For years, you’ve been told owning your own home was the “American Dream.” But ABC2 News Investigator Tisha Thompson discovered, some one can literally “steal” your home. Meet Dana Pryor, a mother in North Baltimore who thought she had done everything right. The right education, the right job, she even got what she thought was the right loan. Only to find out how very wrong it can all become.
"How do you not know where your uniform is or your books?”
Like single mothers everywhere --
"Could you just find...where is your...ugh."
Dana Pryor’s morning ritual can be a bit of a struggle.
"Come on and get in the car."
Yet, despite the seeming chaos --
"Everybody in!"
Pryor has managed to do everything right for years.
"Come on, come one, come on. Where's your brother?"
She went to college.
"I'm about to leave this kid and let him walk to school."
Got a master’s degree.
"Ok, we're ready to go."
And a very good job.
"I am a six-figure, degree-having mom who feels very much like I have failed miserably."
Because Pryor’s dream house --
"It was $180,000, six bedrooms, three bathrooms."
Became the money pit --
"Probably $35,000."
That swallowed her 401-K.
"I'm either going to feed my kids or I'm going to pay the person I owe,” Pryor says. “Oftentimes you're robbing Peter to pay Paul and Peter has to wait until later."
Peter being her $1,300 mortgage payment, which escalated to more than $28,000 even after she paid back a few missing installments. Now her home will be sold on the courthouse steps because, despite making more than $100,000 a year, Pryor’s gone into foreclosure.
"The tsunami is coming,” says Allen Fishbein of the Center for Responsible Lending. “It has already engulfed some but unfortunately it appears its going to engulf many more."
The Center for Responsible Lending predicts as many as 22% of Maryland’s subprime loans will go into foreclosure next year.
Maryland has the fastest foreclosure process in the nation. If you miss a payment, your lender can sell your home in just 15 days.
"Maryland's 'Rocket Docket' of going into foreclosure sale in 15 days doesn't have to be,” says Phillip Robinson for the legal-aid group Civil Justice Network. “Most states have a much slower process."
To make matters worse, Robinson says the banks don’t even have to tell you they’re selling your house. "It’s the only legal proceeding in Maryland that doesn't require notice, which to me is mind-boggling,” he says. “If you want to sue me for $20 in District Court, the judge can't sign the order until you can prove through an affidavit that I got served. But if you want to sue me and take away my home and foreclose on my home, you don't have to prove to the judge that I got notice of the lawsuit."
"This is everyone's problem and we need to get them to get outraged," says Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD). He says he’s going to fix the problem, but needs you to write him a letter complaining about Maryland mortgage meltdown first. "I need people to be fiery about it.”
But foreclosure is embarrassing for many people.
"Pride is the biggest stumbling block," says Pryor. "The biggest mistake I made, the one everyone makes, is putting your head in the sand. It’s very hard to admit you need help with your mortgage."
Pryor says she hasn’t told anyone she’s about to move out and only agreed to go on camera because she doesn’t want what happened to her to ever happen to you.
"You can't buy a home in 15 days, but you amazingly enough you can lose one in 15 days.”
