Family faces foreclosure

RATHDRUM - Jason and Jane Morgan don't own much.

What they do own is for sale today and tomorrow.

"Our story is interesting," Jane said, "but it's far from unusual."

They hope - and pray - they come away with enough money to save their home. Basic household items, furniture, pots and pans and chairs and books and even drawings by the kids, they're all being offered to anyone who will buy it.

"We don't own anything else other than that," Jane Morgan said Friday.

The family of eight could lose its home in foreclosure proceedings if they don't make a $1,005 payment on Monday.

The doublewide trailer on five acres off Huetter Road is all that's keeping them from being homeless, she said.

"It's the children's home. it's their only home," she said. "We're desperately trying to keep our kids under one roof."

The Morgans were married last year. They have a blended family of six children ranging from 7 to 13 years old, and a 1-year-old of their own.

"We knew we would become the Brady Bunch, but knew with God as our focus we would be OK," Jane wrote.

In October, they moved into their Huetter Road home, formerly occupied by Jason's ex-wife who was behind on the mortgage payments.

Jane works in the medical field, while Jason has worked in construction and is in automobile sales. Both struggled to find work, pay bills, buy food and catch up on the payments.

"We were constantly having shutoff notices with our electric," she said.

To earn money, Jane sold her homemade cookies door to door, and made a few hundred dollars until she got in a spot of trouble for doing so without a permit.

In February, they were notified by their mortgage company if they made the next three payments on time, they could remain in the home.

A church provided $700 to help them make the first mortgage payment, and a former boss and friend of Jane's gave them enough money for the second.

"All of our prayers were being answered," she wrote.

Almost.

Now, the third payment is due to meet the deadline and they don't have the cash. Jane, working part time, has been taking fliers door to door offering housekeeping service.

Many are sympathetic to her situation. Others, not so much.

"There are a lot of generous people in this community," she said.

Jason landed a job with a car dealership, but his first check won't be in time to meet Monday's deadline.

"I believe we will lose the home, I believe they will proceed with the foreclosure," she said.

RealtyTrac reported Thursday that April foreclosure activity in the U.S. fell to the lowest level seen since July 2007.

There were 188,780 foreclosure filings - default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.

According to RealtyTrac, April foreclosure activity decreased 5 percent from the previous month and was down 14 percent from April 2011. One in every 698 U.S. housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month.

But the site wrote that there are two reasons the otherwise encouraging decrease can be misleading.

"Instead of foreclosure, lenders are more willing to modify loans or accept short sales," RealtyTrac reported. "Why? Because foreclosures are expensive and lengthy and it can actually be cheaper to instead do a short sale or encourage a modification.

"Second, in many states foreclosure activity has slowed until robo-signing disputes can work their way through federal and state court systems. The lull now reflected in the RealtyTrac numbers suggests not that the foreclosure meltdown is over, but that it is artificially depressed. Once robo-signing issues and questions of note ownership are overcome then there will be a substantial - and hopefully short-term - increase in foreclosure activity as lenders get the green light to move forward with stalled foreclosure actions.

"This will be a very painful period, but something necessary to clear out the inventory of distressed properties."

Jane Morgan said they don't want to lose the doublewide, which Jason has improved inside, and has a dirt bike track out back.

"This is our home," she said.

Jane called it an "extremely tough situation" for her, Jason and the children.

"It's been emotional, very stressful," she said. "

So today, and Sunday, they'll put all they own outside their home, 1009 Huetter Road, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. both days, and price it to sell. And, she added, they'll pray.

Since she was a little girl, she said, she was taught to put things in God's hands.

Ask, and you shall receive.

So she will.

"That's what I'm really counting on," she said.