Even New York Times economics reporter bought too much home
There are certain people whom you’d think would never fall prey to the mistakes so many of us made during the housing boom. Like, for instance, an economics reporter at the New York Times.
But Edmund Andrews did make a costly housing mistake, buying more home than he could afford. He and his wife also spiraled into loads of credit-card debt. Finally, they stopped making their mortgage payments.
Funny thing, though: Andrews’ mortgage lender has been so busy dealing with other homeowners not paying their mortgages — and other issues, too, I’m sure — that the company has yet to even get in touch with Andrews and his wife about working out some way for the couple to keep their home.
It’s been eight months, and Andrews is still missing his mortgage payments. He’s also still in his house.As he says, the foreclosure “ax” has yet to fall on him. Fascinating.
You can read about Andrews’ situation here. He wrote about it for the Times.
This is the kind of story that makes me, as a fellow writer, jealous. It’s so well-written and engrossing you almost forget that it stretches over an entire six Web pages.
But I’m certainly not jealous of Andrews’ financial situation. And I’m as surprised as he seems to be that an economics expert — as an economics reporter is supposed to be — fell into the mortgage trap.
Andrews’ tale covers everything from fast-talking loan officers offering increasingly complicated mortgage schemes to a husband and wife learning the power of forgiveness. It’s not the sort of stuff you usually read about in the mortgage and real estate worlds.
It’s a cautionary tale, of course. But it’s more than that. It’s a story that explains how the foreclosure crisis has spiraled so out of control. It’s certainly recommended reading.
