Foreclosure Suicide - Shame of Foreclosure Claims a Life
Author: Rob K. Blake
Published: July 25, 2008
Stress of Foreclosure - Suicide was the only way out for one woman, Carlene Balderrama, a 53-year-old wife and mother, who took her own life once she realized she’d lost her home to foreclosure.
The Boston Globe reports Balderrama comitted suicide Tuesday just minutes before her home was set for a foreclosure auction. Balderrama faxed a suicide note to the mortgage company, saying “by the time they foreclosed on the house today she’d be dead.”
Balderrama also left a suicide note for her family instructing them to “take the insurance money and pay for the house,” according to the police.
The mortgage company, PHH Corp. through there law firm, released a statement:
“We’re shocked and saddened by what has occurred. Our deepest sympathies go out to the family for the terrible loss it has suffered.”
A Mortgage Insider Memo:
No house, no amount of money, no credit score is worth a life. Please if do not think you are alone in this housing crisis.
If anyone reading this thinks the pressure is too much to bear…call a suicide hotline, call a friend, or better yet call NACA!
NACA is really getting permenant loan modifications foreclosure victims can live with…a long term workable solution. Suicide is not a workable solution.
Good Luck!
Author: Rob K. Blake
Related Articles
Reader Comments
How To Use Our Comment Section:
1. To comment on the article or post: Simply cursor down to the bottom and add your comment in the box, hit "Save". After moderation, your comment will appear next chronologically.
2. To comment on a comment (not on the post) or what is called a "nested" or "threaded" comment: Remember the name of the commentor, hit the "Reply" link in the comment you'd like to reply to. You're taken to the bottom where you can pick the comment name from the "Reply to" drop down list. Then add your comment to the box, hit save. After moderation, your comment will appear "nested" under the selected comment before chronology is considered. Nesting will go down 4 levels.
Rob, thank you for making sure that people have an opportunity to not feel alone. I talk to anywhere from 4 to 10 people a week that are in or know somebody in default. It is so common that the topic is discussed in so many conversations today. People should seek help and counseling. At the end of the day, you can start afresh in three years.
Thanks Mark…
They had been in the house just under 4 years, but she had not made a payment in 42 months? How is that possible?
Her husband made $95,000 which is more than enough to cover the monthly payment, even if she didn’t work.
She handled the finances, but they tried to file bankruptcy, not once but twice? Where was the money going?
HonnyBrown,
They would have to have made payments since it only takes about 4-6 months of not receiving a payment for lenders to file the foreclosure notice or Notice of Default.
I assume they were still making payments okay until the rate adjusted…it was the payment increase that pushed them over the edge.
Sad…
RKB