I saw the episode while on my treadmill last night, several observations:
#1. In a lot of cases the distressed homeowners’ attachment to their home ends up being their own undoing. Realistically the best thing for this family without any steady income and a mortgage bill of $4000 per month would have been to simply walk away early on. They were fighting an unwinnable fight for 4 years, the end result is the distruction of the marriage. What’s the point?
#2. This is proof that there was no conspiracy to keep the inventory down. Most of these distressed homeowners were kicking and screaming and using all tactics possible to get a stay on the foreclosure. The biggest victim was really these distressed homeowners’ mental sanity.
#3. There was no self-reflection and self-blame about their excessive spending on the part of the Sadowski’s. The spending really was quite excessive, especially since his annual income at the peak was just $160k. You take away taxes and you’re left with maybe $100k. And that was his best year! How many people with take home of $100k have a full sized RV, couple of Harleys, a Mercedes for the stay at home wife, multiple restored classics, as well as ATVs and a fully loaded pool with ‘REAL’ boulders???
#4. The Sadowski’s would have been fine if they did not refi and make the above purchases. Their original loan was only $260k. At 7% interest, monthly payment was at $1700. Dateline pointed out the husband was still able to pull in around $3000 per month doing odd jobs. Plus the wife was also working as well. They would not have been able to save, but certainly they were able to get by.
#5. There’s the health care debate again. Here we have a person who went without health insurance getting into an accident. Who ended up paying for his surgeries and hospital and recovery bills? We did. Another example of our world renowned health care system at work.
#6. Her chubbiness and the kids’ chubby ways. Did you see her using her EBT card to buy sugary drinks and processed food??? Of course still likely without insurance and we’ll have to pay for their health care costs down the road.
