On Dec. 8, I posted a story about the Vardon family possibly facing foreclosure on their renovated Extreme Makeover home. Their home was redesigned to accommodate their son, who is blind and has autism (pictured with his mother).It looks like yet another “Extreme Makeover” home is in trouble, this one in Oak Park, Mich., near Detroit: Judy and Larry Vardon, struggling with a hefty mortgage payment and medical bills, worry that foreclosure is a possibility, The Associated Press reports.
The Vardons, who are deaf, were featured on the popular television show about four years ago. Millions watched as their 980-square-foot house was transformed into a dream home with cameras and flat-screen monitors that let them monitor Lance, their blind and autistic son.Post-makeover, the couple refinanced the mortgage, and their monthly payments skyrocketed from $1,200 to $2,300, according to the AP.
Things are tense as they work to modify the crippling 11% mortgage rate. “I’m afraid I’m going to lose my house now,” Judy Vardon is quoted as saying via an interpreter. (Of course, mortgage modification doesn’t always improve the situation.)
It is becoming an all-too common scenario: Popular television show finds a heart-string tugging family with a modest home that is quickly transformed into a McMansion. But the families can’t always afford the supersized bills — the Vardons’s property taxes soared more than 50% — so tapping the new home’s value becomes tempting.
In July, we wrote about a Georgia family that used its new home as collateral for a $450,000 loan to finance a construction business that failed. That loan was modified this summer, Chase, the mortgage’s servicer, said Dec. 9.
In Florida, Sadie Holmes, another recipient of an Extreme Home Makeover, found herself overwhelmed by code violations that resulted in her being slapped by a $29,000 lien on her property, which includes a 7,000-square-foot home and office for her charity. The status of her plight is unclear.