{"id":706,"date":"2011-10-12T06:30:43","date_gmt":"2011-10-12T12:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=706"},"modified":"2013-05-10T13:46:50","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T19:46:50","slug":"in-idahos-depressed-housing-market-dueling-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2011\/10\/12\/in-idahos-depressed-housing-market-dueling-dreams\/","title":{"rendered":"In Idaho’s Depressed Housing Market, Dueling Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Idaho has the unwelcome distinction of having one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.\u00a0 Nearly 2,000 Idaho homeowners lose their homes each month, according to RealtyTrac\u2019s count of foreclosure filings.\u00a0 But that’s not the whole story.\u00a0 Even as many homeowners work their way through foreclosure, low prices draw new buyers in.\u00a0 It’s a cycle of dreams lost and dreams gained.<\/p>\n

<\/object>In Idaho\u2019s Depressed Housing Market, Dueling Dreams<\/a><\/p>\n

Not long ago, Carmel Crock made a drive that she had avoided for much of the last year.\u00a0 She turned onto a steep road that winds into the hills above Boise, past homes she knows well.\u00a0 “This is Jenny and Ray\u2019s house,”\u00a0 she said.\u00a0 “I watched Ian be born, and I\u2019ve known Corey since he was teeny tiny.\u00a0 And this house, the second one on the corner, is my house.\u00a0 Was my house.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

Carmel Crock, in the backyard of her new home. Since her move, she has been trying to make the new house feel like a home by planting flowers and a small vegetable garden.<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s a simple 1960s ranch, white with green trim.\u00a0 Crock says it was the sunset views and the peacefulness of this spot above the city that made her and and her husband, Ken Harris, want to live here.\u00a0 At night they could hear foxes barking, and wild turkeys calling to one another.\u00a0 “And quail!” she said.\u00a0 She and Harris used to joke to one another, complaining about the noise.\u00a0 “That was our laughter lying in bed with the windows open!\u00a0 A cacophony of wildlife.”<\/p>\n

Crock says they could afford the home when they bought it in 2001, but soon financial pressures began to mount.\u00a0 Harris’s nightclub businesses faltered and ultimately went bankrupt, but not before Crock had refinanced the home twice.\u00a0 At that point, she was doing well as a real estate agent.\u00a0 Her income was going up and up.\u00a0 She thought she could do it all: help her husband, and pay the monthly mortgage that had risen sharply to more than $3,000.\u00a0 “This is where you kind of go \u2013 ‘Golly sakes, where was my brain thinking?'” Crock said.\u00a0 “I actually had a lender girlfriend that had said in 2005, ‘Carmel, just sell the house.’\u00a0 And I couldn\u2019t let go.\u00a0 And she was like, ‘What if something goes wrong?'”
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Something did go wrong.\u00a0 In the fall of 2008, Crock was diagnosed with breast cancer.\u00a0 Surgeries and chemotherapy followed.\u00a0 She couldn\u2019t work regularly, and couldn’t cover the mortgage payment.\u00a0 Crock says she tried to negotiate with her lender, but discussions went nowhere.\u00a0 Before long, she came to a hard realization: they were going to lose the home.<\/p>\n

Crock says the stress was overwhelming.\u00a0 She was worn thin, and out of options.\u00a0 She stopped making payments in 2009.\u00a0 To avoid foreclosure, she short sold the home last summer for $100,000 less than she owed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

After a brief visit to this home in Nampa, prospective homebuyers Jake and Jessica Silver decided not to make an offer. A three-bedroom foreclosure, the home is listed for $87,000.<\/p><\/div>\n

The housing market has been kinder to Jake and Jessica Silver.\u00a0 They\u2019re a young couple, 25 and 19, looking for a home years before they ever thought they would.\u00a0 <\/em>Since early September, they have been visiting foreclosures in Nampa with their real estate agent, Tom Koltes.<\/p>\n

After weeks of looking, they tour houses quickly.\u00a0 It took them just fifteen minutes to rule out a three-bedroom and two-bath home in a newish subdivision listed for $87,000.\u00a0 “The neighborhood, it’s not quite as high-quality as some of the neighborhoods we really like,” Jake said.\u00a0 With so many foreclosures on the market, the Silvers can be discriminating, and Jake says they have to be.\u00a0 They want to make a smart investment.\u00a0 “Really, you mentally pick the house apart,” he said.\u00a0 “You need to think about about what you would have to put back into it.”<\/p>\n

The Silvers know that the low prices they see result from others\u2019 hardship.\u00a0 In some homes, they notice signs of the families that have moved on — a child\u2019s hand prints, pressed in cement, or a garden, withering in the backyard.\u00a0 But they say they have to think of their own future, too.\u00a0 They have a picture, in their minds, of the house they\u2019d<\/em> like to own someday.\u00a0 It will be a cozy place, with a little land.\u00a0 They want to grow things, and raise livestock.<\/p>\n

The local housing market is full of dreams lost, and the occasional dream come true; full of people like Carmel Crock and Jake and Jessica Silver.\u00a0 They’re all taking part in the enormous process of resetting home values.\u00a0 According to John Starr, a land broker in the Boise office of Colliers International, that process happens little by little, home by home.\u00a0 “Each asset reaches its final point in value on its own,” he said.\u00a0 “What\u2019s the combination, to an individual, of pressures and situations that leads to the giving up of a dream?\u00a0 That\u2019s different for every person you talk to.”<\/p>\n

A year after her short sale, Carmel Crock has a different life.\u00a0 She\u2019s now cancer-free.\u00a0 In her work as a realtor, she specializes in short sales and foreclosures.\u00a0 She and her husband have a smaller home, and a much smaller mortgage.\u00a0 “We’ve come through an incredible, character-building time,” she said.<\/p>\n

<object height=”81″ width=”100%”><param name=”movie” value=”https:\/\/player.soundcloud.com\/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F91606251&amp;color=17807e&amp;auto_play=false&amp;show_artwork=true&amp;show_playcount=true&amp;show_comments=true”><\/param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”><\/param><embed allowscriptaccess=”always” src=”https:\/\/player.soundcloud.com\/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F91606251&amp;color=17807e&amp;auto_play=false&amp;show_artwork=true&amp;show_playcount=true&amp;show_comments=true” type=”application\/x-shockwave-flash” width=”100%” height=”81″><\/embed><\/object><span><a href=”http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/mollyjulia\/in-idahos-depressed-housing”>In Idaho\u2019s Depressed Housing Market, Dueling Dreams<\/a> by <a href=”http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/mollyjulia”>MollyJulia<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Idaho has the unwelcome distinction of having one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.\u00a0 Nearly 2,000 Idaho homeowners lose their homes each month, according to RealtyTrac\u2019s count of foreclosure filings.\u00a0 But that’s not the whole story.\u00a0 Even as many homeowners work their way through foreclosure, low prices draw new buyers in.\u00a0 It’s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[40],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":909,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions\/909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}