The Other Side, Daily Republic 4-30-09
Foreclosures more than just losing a home
By Kelvin Wade | | April 30, 2009 14:06
Last week, according to Realtytrac Inc., Fairfield is among the top 10 highest foreclosure rates in the country. In Fairfield, the American Dream has truly become a nightmare for too many residents.
After our mother passed away in 2006, we put the Wade family home on the market. It sold in February 2007. I haven't been by to the old neighborhood in a while but with the bottom falling out of the housing market, I wanted to see what our old home was now worth. So I pulled up a Web site online and typed in the address.
We'd purchased the house on Davis Drive back in June of 1976 for $39,000. It was the first house our parents had ever purchased, having lived in Navy housing until that point. When we first visited the house, it was just a wooden frame on a slab of concrete. Most of the subdivision was still nothing but dirt fields filled with jackrabbits.
It was a 1,618 square-foot, four-bedroom, and two-bath house on a lot that was in excess of 10,000 square feet. With five boys and only three available bedrooms that meant me and my younger brother Scott shared a room, Tony and Ken shared a room and Orvis, the eldest, got his own room.
The next 30 years made the house a home. It was where our dad grew vegetables in his garden and force-fed us way too much zucchini. It was where we played basketball on the paved court in the backyard.
At different times it was a place of irreverent partying and restorative Bible study.
It was ground zero when the coroner's investigator came to tell us our brother was dead on that horrible Mother's Day 19 years ago.
It was the epicenter of holiday celebrations; crazy, funny moments that have been preserved in photos and videos.
It was where we loved, laughed, argued, learned, fought and came of age.
Selling it was deeply emotional. But I consoled myself with the memories and the fact that a new family would make new memories there.
I pulled up the house on my computer.
'Foreclosure,' was the first word I noticed on the screen. It also said it has been on the market for 51 days. No doubt the people who purchased our family home had big dreams for their family. Maybe they wanted to have a garden and grow fresh vegetables, revive the basketball court, put in a pool and make memories of their own. But it seems the memories they will have of that house will be painful ones.
Then I noticed the house next door to our old house had gone through foreclosure. And the house across the street as well.
The foreclosures are wreaking havoc on neighboring homes. On a lark, I typed in the address of my friend Dan who still lives in the same house two doors down from our old house. His house dropped in value nearly $14,000 in the last month. Ouch.
Foreclosures are up 23 percent in the first quarter of this year. We now know that Fairfield has the dubious distinction of being one of the places leading the nation.
But the thing we should keep in mind when we talk about foreclosures is that we're not just talking about raw numbers and statistics. We're talking about peoples' homes. It's their hopes, dreams and memories that are going up in smoke. Peace.
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If You Take One Lesson Away From This Swine Flu Scare
Read what I have to say about it on the DR Other Side blog by clicking HERE
After our mother passed away in 2006, we put the Wade family home on the market. It sold in February 2007. I haven't been by to the old neighborhood in a while but with the bottom falling out of the housing market, I wanted to see what our old home was now worth. So I pulled up a Web site online and typed in the address.
We'd purchased the house on Davis Drive back in June of 1976 for $39,000. It was the first house our parents had ever purchased, having lived in Navy housing until that point. When we first visited the house, it was just a wooden frame on a slab of concrete. Most of the subdivision was still nothing but dirt fields filled with jackrabbits.
It was a 1,618 square-foot, four-bedroom, and two-bath house on a lot that was in excess of 10,000 square feet. With five boys and only three available bedrooms that meant me and my younger brother Scott shared a room, Tony and Ken shared a room and Orvis, the eldest, got his own room.
The next 30 years made the house a home. It was where our dad grew vegetables in his garden and force-fed us way too much zucchini. It was where we played basketball on the paved court in the backyard.
At different times it was a place of irreverent partying and restorative Bible study.
It was ground zero when the coroner's investigator came to tell us our brother was dead on that horrible Mother's Day 19 years ago.
It was the epicenter of holiday celebrations; crazy, funny moments that have been preserved in photos and videos.
It was where we loved, laughed, argued, learned, fought and came of age.
Selling it was deeply emotional. But I consoled myself with the memories and the fact that a new family would make new memories there.
I pulled up the house on my computer.
'Foreclosure,' was the first word I noticed on the screen. It also said it has been on the market for 51 days. No doubt the people who purchased our family home had big dreams for their family. Maybe they wanted to have a garden and grow fresh vegetables, revive the basketball court, put in a pool and make memories of their own. But it seems the memories they will have of that house will be painful ones.
Then I noticed the house next door to our old house had gone through foreclosure. And the house across the street as well.
The foreclosures are wreaking havoc on neighboring homes. On a lark, I typed in the address of my friend Dan who still lives in the same house two doors down from our old house. His house dropped in value nearly $14,000 in the last month. Ouch.
Foreclosures are up 23 percent in the first quarter of this year. We now know that Fairfield has the dubious distinction of being one of the places leading the nation.
But the thing we should keep in mind when we talk about foreclosures is that we're not just talking about raw numbers and statistics. We're talking about peoples' homes. It's their hopes, dreams and memories that are going up in smoke. Peace.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
If You Take One Lesson Away From This Swine Flu Scare
Read what I have to say about it on the DR Other Side blog by clicking HERE
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