Foreclosure: When The American Dream Becomes A Nightmare

Hari Sreenivasan is a CBS News correspondent based in Dallas.

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There are lots of reasons that get people into financial trouble, which forces them to miss a mortgage payment, then two, then maybe three- before they get that letter in the mail from their mortgage lender turning their American dream of home ownership into a nightmare. There are expected to be more than a million foreclosures this year.

There are those Adjustable Rate Mortgages out there which, as their name implies, are adjusting. A lot of people took the up front savings, lured by the lower monthly payments, and ignored budgeting for the planned increase. Some people, who shouldn't have qualified for loans in the first place, were lured into bad deals by predatory lenders; others have just had unexpected financial hardships from medical expenses to divorce and death.

(If you are on the brink of foreclosures, check out these tips from the U.S. dept. of Housing and Urban Development .

To find a legitimate counseling service near you, that will likely work with you for free or a small administrative fee check out HUD or just call 1888-995-HOPE. Or check out NeighborWorks Center for Foreclosure Solutions

The thing I was most surprised by when doing the piece was a statistic from Freddie Mac which said that half the people that go into foreclosures don't ever have a single conversation with their lender. As we noted in the story, there is an active campaign, designed by Ad Council (the same people who helped with the “Just Say No “to drugs campaign) that reminds people that nothing is worse than doing nothing.

There also seems to be this underlying feeling that banks are interested in taking over your home. I don't know too much about real estate or banking, but I don't think banks want to get into the home ownership business. I think a bank would much rather have you make payments on time and make their money from the interest.

But as we mentioned in the piece, and as the ad campaign is trying to stress, there is help out there -- and it starts with a phone call. These agencies can help present a case to the lender which may qualify the homeowner for a repayment plan, or having past due amounts tacked onto a longer mortgage term. These are of course just a few of the ways that you might be able to keep the roof over your head. There are more drastic measures but it is a case specific set of recommendations. But the homeowner has to take the first step.