What’s Worse Than Foreclosure? Banks Dumping Properties
In what some call the next wave of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, banks in several older industrial cities hard-hit by foreclosures are declining to foreclose on properties because legal and maintenance costs are higher than the value of the real estate.
Instead of being an unexpected salvation for besieged homeowners, bank “walkaways” only add to homeowners’ problems, partly because they usually learn of their home’s legal status months later, after they’ve moved out of the house. So money-stressed homeowners go through the heartache of believing they’ve lost their home to foreclosure, move out and only later learn they’re still responsible for the mortgage when the sheriff’s sale is cancelled. Read more »
