Help for mortgage holders in trouble
By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY
Deede Wockenfuss in front of a Chandler, Ariz., home that is listed with her company. Lately, she's gotten a lot of calls from homeowners in dire straits.
In and around Gilbert, Ariz., the mortgage crisis has hit hard. New homes sit abandoned to foreclosures, their windows broken and yards overgrown. Deede Wockenfuss, with Assist-2-Sell, a realty brokerage, sees the fallout up close. She lives near neighborhoods with vacant homes, and her office regularly fields calls from homeowners who can no longer pay their mortgages.
"I have people saying, 'I can't afford this; I'm upside down,' " Wockenfuss says. "They can't refinance, and they can't move. They say, 'Please, tell me what to do.' " Rising payments from adjustable-rate mortgages, mounting job losses and an epidemic of unaffordable loans have thrown more homeowners into a dire situation: They're no longer able to pay.
So what should you do if you absolutely can't pay your mortgage?
It can be hard for a confused homeowner to cut through a thicket of conflicting advice, some of which may be unreliable. Here's what experts recommend for homeowners at risk of being unable to make their loan payments:
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