Foreclosures Enter Baseball Fields

May 5th, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosure

Foreclosures respect no divisions – like the onrush of flood waters that effaces boundaries, to foreclosures all are equal. Today foreclosures have entered baseball fields with victory on its side assured. Jose, Canesco, former baseball star of US said last Thursday that he had surrendered his mansion in California to foreclosure. Jose is one of the first celebrities to admit his being attacked and defeated by foreclosure.

Today Jose is 43. At one time he was a glamorous baseball player. In 2001 he retired from the major leagues. He appeared on TV celebrity show ‘Inside Edition’ and said that it was not within his financial logistics to keep the 7,300 sq ft house located in Encino, a suburb of Los Angeles. The television show went on to inform viewers that Jose owed the bank an amount more than $2.5 million by mortgaging the mansion. Jose told ‘Inside Edition’ that he had been out of the playing field for nearly a decade. Today it did not make sense to keep on paying mortgage for a house that basically belonged to another entity. Jose added that emotionally the issue did not affect him but he was one with the millions in America who have lost or about to lose the houses that were or are their homes because of spirally interests in the sub-prime category of loans. Jose decided just to let go of the properties. In most of the other cases the families do not have a second convenient address to shift to. From the report placed by ‘Inside Edition’ it remains unclear where Jose is now staying.

Foreclosure of houses in US increased by 23% during the first three months of the current year – 2008, from what it was in the previous quarter. It doubled from the figures of the same quarter during the previous year, according to figures released by RealtyTrac.

Another celebrity figure affected by foreclosures was Michael Jackson.

Hunting for reason behind the foreclosure onslaught many experts go beyond the apparent sub-prime loans to the time of 9/11 and the reduction of mortgage rates by the Federal Reserves. The economy had started getting battered by this and many other incidental causes. Unemployment was on the rise leading to huge number of layoffs.. The irresponsible use of credit cards led many to fall into the debt trap. One debt led to another. Priority was not given to the mortgage payment dues – the roof and shelter above one’s head.