Foreclosure Of Predatory Loan, Subsequent Boot From Home Saves Family From Tragedy

In San Mateo County, California, The Daily Journal reports:

• The house at 1720 Earl Ave., less than a 200 feet from where a 167-foot-long and 26-foot-wide crater is now, sits empty with a red tag on it unable to be occupied. It was the home of the Nesbitt family up to July 20 when it was foreclosed upon by the bank.

• In what was a traumatic financial tragedy mirroring the housing collapse for many across the nation, now seems like a miracle after it, along with blocks of other homes in the Glenview neighborhood of San Bruno, were completely destroyed or substantially damaged in [last week's] devastating explosion and fire. “I was shocked, and then realized that but for the grace of God we were spared,” said Fred Nesbitt, who lived in the house for 15 years until the foreclosure. It is now owned by the bank.

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• Up until this year, Nesbitt had lived in the house with his wife of 41 years, Vicki, his son and his wife and three daughters, his daughter, her husband and son. He imagined that if he had not fallen victim to a questionable mortgage and lost $400,000 in equity in his home, that they would have all been sitting down to dinner when the blast shook the neighborhood and forever changed the lives of so many.

For more, see Foreclosure saves family from tragedy.

See also, Southern California Public Radio: Gas pipeline blast probe looks for link with sewer line work (Fred Nesbitt wasn’t there because he’d lost the house to foreclosure three weeks earlier. He calls himself the luckiest man in San Bruno).