The Tale of a Lost Mortgage

The Tale of a Lost Mortgage
Anthony Suau / Facingchange.org for TIME

Still At Home
Douglas' problems date back six years, when he tried to get a fixed loan but ended up agreeing to a subprime loan that was fixed at a relatively high 8.1% rate for the first two years and then "adjusted" every six months after that. The rate could go up but not down. When his business took a hit during the recession, Douglas began to skip payments. The bank proposed a modification by which he would pay $5,200 to settle missed payments and restart the loan. He thought his payment would go down, but instead it went up, and he stopped paying. In this photo, he gets help from his brother Raymond, seated.

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