Publication
Houston Law Review
Volume
45
Page
683
Year
2008
Abstract
Irene Thomas was twenty-one years old when she met a man outside of a nightclub who convinced her that she could make money in real estate. 1 A mortgage broker and others used her credit rating to obtain ten residential properties within a ninety-day period with no money down. 2 Ms. Thomas incurred $ 2.4 million in mortgage debt for these home purchases. 3 Just over a year later, all the properties were in foreclosure after Ms. Thomas failed to make the mortgage payments. 4 The neighborhood on the north side of Minneapolis where these ten properties are located has been wracked by an approximately five-fold increase in foreclosures that has led to abandoned homes and neighborhood deterioration. 5 In north Minneapolis alone there have been 1,400 houses sold through foreclosure auctions. 6 Much of the problem in north Minneapolis involves foreclosure of rental investment property, 7 which resulted in deteriorated housing quality in the neighborhood. Ms. Thomas now has ruined credit because she was duped by those who sold her homes at inflated prices.
Recommended Citation
Prentiss Cox, Foreclosure Reform Amid Mortgage Lending Turmoil: A Public Purpose Approach, 45 Hous. L. Rev. 683 (2008), available at https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/faculty_articles/277.
