Extreme Makeover Family Facing Foreclosure

Praxius

Praxius

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Extreme Makeover Family Facing Foreclosure || WXYZ.com | WXYZ-TV / Detroit | Detroit News, Weather, Sports and More

An Oak Park family who received an Extreme Makeover for their home is now in danger of losing it to foreclosure.

Larry and Judy Vardon got into financial trouble because of extensive medical bills for their youngest son, Lance. The 16-year-old is blind and autistic. His medical treatments are not covered by their insurance.

The Vardons were also hit by the subprime housing crisis. Their mortgage rate jumped to 11 percent after it adjusted. Larry Vardon is also worried about being laid off from his job at the Chrysler Stamping Plant in Sterling Heights.

Many of the Vardons' neighbors had thought that their mortgage was paid off when they appeared on the show in November 2004, but that was not the case. Now the home is one of the 390 in Oak Park currently in foreclosure.

The Vardons' property taxes are also part of their financial problems. They jumped almost $1,000 after the makeover.

After their appearance on the show, Larry was laid off and they remortgaged the house. Since then the mortgage has been resold to different companies three times, with the interest rate jumping each time.

The family's debts include $20,000 in medical expenses for Lance. The family has set up a fund to try and raise money. If you want to help you can contact the Friends of the Vardon Family Fund, P.O. Box 721084, Berkley, MI 48072-0084.
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Well I wondered just how much of a benifit those homes would be that they deck all out. I guess some of those homes are not really theirs in the end.

Kinda crappy though.... having your dreams all shot to hell, these guys come along and make your dreams come true again and make it seem like life is going to finally get better..... only for the house to become an addition to the problems in the long run.
 
shadowshiv

shadowshiv

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I just love how the companies contiually spike up the mortgage rate. Maybe if they kept it at a manageable rate, there would be less foreclosures. But why would the companies care?
 
JLM

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Praxius said:


Extreme Makeover Family Facing Foreclosure || WXYZ.com | WXYZ-TV / Detroit | Detroit News, Weather, Sports and More



Well I wondered just how much of a benifit those homes would be that they deck all out. I guess some of those homes are not really theirs in the end.

Kinda crappy though.... having your dreams all shot to hell, these guys come along and make your dreams come true again and make it seem like life is going to finally get better..... only for the house to become an addition to the problems in the long run.
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Yep, sometimes it takes a case like this to make some of us realize just how good we really have it and just be thankful for that.
 
karrie

karrie

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I can't even fathom life where you have to choose between medical attention for your kids, or a home for them. Sheesh.
 
S

Said1

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I often wonder what the home renos would do to their living costs - heating, hydro and how the sudden increased value might affect them with the bank, too.
 
karrie

karrie

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Said1 said:
I often wonder what the home renos would do to their living costs - heating, hydro and how the sudden increased value might affect them with the bank, too.
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See, I wonder more about the underlying problems that brought on the need for the charity. All those costs likely would have been managable without the health care costs. Most of the families they help out have horrid expenses due to sick family members. They can go ahead and help with the house, a lot of times they even pay a year of mortgage and utilities and stuff, but, they can't prevent a family needing to remortgage the place to pay the never ending medical bills.
 
shadowshiv

shadowshiv

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karrie said:
I can't even fathom life where you have to choose between medical attention for your kids, or a home for them. Sheesh.
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Which is quite sad. Medical issues like that should be covered. With the amount of profit that these health-care companies make they should show a little more humanity. But humanity would cut into their bottom line, wouldn't it?
 
karrie

karrie

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DurkaDurka said:
Definitely is a crappy situation, maybe Oprah will pay off their bills or something.
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And that's the sickest part of it isn't it? That sitting here I can come up with at least 15 'celebrities' who probably wouldn't ever even see it in their bottom line if they were to just swoop in and pay off a mortgage for someone. Heck, they'd probably MAKE money doing it, in publicity and tax breaks.
 
shadowshiv

shadowshiv

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karrie said:
And that's the sickest part of it isn't it? That sitting here I can come up with at least 15 'celebrities' who probably wouldn't ever even see it in their bottom line if they were to just swoop in and pay off a mortgage for someone. Heck, they'd probably MAKE money doing it, in publicity and tax breaks.
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In Oprah's case, she could almost pay off the mortgages of all the foreclosed houses and still have lots of money left over.
 
DurkaDurka

DurkaDurka

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karrie said:
And that's the sickest part of it isn't it? That sitting here I can come up with at least 15 'celebrities' who probably wouldn't ever even see it in their bottom line if they were to just swoop in and pay off a mortgage for someone. Heck, they'd probably MAKE money doing it, in publicity and tax breaks.
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Tom Cruise could use some good publicity, he should think of doing something like that.
 
hermanntrude

hermanntrude

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DurkaDurka said:
There isn't anything special about their situation and I imagine there are thousands of other just like them in the US.
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exactly my point. the only thing special here is that millions of people will be sending money to these people because they were on a crappy tv show once and then managed to leapfrog from that onto the news.
 
karrie

karrie

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hermanntrude said:
exactly my point. the only thing special here is that millions of people will be sending money to these people because they were on a crappy tv show once and then managed to leapfrog from that onto the news.
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I think it's new worthy that even the people who've been given a leg up are collapsing in this recession. I wouldn't have included the option to donate if I were the one writing the story, because the story is symptomatic of the times, and you know that most of the people sending money to this family would be ones who can't afford their bills either.
 
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