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By John Derby
September 2, 2010
 Our next door neighbor had lived in the house for 17 years.
He was a good neighbor as neighbors go.
We watched as his son grew from childhood to a young man.
When we left on trips, the neighbor watched our house and we felt assured that no one would trespass who did not have a right to be there.
It was a surprise, one day, when he told us the bank which had the loan on his home was going to foreclose on it. We did not realize he was in bad financial shape.
He did have a bad back from a previous trucking accident, which caused him to go on unemployment, and that had run out.
We asked about the loan modification program, and he said he had talked to the bank representative, but after many months there was no modification, and at one time the representative advised him to "just move out."
When he asked the representative why he didn't qualify for a loan modification, he was told "You have been paying off your credit card. You have the money to pay the mortgage payment."
The neighbor hadn't made a mortgage payment in six months. It was $1,200 a month and that was more than he could afford.
He said if the payment had been modified to $1,000 a month, he would have stayed and paid it. The bank refused to accept it.
Even after the foreclosure notice was received, the bank seemed in no hurry to get him out of the house.
The neighbor found a beautiful three bedroom two bath rental for $800 a month and it had a swimming pool, something he had always wanted. Actually the owner of the rental said that he was about to be foreclosed on his property too, if he hadn’t found a renter.
Two months after he moved out, he was still returning to his old house. The lawn had not been watered and all the shrubs were dying. The hose he left was stolen. There was no For Sale sign out in front of the house.
The bank advised him, he could try to do a Short Sale on the house to save his credit. The last time we talked to him, he said he would try to make a deal with the bank, but didn't know if they would go for it.
Foreclosures in the San Joaquin Valley continue to rise, despite the comments from HUD that the problem is being addressed.
With Merced, and Stanislaus counties at number 4 and 3 in the nation, local Congressman Dennis Cardoza says "I’m mad and you know how I am when I get mad."
To his credit he has gone after HUD and authored a law which would cut HUD’s traveling expense.
But that has had little effect.
Homes are being foreclosed at an alarming rate and many of them do not go on the market to be sold. Many of them, like the neighbor's, sit as an eyesore to the community.
It is such a problem that neighbors in Atwater actually paid the water bill on one house so
the watering of the yard would go on.
We are told that more money is going to be thrown at the problem by the Federal Government, however we have been told that before, when the fed paid billions to the big banks to save them from going bankrupt.
Results of the modification program have been poor at best. People are still being forced out of their homes.
Modification is not a solution to the foreclosure program. Providing jobs is the solution and that can not happen unless the government makes it more advantageous to start or grow a business.
Raising the taxes on business drives the country in the opposite direction. Tax business less and they will use the profits to hire more people.
We are seeing an increase in new business, small mom and pop businesses which hire few employees. The message they are saying is that hiring employees does not pay because of the cost of benefits, unemployment taxes, social security and now health care.
How long is it going to take for the government to understand that message?
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