Life has not been easy lately for Tampa resident, Michael Hares.
“I started a new job in June of last year 2007, and, en, in Jan. of 2008, I got fired.”
She felt behind on her mortgage payments, and then, received some more bad news.
“These are the documents that I received for my foreclosure. It was initially filed in Aug. and I would serve with these papers on Sept. 4, and Sept. 5. So, this tells me that my house is been foreclosed on and I am been sued.”
“I’ve just thought that it was sort of been unbelievable. I mean, where am I, was I going to go. What was I going to do? I have two kids. I mean, I am 51 years old and I am in the process of not having a home? It just did not ever seem that it’d ever happen to me.”
The same thing happened to Halley Apple who lived down the street.
“I cleared out furniture because we are going into a smaller place. That is going to have a very minimue stuff in it. That will help to show. I would think”.
“Yeah.”
Apple is now packing up her house to move to a rental unit.
“I have never been through it before. So emotionally, it has been very very, en, trying and stressful and something I haven’t witness in my entire life. I am 46 years old and I’ve got three children. Single parent. So it is, it is very emotional, for us all.”
Nathan Banks is Apple’s real estate agent. He specializes in pre-foreclosure and says he’s seen this story too many times in Florida, one of the states hit hardest by the montage crisis
“I have families that are devoiced. I have families that are, that lost their job. I have one right now where he had to choose between his cancel medication or paying his mortgage.”
With around 400,000 homes in foreclosure, Floridians are looking to the next president for answers.
“What happened was the lending was so loose. It was not based on your debt to income ratio. It was based on the fact that you have a great credit score and you paid your bills. So, by paying your bills, it simply just show(s) you are ok and we’ll give you a loan for that.”
Both McCain and Obama have proposed a bail out plan and more overside of the landing institutions
McCain wants to privatize Fannis Mae and Feaddi Mac.
Obama wants to create a 10 billion dollar foreclosure prevention fund.
But neither inspires confidence for these Floridians.
“The candidates, it is a hard decision. I don’t know what they are going to do who ever is elected and I do not know how they are going to fix this.”
“I don’t know either one of the two candidates that are running for the office have a clue. I don’t think they can do it, any thing for us.”
“We’ve got the issues of the war. We have issues with the real estate market. Real estate market affects everybody on the personal level. Very personal level.”
In spite of the crisis, Banks, a republication, has faith in the free market.
“We are free enterprise country. We are free trade. We are, we are allowed to have capitalism at the finest. Well, we’ve made mistakes and we’ll learn from them. So, there I say, that I don’t agree that government should be running around figuring out how to bail out the private sector.
Hares, also a republican, is not so sure.
“You know it is funny, they say when you are young, and you are a demarcate because you have a heart. And then when you get to be older, you know, you have the check book. You have responsibility so you tend to vote republication. But, as I get older, I start, and specially now, with foreclosure, I start thinking, more about, en, just the personal side of it.
It is clear that people wants change. But in Florida, with the candidates in the dead heat, it is yet to be decided which way the wind of change will blow.
“I, pretty much have made the decision. I have and I am pretty sure that I will decide next week when I go to the polls.”
“I think that I will be supporting Joan McCain for president. And more than likely will. Unless something, you know, incredible happens. Or maybe wrong poll. Maybe, I will be writing in wrong poll. Raffnato (no meaning) and not Rosparoa.”
