900 Local Homes Face Foreclosure

Item: Future: Foreclosed: Some people in Kootenai County staked fortunes on the housing bubble and now it’s exploding in their faces /Taryn Hecker, Pacific Northwest Inlander

More Info: More than 900 notices of default were filed in Kootenai County in 2008, an increase of about 40 percent from the previous year, says Kootenai County Clerk Dan English. One of every 454 homes in Kootenai County is in the process of foreclosure, according to market statistics. “A lot of what we’re seeing is people overspent,” says Joel Elgee, a realtor with Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty in Coeur d’Alene. “They go into a home and their margin was too tight and if anything went wrong, they’d be missing house payments. “Once you miss one payment, it’s all over. … The situation perpetuates itself.”

Question: Do you know of anyone in danger of losing his/her home?