Foreclosures - Losing Your Home

I was listening to the news and they reported that the number of foreclosed homes was expected to increase to 20%. I personally know someone that lost their home because the back taxes weren't paid. What makes it all the more worse is that the house will probably be sold for less its value and I don't even know what will happen to the equity (if the previous owners had any) that was in the house. Do the previous owners get that or do they not get anything?

I know that its the "in" thing to be investing in real estate which includes foreclosures but what about the people who are being foreclosed on? I'm sure they are not feeling like they are being part of the "in" thing. The news story goes on to say that there are some options for people who are behind in their mortgage payments. I think a lot of those options involve refinancing their mortgage. A lot of people have gotten those adjustable rate mortgages which are bad because the mortgage payments can go up. But I do understand why people get them. Besides questionable tactics by the companies that handle this, people just go through the procedure so that they can be able to buy the property. I know that this may not seem like a good excuse to some but there are just those instances where your logic takes a back seat and you can't think of anything but the matter at hand.

What's the solution? It's hard to say because everyone has their own different set of circumstances. In a nutshell, if you want to be able to keep your house but you are behind on your payments you should seek some help. If you have exhausted everything that you can do yourself then find someone to help you. First you should seek help from those that don't charge a fee (if you can help it). There should be resources in your own community that you can call and find out how you can address this issue. If the first place you call hasn't helped then call another and keep calling until you can find some help.

Now this may not be a popular subject but I am going to say it anyway and that is that you should start a budget! You can call it your "keeping your house" budget and in that budget you save! Any piece of extra money you put into that budget. You never spend it you just keep adding to it even if it is a few pennies at the start! You save enough to be able to put in a bank account and then you save enough so that you can put it in a bank account that will bring you some interest. Remember that this is your "keep your house" account and remembering that hopefully will rid you of the temptation to spend the money.