As my final post, I wish you all a joyful Christmas Eve and Day.
They outdid themselves today.
I don't give them much credit, but they did well today.
The New York Times, I mean.
So reader, curl up with a hot mug of spiked eggnog, turn down the heat, turn off the lights, burn a candle and ENJOY the heartwarming story of Christmas Eve that rivals' Dickens' own classic "A Christmas Carol!"
Give it a read just before bedtime, as you stay up late with Santa and prepare for the joyous, yet somewhat disappointed, faces of the children tomorrow.
All while you are wondering, parents, how you are going to keep the shitty shingle over your head from foreclosing on your stink hole.
Ho-ho-ho, Merry Christmas!!!!!
"Mortgage Crisis Hits Home, Especially Around Holidays" by KAREEM FAHIM
ROCKAWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Somewhere between deciding when to take her SAT exams and reading “Lolita” for the first time, Meghan Werner has learned more than any teenager should about the consequences of the subprime mortgage debacle.
Her father, Philip Werner, a contractor, had struggled to find work, and like millions of Americans, he took out a high-interest mortgage that he could not afford. Meghan, 17, has tried to help him through the legal process that is likely to end next week with the public auction of the only home she has ever known.
On a recent evening, with an old steel and iron stove heating their living room, Meghan and her sister, Katlyn, 16, flipped through photographs of easier times, when their father had more work, and when the family, now split by divorce, was whole. Mr. Werner, 55, sat on the well-worn leather couch where many nights, tormented by worry and guilt, he fell asleep in his clothes.
Did you see the nice, good, wonderful family, readers?
Why does AmeriKa hate its families, readers?
How come we send them to WARS based on LIES, while we FAIL to SHELTER the MOST PRECIOUS AMONGST US!
If the society can not care for it's young women, then we are doomed!
Time has run out. They have no one to borrow money from to save the house, and no one to move in with after they lose it. They have been scouring the classified ads for an apartment, but realize they might be forced to move into a shelter. The girls are also concerned that if they do move to a shelter, they will be separated from their father.
The troubles they face are daunting, but during the holidays, small indignities seem to hurt more.
Mr. Werner, pointing to an empty corner by the living room window:
“This is the first Christmas in 22 years where we don’t have a tree.”
On neighbors’ lawns, elaborate tableaus lighted up the snow.
The Werners have hung stockings, but will skip the presents.
Mr. Werner: “It’s the last Christmas in this house.”
He found the house, an old resort cottage on a half-acre of wooded land populated by blue jays and foxes with a patch of tiger lilies, in 1986. The place was private, and the schools were good.
When Mr. Werner and his wife divorced in 2002, he sold the house to an investor for $170,000.
Mr. Werner: “I had $35,000 left on the mortgage."
He and his children stayed on as tenants. In 2005, when he was making a decent living painting highway lines, Mr. Werner repurchased the house for about $250,000. He said his divorce had left him with bad credit, but he found a loan for about $300,000 through an acquaintance who was a mortgage broker. The loan, through New Century Financial, required no cash down payment and came with an 8 percent interest rate that adjusted to 11 percent, Mr. Werner said.
Mr. Werner could manage the payments, but then lost his job.
For this family, a recent proposal by the Federal Reserve to restrict the granting of high-interest or exotic loans to borrowers with weak credit came too late. According to estimates by the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonpartisan research group, about a fifth of borrowers who took out subprime mortgage loans in 2005 and 2006, as Mr. Werner did, will lose their homes to foreclosure. The center estimates that in New Jersey, more than 30,000 families who have such loans will lose their homes.
New Century Financial, one of the largest subprime lenders, filed for bankruptcy protection in March.
The proposal by the Federal Reserve would require lenders to verify the income and assets of borrowers. Mr. Werner said that he negotiated the loan over coffee at a diner, and that he never had to provide proof of his income.
Mr. Werner, referring to what is sometimes called a stated income loan, or a “liar’s loan.”:
“It was a no-document loan."
Sometime in the last two years, life here slowed to a dismal crawl. The girls started missing school. Mr. Werner stopped working on an addition to the house.
Mr. Werner: “There are days we argue in this house over nothing."
Meghan visited the sheriff’s office with her father this month. A woman there told them they would have 10 days to buy back their home if it was sold to the bank. None of them believes they will be able to find the money.
The girls cling to their memories: fireflies and barbecues out back in the summer; the time their father mistook a bear for Zeus, the family dog. Mr. Werner said he would miss sitting in his living room, looking out the window at the children playing.
Two days before Christmas, a neighbor gave the Werners a small artificial tree. They decorated it with candy canes.
Mr. Werner:
“I bought my first home when I was 25. What I’ve lost is not just the home and my dream. I’ve crushed my kids, and I’ve got to start over again. I’m not able to leave them anything.”
Merry Christmas, readers!
Merry Christmas!!
Peace on Earth and Good Will Towards Man!!!
Merry Christmas, and To All a Good Night!!!!!!!!!!
Sob!
