http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/01/26/distressed-family-swamped-by-an-underwater-home/


Swamped by an underwater home
After the housing collapse derails the American Dream, a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the Boateng family


On a cold Sunday afternoon 10 years ago, Comfort and Kofi Boateng stood with Comfort’s mother and their three children before a quarter-acre parcel in a brand-new subdivision in the center of Prince George’s County.

The place was called Fairwood. They stepped onto Lot 71, an empty stretch of gravel, and closed their eyes and bowed their heads. Comfort raised her hands to the sky.

DASHED DREAMS: This is the third part in a series looking at the plight of the black middle class, particularly in Maryland’s Prince George’s County.
Part 1: Residents of Prince George’s, the nation’s highest-income majority-black county, lost far more wealth during the financial crisis than families in neighboring, majority-white suburbs.
Part 2: Half of the loans on newly constructed homes in one Prince George’s County subdivision during the housing boom in 2006 and 2007 wound up in foreclosure.
“We sanctify the grounds with the blood of Jesus,” Kofi said.

The land had once been the site of Fairview, one of the Maryland’s largest slave plantations. Now it was Fairwood, an 1,800-home subdivision that would soon become the richest neighborhood in the richest African American county in the United States.

A decade ago, Comfort and Kofi were at the apex of an astonishing journey they had made from Ghana in 1997, when they had won a visa lottery to come to America. They did not know it at the time, but they were also at the midpoint in their odyssey from American Dream to American Nightmare.

ABOVE: Comfort and Kofi Boateng sort through two large boxes of mortgage and financial papers as they talk about their financial situation in Fairwood.
Today, they struggle under nearly $1 million in debt that they will never be able to repay on the 3,292-square-foot, six-bedroom, red-brick Colonial they bought for $617,055 in 2005. The Boatengs have not made a mortgage payment in 2,322 days — more than six years — according to their most recent mortgage statement. Their plight illustrates how some of the people swallowed up by the easy credit era of the previous decade have yet to reemerge years later.

When they moved into the house in November 2005, Kofi was earning $82,740 as an IT consultant for a government contractor, and Comfort, then 43, was making $30,000 as an administrative assistant. But in the overheated mortgage market of the time, they said everyone told them that they could buy a $600,000 house..............
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/01/26/distressed-family-swamped-by-an-underwater-home/

I see d point of this post.

I keep telling pple, one difference between nigeria and some part of the the west e.g UK and USA is credit.

the average nigerian man dat has a car and a house could be debt free but the average British resident with a car and a house is in debt to his eye balls.

That's how the system is, if u new to the country u might think this is free money and u start to collect and collect but wen u settle down and u start receiving bills Dats wen u realise u are in big trouble.

Moral of the story is, unless na house u dey buy no carry kpese for abroad.

I think the problem with living in the diaspora is not the availability of credit, but it is the way individuals use the credit they have been provided. A migrant who is financially undisciplined would mismanage the credit he has access to, but credit savvy migrants always have a way of using credit for their own advantage. There are people who advice against having credit cards, overdrafts e.t.c; the fact of the matter is that the better you are at utilizing these credit instruments, the better your credit rating is.

In modern economies, credit is a good financial instrument for financially savvy individuals, but it becomes a nightmare for those migrants who think it's free money and/or use more than they can afford to pay back.

Hmmm...at that age?....six bedroom house?...with no intention to flip or I guess sublet? That was hanging your hat where your hand can't reach. A road or not... people just need to look. before tbey leap.

Whoa, gotta take some minutes to read their story.

I think they were greedy and never took enough
lessons to know about the American system before
they ventured into debt thing...

Its true, many americans lost big in the realestate bubble and burst.. But those who sold the over priced houses to them, those people made big money.. I had an american friend making big money back then selling doubling his money twice over in less than 2 years.. He bought and i bought before the inflation of the market. I bought cheaper property before the boom times and still doubled that money by selling right in the early stages of the collapse... I used the money to pay the debt for my home property which i still have today debt free and now have another 4plex i borrowed to buy last year and rent it out.. As a rental, i dont have to worry about the debt because the rents pay the debt for me and even some extra to use for a rainy day or upkeep the place over the years..

The key is to understand what is going on in the worlds economic and cultural renderings... Know your limits and have confidence in your simple instincts over following the mad dash of everybody trying to grab what they can when they can no matter how ludicrous.. I knew somethng was wrong when land i bought was 4 times the price in only 2 years time.. I knew it would collapse and did not rush to go and buy just because so easy to borrow.l I already had 2 lots i bought when it was at the lowest prices 4 years before...

I dont have any debts today other than the one for the rental house investment i bought last year after paying all my debt away. I dont consider it a debt because it is a self servicing debt for a worthy investment...but i acheived debt freedom after learning the hard way in youthful days of takeing money to borrow whenever it was offered..
But despite the suffering of the debts, i paid it all to have very good credit and ease to borrow again any time... But i will only borrow to make investments that will profit over the loan taken... I have learned... I will not even buy a car with borrowed money. I ride the bus and have more money and debt freedom than most people driving by me everyday thinking how good they have it in their car that cost all of their money to pay loan, service, gasoline and insurance... I pay one monthly pass for the bus and pocket the monthly $400 it was costing me before to gas and service and insure my car... Also i do a lot of walking and it keeps me in shape away from obesity related health issues.. I prefer to walk 5km a day and ride bus.. I have means and invest in the future and build up income that allows free time to enjoy walking around... Better than working for someone who requires me on a strict shcedule which causes me to spend 25% of my salary just to own a car to go and work...

Know the problems in the system and know the pitfalls in the social atmosphere.. Ignore the ones you cannot control, avoid them and then put your focus on the ways that are feasible for growth... A Nigerian should have a great advantage over the american born soul, and that is the advantage of living below ones means just to help get ahead..
My first house i ever bought, i rented it out for the first time and started to sleep in my car to save money. I was single and didnt know any one i cared to prove any pride to.. Yes i slept in my car on the street for 2 months..I had a car and a house, why worry about where i sleep as if it would degrade my future... If i went to rent a place to sleep, that would be more likely to degrade my future and enrich some landlord..

I later opened a business and after selling that and eventually loosing the business, i moved on and found a good deal to buy the cheap land and then another the next year.. And then the US boom came and i sold my holdings and gradually began to pay off all my youthful days debts and lived on one remaining peice of land rent free and free of debt.. I still have it today...
I am not a rich man even by nigeria big boy standard, but i dont struggle to survive and i still hold dear to my advantage of being able to enjoy living below my means.. I prefer to have some money for when i need it, rather than to have many things that i dont always need or have help me make money..

Stay out of the drug culture in America, it is the #1 root behind all the squalor people live in.. They will have the money but spend it on drugs and then appear to have no food, proper housing or anything else. Meanwhile they are supporting a drug use habit that cost more than the cost to feed a person per day..I know americans who are very rich and live like slum dwellers because they spend it to keep a daily heroin habit and also the slums are the best place to hide unoticed by rich peers who will disapprove the addiction..The slums treat severe addicted people like normal natural fauna of the land...
There are many layers of oppotunity for americans and many americans blow through them like its nothing, because they want something for nothing and then blow that something on drugs for a magical feeling that is doomed to disease and death ... Then the drug culture has its dealer aspect and then that gets caught up in Gang banging and the music culture that evolved arond it... The rap music culture in US exploded out of the OG culture which was the Original Gangster movement dealing drugs and establishing dealer territory through violence and gang organizing... They had drug money to make free time and sound systems to be rappers, and they are the ones who made the OG rap culture scene explode..

Once you understand these things and trust that its a vscious cycle that pulls you in and degrades you, you will start to appreciate the many opportunities out there and prefer to suffer through school, work and living below your means... Drug culture wants to pull you in, and even if you think you can make money there with drugs, they are pulling you in to be a user customer, an addict.l The dealers arent looking for more dealers.. The go around killing off competition dealers.. So its not an easy life at all...
In the US, if you can keep $100 or more in your pocket as savings that you dont need to spend, then you can invest.. Even if it is buying something from a desperate person who needs the money and them taking time to sell it for profit ,to some one who needs that item later... Its out there, you just learn what people are buying.. Nowadays its easy to list something online fore sale and sell it.. I have sold a music studio package and my last car online and only after the first day of posting it...

Know the problems and that will help you build a bridge to traverse the pits of America.. The opportunity is there for you.. Nigerians' names read in places like university faculty roster, academic acheivers, medical doctors and more.. The easy life is here if you learn the problems and to ignore the road that leads into it.. Even the prejudice here that limits you, its not as harsh as the biases that limit people in Lagos.. I worked on a farm for a few months of holiday free time once, and the farm iwner prefered to hire foriegn workers because they worked harder than americans and did not complain about money., Because $2400.00 a month for 12 hours a day farm work is better than a doctors salary in their country...
In Lagos- Graduate shcool -but all the good jobs are given to family and friends and the struggle thickens for all others.. No different than in US when the job is given to a white person or a person who is american born.. The truth is that there are many black people with jobs and opprotunities and many white people without... Focus on your work and goals and not on trying to have what others have or what others get so easy but you try hard to get..
Even many american prisons have a quality of living that would appeal to the average person in the slums of Nigeria.. The ganster drug dealer life makes the worst problems here and also the prison life is ruined by them..
I would rather live with 300k naira monthly salary in america than a 500k salary in Lagos... Peace of mind and clean air and environment are not to be underestimated because health is the source of wealth and health allows the enjoyment of wealth.. Drug addictions are also not the road to good health..

Bricklayers, farm workers and many other lowly jobs in Nigeria, are not so lowly here.. A farm worker can be paid by how much he harvest and that can be a good salary for a true hard worker like danfo conductor or brick layer in lagos... But the farm worker in US has potential to make $2400 a month on the farm.. Brick layer is a skilled job here, even the rubbish collector.. They can make $2400 a month and even more as they move up in the work place.. Maybe fast food and such are not so good.. But $50 a day is easily made and can be survived with in many places in USA.I know day lanor places where $50 a day can be made by desperate people and many dont even care about citizen documents and such.. Just work on a day to day basis with no guarantee of permanenet position.. But they can always find you another day job if you are a good worker.. The best workers eventually get hired permanentbut only if you have proper legal documents.
People i know working there, They share a house, they get food and clothes from the many charity organizations and even connections for grants and support for shcool and job training for a better job...

New york and all the big cities are so expensive, its hard to start out there and hard to get by there without good jobs and education to help land the jobs... There are so many smaller and cheaper cities to explore.. Good jobs can be found in these smaller cities and it will always be cheaper.. US has 50-51 states and each has at least 2 significant cities and each would give lagos island skyline a competitive demotion..
Just dont come and get into the Gangster and drug culture unless your goal is to be a rap star and you already worked hard to be like that in Nigeria... An god help you because it is a wild competitive jungle even for the most talented rappers..

bebe2:
I see d point of this post.

I keep telling pple, one difference between nigeria and some part of the the west e.g UK and USA is credit.

the average nigerian man dat has a car and a house could be debt free but the average British resident with a car and a house is in debt to his eye balls.

That's how the system is, if u new to the country u might think this is free money and u start to collect and collect but wen u settle down and u start receiving bills Dats wen u realise u are in big trouble.

Moral of the story is, unless na house u dey buy no carry kpese for abroad.

I don't know how easy it is in the US. UK is still strict with credit but I have also seen credit ruin people's lives there. I worked for RBS for a while and seen people taking out 25k loans to pay credit card debt and then return to the credit card. It's really sad. Same scenario is playing out in Canada nowadays....a lot of migrants are coming in and don't understand how credit works...the bad thing about Canada is that credit is very very cheap i. e a new migrant can qualify for mortgage in a year! I have seen new landed migrants taking car finance for a 30k new car....crazy...The bubble is going to bust here soon too. Just like the cheap us credit before the recession.

saxywale:

I don't know how easy it is in the US. UK is still strict with credit but I have also seen credit ruin people's lives there. I worked for RBS for a while and seen people taking out 25k loans to pay credit card debt and then return to the credit card. It's really sad. Same scenario is playing out in Canada nowadays....a lot of migrants are coming in and don't understand how credit works...the bad thing about Canada is that credit is very very cheap i. e a new migrant can qualify for mortgage in a year! I have seen new landed migrants taking car finance for a 30k car...crazy...The bubble is going to bust here soon too. Just like the cheap us credit before the recession.

The UK scenario in waiting ...

justwise:
[/b]

The UK scenario in waiting ...

my wife cane back from the bank to open an account, our first week in Canada and she was dashed a 1k credit card,just like that., it took me 3 years in the UK to even qualify for a 1k credit card.

saxywale:

my wife cane back from the bank to open an account, our first week in Canada and she was dashed a 1k credit card,just like that., it took me 3 years in the UK to even qualify for a 1k credit card.

Lol....a friend got that when we were still studying...she took it without hesitation but that ruined her credit history because she was unable to pay back the interest and it piled up to £4000...she moved away from that city as bailiff was after her....still paying back till today

19naia very very deep. Thanks for your patience. This is actually a gift of love.
Justwise , saxywale and the rest, please never stop the free education you provide here

claremont:
I think the problem with living in the diaspora is not the availability of credit, but it is the way individuals use the credit they have been provided. A migrant who is financially undisciplined would mismanage the credit he has access to, but credit savvy migrants always have a way of using credit for their own advantage. There are people who advice against having credit cards, overdrafts e.t.c; the fact of the matter is that the better you are at utilizing these credit instruments, the better your credit rating is.

In modern economies, credit is a good financial instrument for financially savvy individuals, but it becomes a nightmare for those migrants who think it's free money and/or use more than they can afford to pay back.

Exactly. Well Said.

Good topic. I live in the US and I have been successful in managing my life. Let me explain the situation as I see it. The early immigrants to US arrived in the booming US economy where life and money was easy. The economy thrived on credit and nobody bothered about it because jobs and regular incomes were available everywhere. Most of the early immigrants went into blue collared jobs and did not bother with education. They bought houses, cars and had plenty children - the american dream - the bubble busted with the global economic meltdown!
Naturally, the US economy is designed in such a way that you cannot have excess money with you. The more you earn the more you will pay in various taxes and fees, they designed some taxes to be attached to status upgrade. Life expenses seems easier when you are earning $1200 a month than when you start earning $5000. When you had a job with burger kings you bought a used $1500 1999 corolla and you lived in low cost rented apartment. Your total expenses is not up to $1000 a month so you had a little to save. Now you moved to Delloite and earn $5000 a month - first you realized you need a Truck (Truck) for winter, also all your colleagues drive new cars so you joiined. T-Mobile says you can upgrade to the latest phones and plans which increased your monthly bill, DSW, JCPenny, Macy, Burlington, Bestbuy all gave you juicy cards to buy stuffs without paying , Citi Bank and BoA gave you card with $5000 limit. You rented flashy apartment in upscaled downtown which is more than 50% of your salary. - To be continued ..

One thing i hate most in life is debt.I pray i dont have to ever borrow

How does a top african talent end up like this?


[url][/url]http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2015/mar/06/sierra-leone-sprinter-jimmy-thoronka-homeless-london-video?CMP=ema_565

19naia:
How does a top african talent end up like this?


[url][/url]http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2015/mar/06/sierra-leone-sprinter-jimmy-thoronka-homeless-london-video?CMP=ema_565

I wonder why I find it so hard to believe this guys story
Anyway I am seeing light at the end of his tunnel because his charity account should have been up to 15,000 Pounds now and still growing, again there is a lean chance he will be deported instead some other country will accept him

Goldenboy007:
Good topic. I live in the US and I have been successful in managing my life. Let me explain the than 50% of your salary. - To be continued ..

Kontunu biko

Lol

~ Sheyi