Walking around the hallways of South, it may be hard to believe that some students’ families struggle financially. But, underneath the designer clothes and North Shore appearance, some students have had their homes foreclosed recently.

Senior Molly Joyce* explained that home foreclosures occur when a family, person or group of people are unable to continue to pay the mortgage on their property. The bank then needs a way to reclaim their money so they reclaim the property and try to put it back on the market.

In an Oracle-conducted survey of  131 students, 22 percent of students know of someone or have a family member that has had their home foreclosed.

“Since the economy isn’t so great right now, lots of people are losing their jobs, being demoted, or being put in situations where they don’t have as much money as they did before,” Joyce said.

Joyce and her family received a foreclosure notice just a few months ago, but have yet to move out.

“I was home alone by myself for a weekend and some guy kept coming to our house and I was kind of creeped out because I didn’t know who he was,” Joyce explained. “He kept coming back and I kept avoiding the door […] he caught me as I was leaving the house and he handed me a bunch of papers to give to my mom. I looked at [the papers] and they said that we were being foreclosed.”

Joyce explained that she was not shocked to find out that her home was going under foreclosure because her mom had switched jobs a few years back.

“My mom left her job right before the recession hit because she wanted to start her own business,” Joyce said. “Her business failed and she didn’t make any money off it. She has a new job, but it doesn’t pay nearly as much as her previous job did. Now we don’t have as much money as we did before, so she wasn’t able to pay off the house.”

Joyce’s family will have to move out sometime within the next three to four months.

“We haven’t been given a specific time of when we need to move out. It is basically whenever the bank tells us: ‘Hey you need to leave now,’” Joyce said.

Joyce explained that having her home foreclosed has stimulated some changes for her family.

“Before, we didn’t really think about money that much,” Joyce said. “But now, everything we buy has to be carefully thought about.”
Joyce also explained that she and her brother applied for jobs.

“Before, we would get an allowance from my mom and we didn’t really need to work for anything, but now we do,” Joyce said. “[We] are being a lot more self-reliant because we can’t rely as much financially on my mom anymore.”

Joyce explains that the biggest effect that the foreclosure has on her is the limited choices she now has for college.

“I’m not so sure we can afford to send me straight to college so I’m going to Oakton for a year,” Joyce said. “So then I could get a job and work on saving up money.”

According to Joyce, she is upset that her home is being foreclosed and she wishes it weren’t. Joyce said she will miss her home and the memories she has made in it.

“I’ve lived in my house since I was born, so it’s […] where my whole life has been,” Joyce said. “It’s kind of difficult thinking that I’m not going to keep living there.”

Joyce is not the only South student having to deal with foreclosure. Sophomore Christopher York* moved out of his home in December of 2010 due to a foreclosure.

York explained that the move didn’t really affect him much since they still live in Glenview—just in another home.

“We handled the foreclosure kind of well, I guess you could say,” York said. “It’s not like it was an obvious thing to everyone around us that we were going through foreclosure and I’m sure not a lot of people still know that we were in foreclosure.”

York explained that shortly after the move everything started getting back to the way it was before.

“For a period of time, we weren’t buying too many things, obviously,” York said. “We cut back on buying things. But then, my parents worked hard and things I guess went back to normal.”

York’s family is now renting a new home.

“We actually live in a bigger house, but we’re renting it now and hopefully, within a couple more years, we’ll be able to buy this house,” York said.

York stopped asking his parents for money after the foreclosure because of the debt.

“I never really ask my parents for money,” York explained. “I’m kind of scared to because I know money is tight and I just don’t feel like we should be taking it away from our parents.”

According to York, his family is doing realtively well now, but there could be room for improvement.

“I guess you could say that if things keep going the way they’re going now, we’ll be able to buy this house and never have to experience foreclosure again,” York said.