Back in 1989, Linda Hatchell bought her dream house for $1.The catch: She had to move the two-story Victorian home to a site a mile and a half away in the suburban Chicago town of Glen Ellyn, Ill.
She did that, at a cost of more than $50,000, and then restored the 1895 home, doing much of the work herself. To help pay for the restoration, she took out a mortgage.
Now, unemployment and medical bills mean she can no longer keep the home.
With just one year left on the mortgage, she is hoping to sell the 2,623-square-foot house before the bank forecloses. It is listed for $549,999.
"It wasn’t that it was a mistake," she told Stefan Holt of NBC Chicago of her decision to buy and restore the home. "It was just that my future wasn’t as bright."
The epidemic of foreclosures is often blamed on loose lending standards, people who bought more home than they could afford or homeowners who used their property as a "piggy bank" to finance cars, vacations and other fun. That may be the case for some, but certainly not all and maybe not the majority.
According to one study, almost half of those facing foreclosure in four states were brought to that point by a medical problem. Another study, in Pennsylvania, found that job loss and medical issues were the top reasons for foreclosures there.
The Victorian house was built in 1985 for Glen Ellyn Village President Edgar McChesney. It has three bedrooms and two baths, as well as the fruit of Hatchell's labors: a new furnace, new wiring and plumbing. You can see some of the period details, including the original woodwork, a clawfoot tub and the wraparound porch, in the listing photos.Hatchell first listed the house for sale in December, at $552,500. She cut the price to $549,999 in June.
When she bought the home, after a church threatened to demolish it to expand, the house had been vacant for years and was in disrepair. But Hatchell saw the potential.
"This was my dream," she said to NBC Chicago. "I saw the fireplace, the mantel and I was drooling."
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