KING 5 reports that the increase in foreclosures is putting stress on one local non-profit that offers assistance to distressed mortgage owners.
For homeowners caught up in the mortgage meltdown, finding help to save their homes is getting tougher. A Seattle non-profit group helps those facing foreclosure, but the small office is overwhelmed.
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The non-profit agency called Solid Ground helps navigate the ins and outs of the complicated process and how to hopefully save your house. But with a 50 percent increase in calls and cuts in funding, the program is also facing hard times.
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“Last week we had about 55 calls and we’re on track to have the same number this week. It’s way more than we can handle,” said Erin Reardon, mortgage counselor.
Wow, that sounds really… familiar.
Maybe it’s because KING 5 did basically this exact same story less than two months ago.
Housing advocates and lending counselors say they’re being overwhelmed with calls for help from desperate Seattle-area homeowners, many on the brink of foreclosure.
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Solid Ground, which helps low income families, says it’s getting more than 50 calls a week from Western Washington homeowners who are having trouble paying their mortgages.
Foreclosures are definitely on the rise here in the Seattle area, but things probably aren’t as dire as KING 5 is making it sound with this re-run report.
Compared to San Diego, where prices have been falling for two and a half years and they’ve been seeing over 3,000 Notice of Defaults every month lately, the 1,000 monthly foreclosures we’ve had in King/Snohomish don’t look like much of a crisis yet.
(Roberta Romero, KING 5, 12.17.2008)