I do not know anyone who has had to foreclose, however there were a few small old homes that had been foreclosed on down the street from me. Foreclosure isn't running wild here, like it is elsewhere, our area of the country is still reasonably priced. But, with that said, foreclosure is the reason we chose the house we did (small, older, and VERY affordable), since we knew we could manage it on one income. We base all of our bills on my income alone, since DH's work is stable, but inconsistently paid out, so his goes to any debts we have at the time, or like right now, to our trip to vegas this weekend, and savings. And from my income alone, our house payment is only 12% of my monthly income. We would have never even thought about buying a home that required us to use both incomes to manage it, since you just NEVER know what life will throw in the way, with injuries, medical bills, etc...
However, i do realize not everyone has that luxury and has to do what they have to do to live.
I am sure it's one of the scariest things in the world to deal with.

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Chopey

My grandparents lost their house about a year ago. They lived near Cleveland, Ohio. They had tried to move to Florida without first selling the house. They used up all of their savings, even their retirement savings. Then they split up. My Grandma was still there in Ohio trying to pay the mortgages(They had 3 on the house...and no equity). THey didn't forclose for about 4 years because she would sometimes make a payment, but she was over $10,000 behind on payments when they did finally take it. It was really sad because that was the house I grew up in. I had lived there since I was 2. The house backed up with sewage shortly after the forclosure and looks condemned. It was such a nice house. My grandma now lives in Senior housing and my grandpa lives with my aunt. It was just not fun for the whole family. They are supposed to be the rocks of our family and to see them going through this is hard.

My husband and I just bought a forclosure in December. It smelled like cigarette smoke and we had to replace the carpets right away, but it's not too bad. The lady who owned it before was an angry lesbian who punched holes in the walls(which we haven't repaired yet). She works at one of those pay day advance places.

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Debbie 3 years
Sadie 23 months

Baby #3 due in July!

We do not personally know anyone facing a foreclosure right now, and I feel lucky to be able to say that considering the article I just read! It said that in Colorado in 2007, forclosures were up 40% and that 1 in every 45 homes was forclosed on!!
Those are some very scary numbers! Even scarier is that the article said that Colorado isn't even the worst state for forclosures!!!

actually depending on the amt of debt you have, your income, and willingness here in Pa a chapter 13 can be 100% payback, which ours was. We are proud of the fact that we paid our debts... albeit, with the courts protection and slower than the creditors would have liked, but they were paid. Yes we got a bad mark on our credit, but ya got to do, what ya got to do sometimes. LOL also really we still get credit offers and we were able to buy a newer car, now we check our credit reports, do what we can to increase our scores ect. We follow Steven Snyders "Life after bankruptcy" religiously. You all should read his stuff, very common sense, but things you wouldn't normally think of.

I believe they base your options on income - at least in our state. When we spoke to the lawyer they recommended ch. 13 - and indicated that's what we would qualify for based on income/debt etc. I also think (but I'm not sure) that chapter 7 would involve auctioning our personal property, possibly even our home, which we've been in less than 2 years - so not much equity, esp. with house values dropping. We don't really have much that's worth anything. A few coins that we've inherited, two cars - 1 is 10 years old the other is 5...all our furniture, minus kids rooms and a kitchen table are 2nd (3rd? 4th?) hand from family members and yard sales.

Doodle - I am not opposed to paying all of our debt - with the exception of my ds's NICU bills - that should have been insurance. His hospital was in network - but NONE of their neonatoligists are? Thanks for the book recommendation! I'll definitely check it out. I'm sending in our final payment to the lawyer so we're just starting the process here. It was tough writing that check out. And I don't like our balance now - the rest of our tax return *has* to go into emergency savings.

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Stephanie (27) & Virgil (31)
Caden 3 y.o. 11/28/04 29w preemie
Wyatt 17 mos. 9/25/06
#3 due 8/24/08

Sun, Good luck to you!! It is a long road but worth it in the end. Steven Snyder has a web site too. Personal Bankruptcy Information | After Bankruptcy Foundation

I do believe the usual site may be down right now for repair, but check it out anyway. We even went to his seminar... we learned so much. You'll just have to read for yourself to see what I mean. I know what you ment about the Dr. bills too. Since my hubby hurt his back we had a ton. It's ridiculous!!! well, again good luck!!!