Oakland Investors Return Foreclosed Home To Parkinson's Disabled Homeowner

In Oakland, California, the San Francisco Chronicle reports:

• An Oakland home lost in a foreclosure auction this month is being returned to the family that bought the house 15 years ago. The lender who foreclosed on the home and the investors who bought it said they will give back the house because they were moved by the homeowner's plight as reported in The Chronicle and by the reaction of more than 200 Chronicle readers. Hong Zhang Lin, 44, who is disabled from Parkinson's disease and speaks only Chinese, was up to date with his primary mortgage but evidently fell behind on a $135 monthly payment for a $20,000 home equity loan. Countrywide Financial, the lender on both loans, sold the Fruitvale district bungalow at a foreclosure auction earlier this month. Lin, who owed only $94,000 on a home worth $500,000, was faced with losing his equity as well as his home.

• Lin's family said he had not realized he was behind on his loan payments, did not know about the foreclosure and was shocked when he received an eviction order from the new owners - the only Chinese-language notice he received about the sale. Countrywide said it had followed standard procedures of calling and sending letters about the missed payments and foreclosure sale. On Tuesday, Countrywide and the foreclosure investors who bought the house said they will unwind the sale, returning the house to the Lin family. They said pressure from the media - and Chronicle readers who responded online to an article Saturday about the situation - helped inspire the solution.

Reportedly, after reviewing the media coverage in The Chronicle and on KGO-TV, the investors who bought the home at foreclosure decided to return the house for the $190,300 they had paid plus expenses and a small profit. Countrywide will refund the companies' money and pay for the expenses and profit. For more, see Foreclosed Oakland home returned to family.

For the original San Francisco Chronicle story, see Face of foreclosure crisis - Chinese-speaking Parkinson's sufferer.