $250,000. “I’m trying to be proactive so I can keep my home.” Loan counselors met with homeowners to walk them through some of their options for saving their homes. But the true benefits may come after the workshop, when Galgiani’s office will deliver at-risk homeowners’ requests to their lenders. With the sluggish housing market, some lenders have lost their jobs and some lending offices have closed, which makes it tricky to know where to turn. Only two people raised their hands when Ives asked who has been able to reach their lender and found satisfaction with the results. “My goal is to put at-risk homeowners in touch with their lenders or a loan counselor so they better understand what their options are,” said Galgiani, who advertised her office number at the workshop and urged homeowners to call for help.
Chestene Dean, who moved from They were in search of a new lender at the workshop today after their original mortgage company, New Century Mortgage, went bankrupt last summer. The Deans wouldn’t say how many months they have been late on their mortgage payment, which is $4,700 a month. “There are other people hurting like us,” said Dennis Dean, glancing at the roomful of people. “Like them, we’re going to fight for our home.” Johnson was one of several people who walked away from the workshop with a faint smile of hope. He spoke with Galgiani, who promised she’d speak with the lenders at Washington Mutual, who have the power to modify his loan. “She promised she’d help,” he said with a sigh of relief. “I’m going to hold her to that.” • For help to avoid foreclosure or to contact your lender: 948-7479.
• We want to hear what you have to say. To reach Tracy
Press reporter Danielle MacMurchy, call 830-4221
or e-mail
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Trackback(0)
Comments
(18)
 written by Shocked , April 06, 2008
3800 more homes. Why? Is there not enough homes on the market now. Good way to keep values falling.
 written by tepa loco , April 06, 2008
Always amazed. Ya developers are busting down the doors to develope in Tracy right now..... do some research(that was sarcasm)
 written by bob blinker , April 06, 2008
*
яə$pØИ$iblə for cuяяeИt $tatə of tяacy, 2Ø years !və$ яə$pØИ$iblə for cuяяeИt $tatə of tяacy, 1Ø years fØяwhØmthəbəltØlbəяt vote accountability, vote garamendi written by bob blinker , April 06, 2008
http://tracypress.com/content/view/14151/2242/
tØlbəяt'И'!və$ cØИtiИuə $uppØяt for a DəvəlØpməИt AgяəəməИt, DIяTY DIяTY DEAL, trounced by the voters, to pяØtəct $ØяlaИd$/akt/tяacyhil$ from the voters... http://www.sjcrov.org/results.html * Nov 02, 2004 No MEASURE U,hil$..15260.... 70.46% Nov 02, 2004 No MEASURE V,əlli$.12419.... 57.19% Nov 07, 2006 bəИt H. !və$........08472....55.00% 15260 people get up and vote against diяty diяty dəvəlØpəя agяəəməИt$ in 2004. the largest number of people to vote for anything or AGAINST anything ever, in tracy. at his most pØpular !və$ got less than 75% of the NO ON U vote. fØяwhØmthəbəltØlbəяt much much less. tØlbəяt'И'!və$ are missing the fortitude to tell the dəvəlØpər$ to step off, our people have spoken, because we are not their people. tØlbəяt'И'!və$ have abandoned us. tØlbəяt'И'!və$ beИd Øver backwaяds for akt/$Øяpa/$Øu$a. cØme on, tØlbəяt'И'!və$ can sneak yØu iИ. vote change, vote garamendi  written by amy , April 06, 2008
If more affordable homes were built, I bet there would not be as many foreclosures! Where are the "glut" of AFFORDABLE homes? Stop thinking on imperialist scale!
Do your homework and find out the difference between viarable loan, balloon loan, adjustable loan, and fixed rate loan (smartest choice). If you don't know the difference, you're asking for trouble.  written by h , April 06, 2008
Hello independent friend. I, like you are fed up with stupid party loyalties, too!!
 written by bob blinker , April 06, 2008
*
the only conservat!və$ in the political picture today are democrats, garamendi and sundberg vote conservative, vote garamendi vote conservative, vote sundberg  written by Poopie , April 06, 2008
Ugh, Ives makes me want to poop in my hand, bottle the poop up, and feed it to his cat.
 written by maybenotdumBcommenT , April 06, 2008
hey amy, I got my first house on an assumable loan. Wonder if they still have those?
written by bob blinker , April 06, 2008
*
hiding uckəя əmails: tØlbəяt hiding uckəя əmail$: !və$ need change, vote garamendi http://www.garamendiformayor.org/blog/  written by Andrea Kramer , April 07, 2008
You wouldn't represent yourself in court would you? So why do people keep going into foreclosure without getting help from a professional. I recently found this firm MIZNA and they helped me modify my loan and stay out of foreclosure. Check them out at http://www.loanmod.com
written by amy , April 08, 2008
Oh well, God Bless You, Too. Doo-Doo Man. Thank you for saying all the ugly things... shows your true color. Nice anonymity to use and to hide behind to attack not just me, but many others.
Just show your best self, you WILL feel better about everything, try it. When you attack, tell the other commentor why YOU DISAGREE, just don't bash others without supporting fact. It just makes you look bad! horshak.. I know you are not happy with my comments in the article, but try to give a reason why you disagree? Do you think our governor did HIS PART in DOWNSIZING his own imperialist ground PAID for by the taxpayers? Like someone wise said on this site, "Ugly comments, ugly soul"...  written by Jim , April 08, 2008
I am sorry if this sounds insensitive, but if you are in foreclosure right now you probably either bought a home you couldn't afford, took a second (or third) out, our just used your home like an ATM. Investing in real estate like all other investments is a risk. The whole real estate industry was caught up in the frenzy and very few stopped to realize the repercussions of "what if." If you couldn't afford it why did you buy it?
 written by DOO-DOO MAN , April 08, 2008
Amy, get a life. Anyone that has a comment to an article needs a life. Your comments are all hogwash. What gives you the right to comment on a news article. How do you feel about the war . I guess you have a comment on that also. You are not a qualified person to comment on anything. People who writes comments should look at themselves, just maybe someone has a comment about you that you don't like. Needless to say go to hell b***h and stop talking like your GODs gift to critize anything in a news article, because you not.
This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/Hide comments
|
|
I feel so bad...I just approved 3800 more homes to be built in Tracy...