Deanna Atkinson’s husband, Hubert, fell ill shortly after they bought their house on Liberty Boulevard in Westmont in 2003. A year ago, she lost her husband, and now she may lose her home as well.

Hubert, a retired trucking company employee, had his esophagus removed after he got sick and was improving significantly until diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that attacks the bones. However, after a successful stem cell transplant, he was once again doing well.

Then in June 2007, Hubert died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage. That left 55-year-old Deanna, who works as a sandwich maker at Kramer’s deli in Hinsdale, and her 20-year-old son, Chris, alone with a $2,000-per-month house payment she couldn’t afford.

“I tried and tried to get refinanced, but it was like bashing my head against the wall,” Atkinson said. “Either my income wasn’t enough or my credit wasn’t good enough.”

Atkinson said she spent about four months awaiting a loan modification and trying unsuccessfully to get a hold of her mortgage company, all the while falling further and further behind on her payments.

Then at about 11 p.m., the night before the first Christmas Eve since her husband’s death, Atkinson said she got a knock at the door. She answered and was met by a man who handed her foreclosure papers on her home.

“I didn’t tell my son or my brother because I wanted them to have a nice Christmas,” she said.“We were all pretty miserable anyway since it was the first Christmas without my husband.”

Atkinson is one of many caught in the foreclosure crisis. However, new relief may be on the way.
Several weeks ago, the state passed a bill to help burdened homeowners refinance their adjustable rate mortgages and allow them a chance to apply for help before defaulting on a loan. And just last month, President Bush signed into law a new bill that may provide some relief to homeowners close to foreclosure in the form of more affordable, government-backed mortgages.

But despite recent government intervention efforts, the foreclosure crisis continues to drag on in both national and local markets.

Close to home
About 115 houses in Westmont are listed in some state of foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac.com, a company that publishes the largest, most comprehensive foreclosure database in the U.S.

Vacant plots where commercial and real-estate developments were planned have been dormant across the village for some time now as builders await a market rebound, but foreclosures have had less obvious effects, officials say.

Westmont Economic Development Director Fred Kimble said some municipalities don’t track foreclosure numbers, but officials do worry about potential impacts associated with vandalism and code enforcement.

“The propensity for vandalism is greater with more vacant properties,” Kimble said. “We hope it doesn’t go into that, but we have had more tall grass complaints this year. While we don’t have concrete evidence, I suspect they’re related.”

Police Chief Jim Ramey said the department has not seen any vacancy-related vandalism in his two-year tenure, but he said there have been instances of code enforcement problems. Often they stem from tear-down properties in which the developer has stalled demolition of an older home but not maintained it, Ramey said.

In one instance, in The Ponds Apartments complex, Ramey said two separate owners allowed their respective buildings to run down until both were finally foreclosed. They were sold, and the new owners “vastly improved” the properties, Ramey said.

“You could call that a foreclosure success story,” he said.

Buyer’s market
Economist opinions vary, but according to the RealtyTrac.com July report, it may be a while before the foreclosure epidemic dies out.

During July, 272,000 homes nationwide received foreclosure notices, up 8 percent from June and 55 percent from a year ago. The total number in Illinois from a year ago grew faster than the national average, at 61 percent, the 12th highest in the country.

In DuPage County, 467 new properties received a notice in July, the equivalent of one in every 762 housing units. About 6,000 properties in DuPage are in some state of foreclosure.

However, that’s not bad news for everyone, particularly first-time homebuyers, Kimble said. In a housing market ballooning with supply, they get the advantage of both selection and competitive pricing.

Others see foreclosures as a prime opportunity for investment. At a recent DuPage County sheriff’s auction of foreclosed homes, a bidding war erupted over a Willowbrook condominium.

When “sold” was finally declared at $65,200, the winner walked away with a home valued at about $120,000.

Realtor and investment property specialist Mike Hagen of St. Charles was in attendance and said the purchaser of the Willowbrook condo got a good deal, but auctions can be risky, especially for people unfamiliar with the business, he said.

“I don’t recommend it to people who don’t know the business,” he said. “You can get burned right now.”

When a home is sold at an auction, the occupants are given 30 days to vacate before the DuPage County Sheriff’s Department forces them to leave. Hagen said he’s seen houses severely damaged by former homeowners on their way out.

“They’re mad. They don’t think they should have lost their house, so they just tear it up,” he said.

Most people in the practice of auction purchasing know to do their research, Hagen said, but novices who don’t can be devastated by the results. For example, if a house has two liens (a creditor’s claim against a property), its starting price at an auction may look temptingly low.However, when purchased, the buyer must assume payments of the first lien or it could be foreclosed on.

“If a house has two liens, the person who bought the second one is just out of luck. They walk away with nothing,” Hagen said.

Looking forward
While the foreclosure crisis has been a rude if not disastrous awakening for both homeowners and lenders, Raymond Bikulcius, Chief financial officer of Finley Mortgage Consultants in Westmont, said it has shaken up the lending industry in positive ways. 

“You had a lot of brokers that lied. They shoved people in stuff they didn’t understand — like an interest-only loan — and didn’t explain it. A lot of people took advantage of people,” Bikulcius said. “But now loaners that were unscrupulous have been weeded out — a lot of them went out of business — and new legislation has resulted in stiffer fines and penalties and tightened rules around brokers.”

As for Atkinson, the Westmont resident whose home was foreclosed following her husband’s death, she has hired an attorney and is fighting to keep the house.

If there’s a way to describe the ordeal of a foreclosure, Atkinson said it would be “like drowning.”

“I don’t know if it’s because of the death of my husband, too, but it’s very confusing,” she said. “It makes you feel very vulnerable, like it’s you against the world. You feel like you’re a failure. You just feel like you’re alone.”