Left homeless and jobless, some Katrina survivors won't be able to meet their mortgage obligations.
September 22, 2005: 2:54 PM EDT
By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN/Money senior writer
http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/22/real_estate/katrina_homeowners/index.htm
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) Imagine it's July and you're behind on your mortgage payments, or you're making them, but just barely. You don't have adequate homeowner's insurance, and you've borrowed against the equity in your home.
Now fast forward to today. A hurricane has obliterated your house, your job and very likely the property values in your area. The few things left in tact, it seems, are your mortgage and your other debts.
What's a homeowner to do?
That's a question that will face an untold number of Katrina survivors in the coming months.
For now, mortgage companies are cutting all sorts of breaks. They are letting survivors defer payments, waiving late fees and not reporting delinquent accounts to the credit bureaus.
But at some point payment will come due.
There are 1.4 million single-family residences in the federally declared disaster areas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, according to data from First American Real Estate Solutions.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) estimates that a minimum of 200,000 homes have been lost to Katrina, not including homes that are damaged but repairable.
September 22, 2005: 2:54 PM EDT
By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN/Money senior writer
http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/22/real_estate/katrina_homeowners/index.htm
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) Imagine it's July and you're behind on your mortgage payments, or you're making them, but just barely. You don't have adequate homeowner's insurance, and you've borrowed against the equity in your home.
Now fast forward to today. A hurricane has obliterated your house, your job and very likely the property values in your area. The few things left in tact, it seems, are your mortgage and your other debts.
What's a homeowner to do?
That's a question that will face an untold number of Katrina survivors in the coming months.
For now, mortgage companies are cutting all sorts of breaks. They are letting survivors defer payments, waiving late fees and not reporting delinquent accounts to the credit bureaus.
But at some point payment will come due.
There are 1.4 million single-family residences in the federally declared disaster areas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, according to data from First American Real Estate Solutions.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) estimates that a minimum of 200,000 homes have been lost to Katrina, not including homes that are damaged but repairable.