Extreme Makeover House Faces Foreclosure.......

by Mary 25 Replies latest social current

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  Mary

  Your thoughts? Were these people irresponsible or just unlucky?

  'Extreme Makeover' house faces foreclosure 3 years after it was built for show

  Mon Jul 28, 2:53 PM

  By The Associated Press </form> LAKE CITY, Ga. - More than 1,800 people showed up to help ABC's "Extreme Makeover" team demolish a family's decrepit home and replace it with a sparkling, four-bedroom mini-mansion in 2005.

  Three years later, the reality TV show's most ambitious project at the time has become the latest victim of the foreclosure crisis.

  After the Harper family used the two-storey home as collateral for a $450,000 loan, it's set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse Aug. 5. The couple did not return phone calls Monday, but told WSB-TV they received the loan for a construction business that failed.

  The house was built in January 2005, after Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA and ABC's "Extreme Makeover" demolished their old home and its faulty septic system. Within six days, construction crews and hoards of volunteers had completed work on the largest home that the television program had yet built.

  The finished product was a four-bedroom house with decorative rock walls and a three-car garage that towered over ranch and split-level homes in their Clayton County neighbourhood. The home's door opened into a lobby that featured four fireplaces, a solarium, a music room and a plush new office.

  Materials and labour were donated for the home, which would have cost about $450,000 to build. Beazer Homes' employees and company partners also raised $250,000 in contributions for the family, including scholarships for the couple's three children and a home maintenance fund.

  ABC said in a statement that it advises each family to consult a financial planner after they get their new home. "Ultimately, financial matters are personal, and we work to respect the privacy of the families," the network said.

  Some of the volunteers who helped build the home were less than thrilled about the family's financial decisions.

  "It's aggravating. It just makes you mad. You do that much work, and they just squander it," Lake City Mayor Willie Oswalt, who helped vault a massive beam into place in the Harper's living room, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

  -Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com
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  treadnh2o

  Welcome to Americia!!!
• 

  SnakesInTheTower

  I have often wondered what happens to those fantasy houses years later.

  What about those kids rooms..especially the teenagers that are 15-18 years old...and then they leave the house..and this really customized room is left...or even a room designed for a 6 year old...then the 6 yr old grows out of that phase...and the room ..with all its bells and whistles.. ...gets gutted and repainted regular, normal colors ....

  Didnt they used to renovate the houses rather than tear them down? I bet there were legal issues and construction issues that just made it easier to demolish and build new rather than try to retrofit, renovate, and remodel...

  I watch the show a lot..but somehow...this story confirms my suspicions....and kind of jades it...

  Snakes ()
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  Quandry

  "It's aggravating. It just makes you mad. You do that much work, and they just squander it,"

  Yes, this would cover my thoughts. The poor children.
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  Mary

  I tend to think that that show has really gone overboard, probably just for the ratings. I think when they first started out, they would go in, fix up the existing house, perhaps put a bit of an addition on and that was it. Now they go in, bulldoze the entire house and hand out 5 bedroom mansions like candy. While I think it's a wonderful thing to help people out, for some it's obviously "too much too soon" and they end up right back at square one.

  Taking a $450,000 loan out against the house to start up a business, probably isn't the smartest of ideas unless you've got alot of experience in business, or at least have a Financial Planner.
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  Satanus

  You do that much work, and they just squander it,"
  
  Generally, there is a reason poor people are poor.
  
  S
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  Gopher

  This is the first time I've heard that someone lost their house. I'd hope most people would appreciate the new house that people built for them.

  These people dug their own deep hole, with the help of an irresponsible, greedy lender - who had to know that $450K was way too much to give people based on their earnings. It's a hard lesson that this family learned!
• 

  Layla33

  Generally, there is a reason poor people are poor.

  Exactly. When it is a country that is poor, that's a different thing. Or when it is a general economy thing that is affecting everyone. But having worked with homeless people and very poor people, unless they learn how to save money, how to make money, handing them something will not change anything. Now there are exceptions, where people have been poor through no fault of their own, but for the most part people that are given something without working toward it and learning valuable lessons in the process, usually do not learn what is essential when elevating oneself and maintaining that situation.

  I have seen it time and time again. So I am not surprised...
• 

  Grammy

  Your thoughts? Were these people irresponsible

  Yes they were!

  Extreme Makeover came to Biloxi, MS after Katrina and remodeled an existing building to serve as Coastal Family Health Clinic until a new building was completed...this clinic provides health care to people on a limited income or those who simply can't pay.

  I have been a patient there for several years since I had to stop working and start depending on my social security for my income

  They now have their new building finished and moved in to it a few months ago, the building Extreme Makeover remodeled will now house the Saint Vincent De Paul pharmacy that dispenses medicine to the patients of Coastal Family Health Clinic.

  I say shame on these greedy people for taking out that loan on their house, it's disgraceful in my opinion.
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  chickpea

  what exactly points to the funds being "squandered"?
  just curious as the article doesnt show specifically
  a pattern of irresponsible spending....
  
  if in fact the loan was to start a business that didnt succeed, there too,
  one could say "welcome to america!" half of all small business start ups
  are in the tank by year 5.....by year 10, 71% are history, so there is about
  a 3 out of 4 chance of failure, period.
  i cannot believe that the term "squander" is applicable in most of those instances
  ( graph from bureau of census report 2002)

  
  
  add the fact that if their enterprise was construction.....
  omg on the cusp of the housing market debacle!!

  look at 2005... it was the beginning of the end of the bubble.... LOTS of people got squashed

• 2001–2005: United States housing bubble (part of the world housing bubble)
  
  • 2001: US Federal Reserve lowers Federal funds rate 11 times, from 6.5% to 1.75%. [5]
  • 2002–2003: Mortgage denial rate of 14 percent for conventional home purchase loans, half of 1997 [3]
  • 2002: Annual home price appreciation of 10% or more in California, Florida, and most Northeastern states.
  • 2004: U.S. homeownership rate peaked with an all time high of 69.2 percent. [6]
  • 2004–2005: Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, and Nevada record price increases in excess of 25% per year.
• 2005–ongoing: United States housing market correction ("bubble bursting")
  
  • 2005: Boom ended August 2005. The booming housing market halted abruptly for many parts of the U.S. in late summer of 2005.
  • 2006: Continued market slowdown. Prices are flat, home sales fall, resulting in inventory buildup. U.S. Home Construction Index is down over 40% as of mid-August 2006 compared to a year earlier.
  • 2007: Year-to-year decreases in both U.S. home sales and home prices accelerates rather than bottoming out, with U.S. Treasury secretary Paulson calling the "the housing decline ... the most significant risk to our economy." [7]
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_housing_market_correction

  i think they got caught in an economic cycle.... it is a rush to judgment to characterize them as having "squandered" their "gift"

  additionally,i think that show is way over the top in its scope,
  which is an obvious ploy for ratings.... guess that is where
  "extreme" seems appropriate, eh?
  
  all anyone requires is adequate housing, not grandeur