A Scrooge in Our Midst

Last night I heard a story about a local foreclosure. I have been believing that many of these stories are tragic...but, this one is most certainly NOT. If anything, it reads a little bit like the Christmas story, "A Christmas Carol," by Charles Dickens.

Imagine a neighborhood where the homes sell for between $950,000 and $1,400,000.  Now imagine an owner who refinanced last year, pulling a lot of cash out of his 15 year old home. His house had appreciated significantly in 15 years, and so he very likely pulled out a large sum of money.  He and his wife bought a new house (using the cash from the current house). He then went back to the bank and asked them to renegotiate the terms of his mortgage on house number 1. When they said no, he stopped paying his mortgage.  His house has gone in to foreclosure and was auctioned off on the courthouse steps. He is now moving in to his new home and leaving his former neighbors to deal with the ramifications of the foreclosure.

What ever happened to personal responsibility? Even if he had not been able to get all of the money he owes out of a sale, isn't he the type of person who should be doing a short sale? I guess he has decided that he would rather have a nicer house than a clean credit report--he already has his new house, after all. Too bad for all of those neighbors who might be getting ready to list their homes for a Spring sale.

While what this man and his wife did was probably not technically illegal, it is most certainly unethical.  It almost makes you wish the bank would take legal action against them. So those of us who continue to pay our mortgages (even if we don't like the terms anymore) will suffer with loss of value in our homes just because he was irritated and took the cowards way out.

It is this kind of story that makes cynics of all of us...and makes us doubt that the system is really working for the greater good. Can't you just imagine Ebenezer Scrooge handling the situation this way? No worries about how others are impacted, just a focus on getting what he wants at any cost. Of course, by the end of the Christmas Carol, we come to expect much better of Mr. Scrooge.  I am not sure that this story has quite the same happy ending.