Foreclosures take money from neighbors
Valerie Guerra’s Livermore home has lost $100,000 in value through no fault of her own.
Guerra and her husband have paid their mortgage without fail. Yet foreclosures in her neighborhood and on her street have erased much of the equity in their house.
“I certainly believe my house is worth less than what we paid,” she said. “But we’re here for the long haul.”
The Guerras are far from alone. Now that lenders have seized thousands of East Bay homes in default, the flip side of those failures has descended on the region’s homeowners. Banks that have foreclosed on a property often unload the house at a discount to the loan amount.