Posted on Tue, Feb. 03, 2004
A record 1,092 on sheriff's sale list
An auction of houses is today. Phila. Sheriff John Green offered to join advocacy groups to seek
a moratorium.
By Jane M. Von Bergen
Inquirer Staff Writer
As the number of homeowners who can't make their mortgage payments grows,
Meanwhile, Sheriff John Green said yesterday that he would be willing to go to court to seek a moratorium on sheriff's sales, even as advocacy groups made final plans for a rally outside the sheriff's sale.
The groups, the Philadelphia Unemployment Project and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), wanted a moratorium on the sales.
"The goal of the rally is to sensitize the public that there is a crisis," said John Dodds, executive director of the Unemployment Project. "It's bad for homeowners. It's bad for the communities."
Green said he would be willing to be a co-plaintiff with the Unemployment Project and "anyone else who is trying to save the American dream for so many people. The moratorium will allow people who are experts in this to lobby and agitate for changes in the system that will help people."
In the recession of 1983, sheriff's sales were suspended for at least nine months in
Today's scheduled sale includes 822 houses offered for the first time. That is up from 734 new offerings in January and nearly double the 432 in January 2001, just two months before the official start of the recession. The sale takes place at
Dodds and other housing activists say the high rate is caused by a bad combination of people losing their jobs and a spate of aggressive lending that persuaded people to borrow against the equity in their homes - often when they really didn't have ability to pay.
"There was a total disregard of any kind of lending criteria," said Ruth Gaskins, housing director of the Urban League. The
When homeowners fall behind, mortgage companies typically try to collect back payments. When that doesn't work, the companies file papers in court, seeking a judgment against the homeowner. The houses are then turned over to the sheriff to be sold. The process can take anywhere from five or six months to a year.
Besides the jobless recovery and loose lending practices, advocates have also blamed two other factors.
They say that some mortgage company lawyers add unreasonably high fees to routine foreclosure proceedings. Even if homeowners can gather enough money to bring mortgages current, lawyers' fees ranging from $1,500 to $5,000 can put saving their homes out of reach. Those fees, they said, have to be paid before a payment plan can be negotiated.
The other factor, they say, is a reluctance by
Dodds said a moratorium would give beleaguered homeowners a little breathing room in an economy that seems to be stumbling en route to producing jobs. And that's particularly important to people who are losing their homes because they've lost their jobs.
"If you give people time, they'll recover," Dodds said, "and they'll pay their mortgage."
While Jackie Morrison's three-story West Oak Lane twin is not listed for sale today, it's still unclear whether the nursing-home recreation director will be able to keep the home she has owned for 27 years.
Her case is fairly typical.
Morrison, 53, had come close to paying off her home in the mid-1990s, paying the last $1,600 with her credit card. But when she tried to get homeowner's insurance, she was told to make some repairs. Then, she discovered that she was responsible for debts from her husband, who had been killed. She took out a home equity loan.
Morrison had been making the payments until she was socked last year with two big home-repair bills, even as she was struggling with depression.
She fell behind. The house was heading toward foreclosure.
Even so, last summer, she offered the mortgage company enough to bring the payments current, "but they would not accept my money. The attorney's fees were $2,500."
She applied for mortgage assistance through the state, but was turned down. Her case is now under appeal.
"I tried to do the right thing," she said, "but it didn't turn out that way."
Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.