NewtoSanDiego: I think you left your /snark or /sarcasm tag off. By “decent”, you of course mean a 6,000sf custom built home on 6ac of land, right?

By my calculations, they were tied up in over $2MM worth of mortgage obligations and on $180K of income per year. This guy was ostensibly a white collar professional (insurance) and apparently failed to do even basic arithmetic.

I’m sorry, but this mess is entirely of his (and his wife’s) making. Even at his diminished salary of $60K per year, he should still be able to afford a nice, solidly middle class existence in Murrieta, but that clearly wasn’t good enough for someone wanting his own “ranch”.