Extreme Makeover: Home Edition – Dream Homes or Foreclosure Risk?

For those of you that haven’t watch the show yet, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” finds worthy families that have faced some sort of recent or ongoing hardship and gives them a helping hand by remodeling their home (or replacing it entirely if its beyond repair).   The show is now in its 7th season, but a recent disturbing trend has been creeping up as strings of makeover homes faces foreclosures.

The Wofford family of Encinitas, California, whom got their house over 5 years ago (episode 15, season 2) are now facing foreclosure, after struggling to pay for their bills for two years, according to San Diego 10 News.

Though many times the audience may be lead to believe that each episode ends with happily-ever-after scenarios, realistically, many of the families may continue to face financial hardship with higher property tax and utility cost.

Beyond the Woffords are also the Harper family of Atlanta (episode 29, season 2), who famously faced foreclosure last year after taking out an unwise $450,000 loan using the makeover house as equity.

Critics have often contend that the makeover homes are too lavish to be supported by some of these financially strapped families (such as the 6-bedroom, 7-bath, and 7-television home to a family of 4).

Faced with foreclosure pressure, some families have also opted to sell their homes in order to avoid foreclosure or the excessively high property tax.  The Hassall Family (given a 3,298 sq. ft. home in episode 62, season 3)  did just that after they’re left with more than $100,000 to pay off on their mortgage.  After three years, the family decided to sell the home rather than faced the stress of increasingly high property tax and utility bills.

As homes across the country face foreclosure risk from the fallout of the recession, we may unfortunately soon hear more stories of yet-another makeover home being on the verge of foreclosure.  Perhaps with this in mind, the producers of the popular ABC show will adjust future makeover homes to account for any potential future ramification to the families’ finances.

10 Outrageous Foreclosure Stories

Foreclosures have skyrocketed virtually every month since the collapse of the housing market. Across the country, people who bought homes at inflated prices and took adjustable rate mortgages are losing the properties to foreclosure in record numbers as home values decline. (To put the sheer quantity into context, consider this: foreclosures are reported to have “fallen slightly” during August, according to the Washington Post, because there were “only” 358,471 foreclosure filings nationwide during that month. That’s an 18% increase from August 2008!) However, not every story follows the typical “homeowner borrowed too much, homeowner loses home” formula. The stories below run the gamut from weird to tragic to outrageous, capturing some of the less common events on today’s foreclosure scene.

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