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| A family carries out belongings during an official eviction from foreclosed house. | ||
Hundreds of people trying to save their homes from foreclosure flocked to a Connecticut hotel ballroom Saturday to meet with counselors about ways to refinance their mortgages amid the nation's housing market meltdown.
The "Save the Dream" forum, coordinated by the nonprofit community advocacy group Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America (NACA), was expected to draw several hundred more people Sunday and Monday for financial counseling and mortgage assistance.
Stamford is in one of the nation's wealthiest areas, but the region has been particularly hard-hit by the housing market collapse. Nearby Greenwich and other suburbs are home to many of Wall Street's wealthiest executives and financial managers.
Bruce Marks, chief executive officer of Boston-based NACA, said Congress and the financial industry need to be accountable for their role in the collapse of the subprime mortgage market.
"We saw this scheme out there and pleaded with Congress not to let Fannie Mae do this, or Freddie Mac," he said, referring to the government-sponsored mortgage programs.
While Congress and the Obama administration consider ways to help lower mortgage rates and prevent foreclosures, the homeowners who came to Saturday's forum hoped for more immediate answers. Many said they were barely meeting their loan payments or had fallen behind.
NACA organizers said more than 1,500 people signed up in advance, and hundreds more were expected as walk-ins.
Nate Parrish, 43, sat with counselors at cafe tables, scrutinizing his finances line by line. When his wife lost her job as a hospice nurse, the truck driver took a second job.
So far, he said, they have not missed a payment on the house they bought for $160,000 in 2000 in Springfield, Mass., but Parrish says each month is a balancing act.
"I'm not behind, but I'm trying to be ahead," he said. "You can put your head down and do it, but you're almost at a point where you can't really make any progress anymore. All you can do is exist."
Others at the forum had already fallen behind on subprime mortgages as their rates and payments changed, their jobs disappeared or their home values plunged.
Kathleen McGee, 40, of Oxford, has seen her interest rate move from 6.99 percent to 9.99 percent on her modest Cape home — a house that now faces foreclosure as she fell behind on payments after she lost her job and her husband experienced health problems.
Unless she can refinance her loan, she must pay $10,000 to $12,000 to the bank to catch up on late payments and commit to $3,200 a month, she said Saturday.
It's far from the picture she had in her mind when they got the loan several years ago.
"We were fully aware of what we were getting into, but everyone thinks it's going to get better in two years," she said. "I felt it was my only choice."
(AP)
