I was watching the news last night and they had a story on it:

Home Foreclosures On The Rise, Higher Interest Rates And A Weakening Real Estate Market Are Driving Home Foreclosures Through The Roof - CBS News

There are more in our local paper now than I think there were in the 80's, very scary. And once all of those homes get back on the market, maybe next year or so, there will be so many homes for sale that prices will have to come down at least around here in New Jersey.


It said that 40% of first time home buyers didn't put ANY money down!

How are things by you?

__________________
"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

Lots of them in our area and mine's one of them. I'm working with an investor right now so maybe mine won't go to Sherriff's sale and I can somehow save what is left of my credit rating. Mine wasn't because of the usual reasons, mine is because of my NOW ex-DH deciding to become a crackhead at the age of 51.

__________________
Living well IS the best revenge!!

Sorry to hear that!

At least you are doing the right thing though, I don't understand why people don't do like you are all of the time? I know my Dad is behind in his morgage too, he is a land surveyor and business has about died off to nothing so he has basically no income for most of the last 3 months and he had no savings to fall back on. It happens to people for a lot of different reasons.

Good luck and I hope you get out from under it!

__________________
"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

I do not think there are a lot of forclosers in our area but there are a lot of homes for sale. The problem is most people around here refinanced when home prices were high (and intrest was low) and used the money to go on vacation and stuff. Now that intrest rates are up again they cannot afford to pay the house payment. However the problam is that they want / need way to much for the house. A frien is trying to sell an old double-wide moble, on a very small lot of land, for over $200,000. I would rather rent for a year or so and get a house when they have been forclosed on.

__________________
TLJ ~ Where opinions are encouraged, not deleted

You laugh at me because I am different,
I laugh at you because you are all the same.

Your mind is like a parachute, it only works when it is open.

Our area is one of the highest I had heard that it was the highest for foreclosures but have never read that. We have 3 empty abandoned houses in our neighbor hood which I have lived here all my life and is a beautiful area. These people just got up and left. One house 2 doors down from mine left last winter and about 6 weeks later when the water company turned their water off I was outside and heard a dog barking. My heart stopped. They left that poor dog in the house with all their belongings just there. I called the humane society and they said there was nothing they could do. Now mind you there had been snow on the ground for 4 of the weeks that they were gone and no foot prints were in the snow or tire tracks. So I called around the house had been forclosed on and the bank owned the home. I couldn't get anyone to get this dog out. So what did I do. I broke in. I crawled through the garage window and went in and found this beautiful Huskey on top of the kitchen counter so scared. The living room was full of dog poo and smelled so gross. The dog ate the couch. I took the dog out and he couldn't eat enough snow. I found him a wonderful new home....Then I got arrested by the bank for breaking the window open. They sent someone out a few days later and the neighbor said that I went in and if I didn't she would have. So I had to pay for the stupid window.
Well I guess I got a little off subject but I think it's a shame that all these foreclosures are happening. With all the jobs going over seas this country is going to be in big trouble soon. We need to start keeping jobs in this country. I see the problems and fortunately we are OK but if my husband were a factory worker I can see we would be in the same shape. It could happen to me tomorrow I know that is scary.

__________________
cmemaloy@yahoo.com


I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

Life! is a coin. You can spend it anyway you wish, but you can only spend it once.

the next county over from us has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country! It's really a blue collar town and has lots of non-english speaking people. Lots of the put no money down, got bad loans and now can't afford them because interest went up. Lots of scamming mortgage people who really screwed over people

We also have a lot of homes for sale because we had a blizzard right before xmas that shurt down a lot of businesses over their prime time. 2 stores downtown went under because 80% of their business is during the two weeks around xmas and they had to be closed because of the snow (no parking on the street). It's sad. Our neighbor does concrete work (his own biz) an he was out of work up until 2 weeks ago when the snow finally melted. His house is for sale. It is sad

__________________
Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

One of the guys that works under DH moved out of his house last weekend. Just moved out and let the bank/finance company have it back. The loan was one of those that starts low and goes up after a year (? not sure how long). Part of the blame lies with the person getting that type of loan. However, I believe the greater part of the blame is in the finance company that approves such a loan knowing full well the people can't afford the payment when it goes up. It's a win/win situation for the finance company.

Thier are lots in our area but I think its because a few years back realators around here were really pushing & banks too so people with bad credit & no money down could get in a house I knew it would come back to haunt them & sure enough it has. I have seen tons of it my neighborhood & my grandmas house she sold awhile back the people who bought it got it foreclosed on. I do feel bad for those people I cant imagine what it would feel like.

__________________
mom of 3 greats girls

I totally hold the finace companies responsible. They are there to sell sell sell. Why would they come out and say hey look this loan is a great loan now but in 5 years it's really going to suck. I am sure they are telling people that the rates go up but they are not putting enough on the part that the percentage rate will go up and fast. Again, it is the responsibilty of the person signing the papers but I am not sure that they fully understand what they were signing.

Flipper your right it's a win/win for the finace company and this has to stop. They too need to be held accountable. And right now they are not.

__________________
cmemaloy@yahoo.com


I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

Life! is a coin. You can spend it anyway you wish, but you can only spend it once.

Mortgage and finance companies do market to high-risk people and should not be doing that, but the individuals need to be held accountable too. Far too many people are far too happy to spend way beyond their means - and then expect someone else to bail them out via foreclosure or filing bankruptcy.

cj/

There should have been someone in the lineup of financial officers that one has to go through when buying a house that would have discouraged these people. I know enough to know when something is too good to be true but many people live in the moment and are not able to think ahead to their potential demise.

I too think Flipper hit the nail on the head. Now, our country needs not only healthcare reform but also home finance reform. So money hungry... It makes me sad to see what our society is becoming.

Around here some of the sherrif's sales are over $500,000! Who is going to buy those houses when they get foreclosed on? The people who could afford them are the ones getting the adjustable rate morgages. And they won't even be worth what they original buyer owes on them, so the banks are in big trouble, they are going to lose some big money.

It seems sad to admit that 2 of the 3 houses we have purchased in the last 20 years were forclosures, and that we have profited from others failures. In a way I feel bad about it, but it was the only way I could have afforded the house we have. The first was a builder in the 80's who went under and this house we have now was a couple who both ended up on disability and couldn't afford the house any longer and the bank ended up with it finally.

It can happen so easily and if you overbought there is no back up to fall back on, no equity, no extra cash in a savings account, etc. And even if we are not one of those people we are still going to be effected by it.

__________________
"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

I listened many times to real estate shows, when the prices for homes were sky rocketing. They said there would not be a bust and prices would continue to go up. It was a buy now before they go up higher mentality. My house would have sold for almost double the reg. selling price before the soar. Then where would I go that I could afford? I knew there had to be a correction in the housing market coming.I would like to know how all the mortgage companies qualified people for these over-inflated homes. It is heart breaking to watch the people on t.v. . This morning from Connecticut a couple and the gentleman is 70 yrs old and they could loose their house. What are the mortages companies going to do with all the foreclosed homes?

Foreclosures? Some. Houses on the market for far too long because people refuse to lower their asking price because they owe too much on the house? A lot!

For several years I have been watching people move into my area of NE Ohio with little or no money down and just waited for the bottom to fall out. It seemed so strange that people were buying homes after having already owned 2 or 3 homes but they still had no equity built up.

When my husband and I bought our first house in 1984 the norm was to have 20% down so you could avoid the PMI (private mortgage insurance) which you then had to have in case you defaulted. When you have money invested in a home, you certainly aren't as likely to walk away and let it be foreclosed. But even my own brother-in-law allowed his house to be foreclosed because he and his wife got divorced, had way too much debt, and declared bankruptcy. Technically they had no money down....but they bought the house from her mom for $130,000 and she gave them a $26,000 gift letter of equity. So they had 20% down, but it wasn't their money....and they walked away from that house with NOTHING. He now lives in an apartment. His ex-wife? She bought a house a few years later with, you guessed it, no money down. And she refinanced last year and took out a bigger mortgage....hmmmm....does anyone see a pattern?

I do understand that circumstances can force people to borrow more money. We even took out a home equity line of credit because we had work to get done on our house but our income was tapped out because of our kids' college, high school and elementary school tuitions. But we still have about 40% equity in our home with our primary 15 year mortgage needing less than 11 years before it is paid off. I am counting on not having a mortgage payment in retirement but I don't believe that is the way it will be for many people my age in 20-30 years when they retire. It's going to be a scary time when Social Security gets adjusted and we find out what we will REALLY be getting from that in retirement.

If you are interested in seeing what others have for mortgages and what housing values are, you can go to BRB Publication's Public Record Resource Center and choose the state you are interested in. Then check the specific county for any available offices that have online records. The Recorders Office usually has the mortgage records and the Auditors Office usually has the property records such as what someone paid for a house and actual property values.

I have to disagree with the bashing loan officers are getting on this thread. All the people who purchased these homes were grown ups. They all had an opportunity to read their paperwork and/or have someone else read it for them and explain it to them. If you can't afford $500 to have someone review your paperwork then you shouldn't be buying a house.

Home prices skyrocketed and alot of people got all giddy when they found out how much their home was worth and used home equity loans to withdraw the equity for trips, improvements, paying of credit cards, etc.

The fact that rates on adjustable mortgages and home equity loans increased is a reflection of an increase in the prime rate. If the prime rate had gone down then the rates on an adjustable would have gone down.

You don't know how many people call a loan officer, provide their income information, and say "How much of a loan can I get?" Instead of deciding how much of a loan can they afford? Plus, what they can afford when they buy the house can rapidly change when they decide, after buying, they want all new furniture, new landscaping, etc.

Why is it someone else's responsibilty to make a person live within their means? In many cases it may not be the house payment that put them under, but all the other debt they have.

It is all about personal responsibility. Any one of us could have made the same choices many of those now in foreclosure made, but we didn't because we made responsible decisions.

__________________
Raising my baby RIGHT!!!!!!

All the cool babies are wearing cloth!

Agree 100% tessa67!

It is a person responsibilty. I do agree, BUT when someone gets in a hole and here is this nice loan officer who will help them dig out. Of course people are going to take the "help" they are offering. People lose jobs, have illnesses, death. Life happens and desperate times call for desperate measures. I have never had my house forclosed on and I don't plan to but if my husband were to get sick I would be in trouble after a year. What then? I am an adult I do have a savings account but in a year....I am not able to make the money my husband does. I am not saying some of the people don't have any sense with money and just spend stupidly but there are some that Life just happens to and they can't help it. In our area there are tons and tons of businesses closing. These are the people losing their houses. I find it very sad. I am not angry at the loan officers I am angry at the banks who are training the loan officers. They are going after high risk people.

__________________
cmemaloy@yahoo.com


I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

Life! is a coin. You can spend it anyway you wish, but you can only spend it once.

I understand there are lots of irresponsible peope out there who live well beyond their means.

I also know there are people out there who for some reason are attracted to adjustible rate mortages, but I can't for the life of me understand WHY. I personally think they should be done away with.

But I think one of the biggest reasons for thousands of forclosures is the falling economy. All the manufacturing that is going overseas and leaving SOOO SOOO many people unemployed. People who have ALWAYS worked. And people who have ALWAYS paid their bills. THen suddenly their jobs are pulled out from under them. And then when or if they do find work again, it pays half or less than the earnings they have always made.

Then theres the stingy employers who no longer want to provide a decent health insurance to their employees. If there is insurance available, the employee costs of having it is way more than they can afford compared to their wages.
Under these conditions, just one surgery or broken limb that takes a person off their job for several weeks to recouperate can be enough to put them into bankruptcy.

Our country is headed for dire straights if things don't change and change SOON. And what's happening now is just the beginning. Before long there's going to be millions more people directly affected by all this. IT"S REALLY SCARY.

__________________
Barb


My GOD Bless our Country and our Troops, and rid the World of terroists.

Well Said Barb!!!!

__________________
cmemaloy@yahoo.com


I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

Life! is a coin. You can spend it anyway you wish, but you can only spend it once.

Foreclosure auctions are held daily on the front steps of our local courthouse. I work in the courthouse once a week where I can view these sales.

I have noticed larger crowds the last 2 or 3 weeks. I don't go out there so don't really know how many sales they are making.

I think adjustable rate mortgages are great. I get a great rate for 5 years and then I'll be locked on on a rate. Yes I'm taking a chance that the rate could be higher but I don't mind gambling for it since right now my rate is 3% lower than if I had locked in on a rate when I bought my home.



I don't agree with the loan bashing either. I think it's an attitude that people have. We can buy a house and if it doesn't work out oh well! We can get married and if it doesn't work out oh well! That is what needs to change not the loan officers doing their jobs.

One of the guys that works for me went with an adjustable on his first home purchase - a small condo in the city (where values tend to be pretty stable) that he and his new wife plan to own for just a few years until they are ready for kids and a larger house. It was the right loan vehicle for them at the time.

cj/

Here is an example of where I am coming from. My MIL's husband got sick so she being 64 years old and still working was the only one supporting their household. She got sick and did not have enough years in to retire. Bills start stacking up people start calling she is in big trouble. A loan officer calls and says hey I can make this all go away. She takes out another loan on her house he has her convinced that she will be able to make the payments with her husbands Social Security. Is it a good idea for her to take this loan....Hell no but it sounds good to her right about now. So she takes the loan. What has happened to her since...she lost the house she has had for 40 years. This is why I have a bad opinon of SOME loan offiicers. My MIL was scared and didn't want to be homeless and thought that since this guy said she will be fine she will. She didn't think enough down the road to say hey those payments look pretty high. She thought this is the only way out. Was it a good decision on her part definately no. She had a husband she was caring for on top of her own health problems. The other problem they had was with this loan officer was that he forged my step FIL signature on the loan documents. That again is why I have a poor opinon of SOME loan officers.
Me I have never had a problem. I know what we can afford and make darn sure that we don't go over that and I am happy with that. But again, what if?

__________________
cmemaloy@yahoo.com


I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

Life! is a coin. You can spend it anyway you wish, but you can only spend it once.

I think adjustable rate mortgages are good for some people. My ex and I had an adjustable rate mortgage back in the early 80's. We both had recently graduated from college, had our second professional jobs, our income was only going to go up over the years. Our mortgage started out at $700+ a month, then over a 5 year period went to $900+ a month before locking in to a fixed rate. We both kept our original jobs, got pay raises, etc, our income grew with our mortgage. If would have worked out great IF I would have not decided to get a divorce after 5 years of owning the house. I made him move out leaving me with the $900+ mortgage, 2 kids and one income. I ended up selling just to get out from under the payment. So in theory it would have worked had we had a happy marriage.

If the loan companies bear no blame then why just 2 weeks ago did the sub-prime industry collapse almost taking the market with it? Why is New Century now a basically defunct company, several others went bankrupt this month and all the loan companies scrambled to dump their wholesale loans before sub-prime collapsed???

Yes to some extent there is personal responsibility (beginning to hate that expression) but there should also be consumer protection, industry responsibility, and integrity (is that still a word???)

These people have been making loans to people with credit scores under 500, 100% -125% loans, edgy ARMs, no qualifying loans, 50 year loans anything just to get those commissions.

Personal responsibility gets low priority when you’re 25 and just starting a family and some loan rep is telling you “Yeah I can get you in a house, it’s really an edgy loan but if you don’t get in now you’ll never own a house and you can refi in a few years to a safer loan.” The rep knowing full well the house probably won’t even be worth the balance of the loan a few years from now.

There are now 2 million households dangerously or chronically behind their payments, the estimate is that at least 1 million of those will foreclose this year alone. Every time a house sells in foreclosure it brings down the property value in the surrounding area, with sub prime collapsed there will be only 30 – 50% of the available qualified buyers there were in the last few years and they will be shopping for bargains. It is a vicious circle.

The loan industry knew this was coming, where was their responsibility? (Not talking individual loan officers but the industry as a whole, sub prime in particular)

__________________
"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live."
-Oscar Wilde

I totally agree, personal responsibility, and I'm not just talking about with your mortgage. But, for the sake of keeping this somewhat on-topic, for this thread, I will. When DH and I were shopping around for a mortgage, FIL insisted we speak to a woman from the bank where he got his mortgage. Even going so far as to have the woman her BF, and our realtor to his house for dinner. WEll, this woman was pulling out some strange financing options, which DH and I were NOT interested in. WE kept telling her, "we're wanting to go with a VA loan". She mentioned ARM loans, and some other type of loans, and the deal breaker was when she tried to get us to do an 80/20 split loan, and told us "that way you can avoid PMI". Well, right then and there we told her "um, with a VA loan, you don't pay PMI". We were done with her right then and there. OUR CHOICE!!! Whenever you are dealing with a large sum of money, be it a car loan, student loan, mortgage, whatever, it is UP TO YOU, the borrower, to look into the situation. There is no excuse NOT to be educated about these things, with all the resources available to you via the internet. As far as people being in these situations because they had no money down (I believe someone claimed that), I disagree. DH and I put down $1,000, and got a check back for $400 at closing, so I guess you can say we put down about $600. We're not being forclosed on, not late on the payments, none of that. We got educated about the loans, taxes, insurance, all of it. Yes, mortgage brokers and loan officers will overextend you, they don't care. Same is true at a car dealer. Why do you think they ask you what you want your payments to be??? rather than how much you want to spend on a car?? You might tell them, "oh, I'd like to stay around $300 a month" and in their head they're thinking GREAT, because the car you're wanting to buy can easily be financed for $260 a month, but, you're willing to go up to $300.

I do understand people fall on hard times, and that is a different situation altogether. I think a lot of it has to do with people spending beyond their means, and not paying themselves FIRST every pay day. Even if it's just $5 a payday....it will add up.

Ok, next topic....our economy is to blame. I agree with this to a degree, but not entirely. I don't agree that our economy is in bad shape ENTIRELY (added to clarify) due to jobs going overseas. Grab the last five items you bought at a store, other than grocery items. Where were they made????

Getting a little off topic, I think, but, you get my point.

__________________
Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

This is totally off topic but I live by this!!! Pay yourself first!! That does not mean spend what you are giving yourself that means saving that money.....SAVING!!! Your right too $5.00 will add up fast and then it's an addiction thing. You save 5 then you want to save more and it keeps going!!!! I LOVE THIS QUOTE

__________________
cmemaloy@yahoo.com


I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

Life! is a coin. You can spend it anyway you wish, but you can only spend it once.

OK Having a serious blonde moment here but these are one and the same thing. Sure the last 5 things were made in China - we now have a $300 billion a year trade deficit with them, meaning we buy $300B more from them than they do from us and that is the very point people are making when they talk about jobs going overseas. Those were the jobs that sustained the working class here for generations, that made this country great and enabled people to buy homes etc.

So how can you blame one thing and not the other?

__________________
"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live."
-Oscar Wilde

If those same things were made here in the USA, they would be more expensive. People would not buy as much. Therefore, stores would not make as much, and not be able to hire as many workers, so they would have to fire people, thereby eliminating MORE jobs.

They couldn't sell it (goods/services) if no one bought it. There is a demand for cheap goods, so they sell. Therefore, companies continue to order cheap things from overseas companies. But, if we stop buying these things made overseas, stores will be forced to raise their prices to get the things made/produced in the USA, and when they raise their prices consumers will shop elsewhere, therefore, there store will now have to lay off some of it's employees.....and the cycle goes on along.

I agree to an extent this overseas jobs situation is hurting our economy, but, in a way, it is also helping it.

__________________
Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

So Business Week would have you believe - but the truth is if we ran our companies as efficiently as other countries they would not have to charge more. Actually we are paying way more even at the cheaper prices than the companies need to sell them for.

Start by cutting the salaries of the top 15% of any large company in half and the perks by 66%. (Don't cry for them they will still be filthy rich )

Then stop the insanity. For instance, my husband's company redid their logo. They have a great marketing dept but decided they wanted to hire an outside "name" company for this impressive logo. So they paid $2 million to this firm, had a $250,000 party to unveil the new logo and dumped all letterhead, forms brochures, corporate knick knacks with the old logo and replaced them with the new logo for several million. The new logo?????? A RED SQUARE!! I kid you not - this company convinced them that it was a very special red that inspired confidence in the consumer.

The utility company got a real bargain they only paid $850,000 for their new logo to replace the old flame. Their new design? A Gas flame, a new updated arsty fartsy one. This crap goes on at every company every day, not to mention trips, golf tournaments, cruises, escorts etc Billions in just plain excess and they cry when $50,000 employees want a 3% raise.

I really am not anti-business but I am anti-corporate greed and it is corporate greed that has been driving this economy and the consumer gets it from both sides. Lower pay, smaller raises, less benefits versus cheap goods at ever increasing prices and overwhelming debt both personal and national.

__________________
"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live."
-Oscar Wilde

Perhaps if today's population lived in smaller, affordable homes foreclosures would be less. Most homes today have to be huge, have 3 or 4 bedrooms, 3 or 4 baths, 2 or 3 car garage, no wonder so many foreclosures. Perhpas if people could just live an average life, not having to have bigger and better, but what is adequate, life would be less stressful. It is the GREED of people today that is causing the probolems, not corporate America, not financial institutions, no one but themselves.

I agree with you snow1459 when my grandma & grandpa bought a house like 60yrs ago they built it themselves with only 2 bedrooms & when they added on a garage & tunnel & stuff they had my dad & uncle do all the work. And my grandma really believed that was the nicest house in the world tell the day she died of course before that her & my grandpa lived in a house with no bathroom & before that worse even worse. But now most people would think a tiny house with 2 bedrooms was the worse thing in the world ya know.

__________________
mom of 3 greats girls

Bravo! Bravo! Compared to homes in other countries, mant of our houses (and cars) are obscene. Everyone wants the absolute best and biggest they can afford. My husband and I live in a house that is less than 1000 square feet with two dogs and about to add a baby. We are snug and have to adapt, but we have money in the bank. And when did it become the norm to pay over $100 for a pair of jeans?

I work at Williams-Sonoma and I am astounded at what people will buy. Our stuff is expensive (and I'm not talking pots/pans and knives here, those are an investment) like $10.50 for bread mix? Dishwashing liquid that is $9.00? I don't even buy that stuff with my employee discount.

Like I said before, people who lose their houses are probably not losing them because of the house payment, but all the other payments they have set themselves up to make.

__________________
Raising my baby RIGHT!!!!!!

All the cool babies are wearing cloth!

I live in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house. Kitchen, dining combo and living room. We own it free and clear. We both drive 6 yr old paid for cars. We raised one child in this house who never went to day care. I have never gone to Target and spent the kind of money I read about here on clearance. What do you people do with the STUFF you buy at 75 and 90 per cent off? Let's blame corporate America marketing for making you spend on unnecessary stuff? Then you need to remortgage your 5 bedroom home to pay for the stuff? Let's blame the mortgage broker (who is doing his job to pay for his 6 bedroom house) for giving you a mortgage? Take responsibility for the CHOICES you make.

We also live in a small house I guess you could say its 800sq feet & we have 3 kids & 2 dogs but our house is also almost paid for & we are only 30 & are kids also dont have to go to daycare which I am so thankful for I would rather live like this than have to work all the time for something I never get to enjoy ya know

We also had alot of bankers trying to get us to refinance finally I told them my house is paid off I dont need to refinance & they left me alone after that but boy they really pushed it. I do know someone actually a family member who refinanced a payed off home & then lost it she couldnt make the payments.

__________________
mom of 3 greats girls

We get offers in the mail EVERY day (it seems!) for home equity loans and refinancing offers. They must get responses or the offers would end.

It is a personal responsibility for people to make educated choices based on personal knowledge rather than 'keeping up with the Joneses'.

It really has gotten out of hand in the past few years with people living beyond their means (ie racking up credit card debt, buying unaffordable homes, driving high priced gas guzzling new cars before old cars are paid off, paying exhorbitant amounts for food at Williams Sonoma, eating out every night, etc. etc. etc...)

Personally, we pay off our debt as quickly as we can and are VERY hesitant to add new debt. What really helps me is to keep a list of things that we *want* and then wait a few weeks before buying it. Often, the item gets scratched off of the list before we even get to the store to buy it. I never hit all of the Target sales unless it is for resale on eBay or because it is something that we NEED. You can really nickel and dime yourself into a lot of $$$ over time and YES that means you will need a bigger house too!!!

It hink that I went off-topic! These allergy meds are kicking in. Posting anyway... LOL

Carrie,

I applaud you!!!!!!!! I wish that you had contacted your local vet, paper, tv and an animal cruelty center!!!! I would have done the same thing you did. Thanks for finding the poor dog a REAL home!!

Does anyone know if there is a way to find out if a house has been foreclosed??? I know that one in our neighborhood has but I am questionable about another.

__________________
John 14:1
GO GATORS!!
GO BEARS!!
Check out my pictures!! Just click below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gotjenks/