Free Texas Foreclosure Listings

There hasn't been a Christmas Day in the last nine years that Gary Johnson hasn't bailed someone out of jail.

"It is gratifying," Graham said. "You do help a lot of people - a lot of interesting people, a lot of crazy people.

THE ANTIDEPRESSANTS said it all. There they were (or, technically, there they weren't): an empty bottle of Lexapro sitting atop a pile of used-up art supplies, dirty clothes, old copies of sporting gear catalogs and an unopened property tax bill. Elsewhere in the mostly empty house, wires hung from ceilings where light fixtures had been ripped out, gaps yawned beneath kitchen counters where appliances had been removed and apparently sold and, most heartbreakingly, paintings done by the owner hung on the walls with price tags by their sides.

This was not a scene from ransacked New Orleans. This was what I saw Sunday in a hilly Los Angeles neighborhood in a house that was facing imminent foreclosure by the bank. The owner had purchased it with a five-year, low-interest loan for more than $100,000 over what the real estate agent was now trying to get.

Many residents used exotic products, such as ARMs, to finance their homes during the market run-up. And now they're the ones paying a heavy price as the market slows and interest rates climb.

When Valarie and Michael Thomaselli bought their home in Estero, they had one job between them. They needed some flexibility in their monthly payment.

Their lender advised them to get an option adjustable rate mortgage, or ARM. That would give them the choice of making a minimum payment, interest-only payments or an amortized payment on a 30-year fixed or 15-year fixed interest basis.

The couple took the option ARM on a $290,000 home loan. By choosing that option they were able to buy a single-family home instead of a town home and still have a payment they could afford at an introductory interest rate of 4 percent.