Keeping Homes By Taking In Boarders

CBS Evening News: Struggling To Pay Mortgages, Families Filling Spare Rooms With Renters

(CBS)  Heather Townsend and Marlene Mazzi sound like mother and daughter when they talk about what's for dinner on any given evening. But they met just three months ago when Heather started renting a room in Marlene's house.

Is she surprised by how much things have changed?

"Oh, yeah," Marlene said.

Her husband can't find carpentry work. She lost her business due to the economy. Faced with losing their home, they posted an online ad looking for a boarder, CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy reports.

Unable to afford L.A.'s high rents on her slumping sales job salary, Townsend now pays Marlene Mazzi $750 a month for a bedroom and a bathroom.

"I pay her $200 extra dollars and she makes all my dinners," Townsend said.

And the table is full, ever since Mike Szapko, a chiropractor from Montana, moved in five weeks ago - making close quarters even tighter.

"I've not had to worry about people saying, 'turn the television off' or, 'I'm going to bed at 9, can we be quiet.'" Townsend said. "You know, it's odd."

Marlene's daughter Stephanie is sacrificing more, giving up her bathroom to share one with her parents and her cousin, who moved into what used to be the den.

"You go from living on your own with your family having your own privacy to like all of a sudden it's really fast and it all changes," Stephanie said.

"If you didn't rent out the rooms, if that money wasn't coming in, what would happen?" Tracy asked Mazzi.

"At this moment, I would be on the street. I'll be homeless," Mazzi said.

More and more Americans need help paying their mortgage or their rent.

Roommate postings on Craigslist shot up from 259,000 last year to 419,000 this year - a 62-percent increase.

Laura Fanucchi helps run one of the largest homeshare programs in the country.

"People have lost their retirement incomes and they've lost their jobs and they want to keep their home," Fanucchi said.

With a record one-in-10 mortgage holders now behind on their payments, even some who live in million-dollar homes open their doors to strangers.

"It's like a bed and breakfast without the breakfast," said Rick Lautenbacher, who charges $390 per week for a room in his $2 million Venice Beach home. He needs help with the mortgage as he struggles to sell in a down market.

"I'm just waiting for things to get better," Lautenbacher said.

As for Marlene Mazzi, she's hoping to get back to the life she used to share with only her family.

[rillifane]

"You''''re just another Limbaugh follower"

Posted by rudy6543

And you jump to idiotic conclusions. I have no use for Limbaugh, never voted for George Bush, and spend my spare time in Paris (something a Limbaugh fanatic would presumbably never do).

The truth is the truth is the truth no matter that it doesn''t fit into you sophmoric view of economics or you paranoid delusions about cabals of bankers.

[ajmystic]

I know all about the housing crunch firsthand. My brother lost his home and moved in with my husband and me. My son and grandson have moved in also. My garage no long is capable of housing my car, since it is now a storage facility for my brother''s furniture and appliances and some of my son''s things. They may not be strangers, but it is still the same principle. I think this is going to be a trend for the next couple of years at least. Many people will have to convert dens or family rooms into bedrooms to accomodate either strangers who rent those rooms, or family members who need a place to live after losing an apartment or house. As long as the mortgage gets paid, it is still a good thing.

[httpwwwnews]

I know of an enterprising man (who is in his 20''s and in the Navy) who has made a business of buying forclosed or tax lien sales houses then converting them to boarding houses. He buys big 4 to 6 bedroom houses, puts in top of the line appliances, cable, Internet, etc, turning the living, dining and kitchen rooms into common rooms with posted rules. He employs managers to manage them and gardeners to keep up the repairs and landscaping. This guy is making a killing. He started with 1 house, now owns about 15, and is now raking in the $$$$.

It''s possible to live, even thrive in this economy...you just have to work at it.

[httpwwwnews]

This isn''t a brand new trend in California. Young people have been roommating for the past few years. You will see 3 or 4 twenty-somethings in an apartment, house or condo. Their salaries aren''t high enough after car payments, credit card bills, and high car insurance rates, to get the deposits saved for rent and utilities, and get in a place on their own in California''s high priced rental markets. Many can''t leave home. It''s been a landlords market for the past 6 to 8 years, especially after the huge fires that made people rebuilding seek rentals. Many Mexican families live several families to a house as well because they are mainly minimum wage earners. Now, middle aged and middle income families are beginning to move into this mode from the staggering economy.

Look for it to worsen after the new year when the holiday bills come in- there was no lack of shoppers at the malls and department stores judging by the crowds and traffic.

[tooncestango]

If anyone would like to look for a home sharing program in their community, please visit www.nationalsharedhousing.org and click on the Directory tab to locate each State. There are nearly 100 nonprofit organizations throughout the Country that help to interview, screen and match housemates together. If you have further questions, please feel free to email [e-mail] - Laura Fanucchi at HIP Housing in San Mateo, CA who was quoted in this story.

[barbaraf4]

"I am going to ride this bad economy out and come back stronger than ever!!!" Posted by vitterdidder
~~~~~~~~~~~~
An excellent plan! It is difficult to watch others squander their money, especially when we are in open-ended badtimes.

Our neighbors, a young couple with two children, who have bounced from one financial crisis to the next for as long as we have known them, received a sizeable Workers'' Comp settlement earlier this year. So far, they have put in a swimming pool, financed a $55k automobile, redecorated the interior of their house (including new furniture) and, oh, yes.....gotten pregnant with their third child. Also, they blew all the stops for an over the top Santa Claus run. To the best of my knowledge, they are running up debt now, because all the cash is gone.

I think reality will be painful whenever they reach that point.

[vitterdidder]

About six years ago we had some windfall cash and even though we lost the mortgage deduction we decided to pay off our mortgage. My wife at the time (now my ex) wanted to take a Hawaii vacation, I wanted to pay off mortgage. Nasty fight but I prevailed. Now it looks like I am the smart one. She and her dorky new husband are struggling to make ends meet but I am in good shape with a paid for house that is worth 2.5X what I paid for it even with the recent drop in values. Also I have some money set aside for emergencies. Even when times are good, people need to prepare for the worst. Lots of the people who are in over their heads now simply assumed the good times would continue to roll. I am going to ride this bad economy out and come back stronger than ever!!! My ex probably regrets leaving me now but that''s life and let''s move on, ok?

[jackp32]

You do gooders need to take in paroled *** offenders who otherwise cannot find suitable housing because they cannot live near schools or places where children congregate.

[zzy-izzy]

xcuja now it would take more than you would make to pay the guards to watch out for a person now and you would have to have a guard to watch the guard.

[zzy-izzy]

Makes no difference where you live if your house payment is more than 25% of your net income you are in over your head

[zzy-izzy]

Anitay417 do not know what you make a year but there are a lot of places in the USA that can not pay $3300 per month

[wl7bzh]

Make that a multi-bedroom mobile home..typo

[wl7bzh]

a multi-bedroom mobile for people on social security willing to share expenses may be the survival wave of the future.

[barbaraf4]

My Christmas Wish is that instead of bailing out the big guys (who are miss-using the windfall with abandon), the government send a one-time rebate of $10,000 untaxable dollars to every legally registered citizen of the United States.

Maybe, just maybe, this would save some homes or save some jobs.

Anyway, Merry Christmas, everyone. Peace on Earth, Goodwill to all.

[xcuja]

When I was young in the depression, taking in borders was a lot safer- than now.

[rudy6543]

newster1: You are one of the liberals who want cookie-cut-people to all have the same conveniences and material things graciously handed out from the government.

You are a socialist and full of class envy.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by CarlyLaine at 05:18 AM

Since Newster is 100% correct, you must be one of those people he is referring to.

[rudy6543]

Indeed, if there is anyone to blame it is the ordinary citizen who wanted, among other things, to own a house bigger than he could afford and demanded that a way be found to borrow the money to do so.
****************

You''re full of krap, Rif! You''re just another Limbaugh follower bent on blaming regular people for the mess created by greedy bankers and corporations that feed off of our tax dollars. We already have the case of a man who received a pardon from Bush and then had it revoked. This man was guilty of creating mortgages with hidden costs, etc. This is exactly the kind of predatory lending practices that have led to the current situation. As far as I am concerned people like you don''t deserve to live among the regular people of this country. Go live somewhere else.

[carlylaine]

newster1: You are one of the liberals who want cookie-cut-people to all have the same conveniences and material things graciously handed out from the government.

You are a socialist and full of class envy.

[rillifane]

"The whole idea of "it hasn''''t happen to me yet...'''' is selfish and your fellow man will curse you for it until the same plight happens to you."

Posted by whitemale08

If I was foolish enough to base my opinion on what has or has not happened to me personally then your comment would make some sense. But then I try to have a more rational basis for forming opinions. You apprently do not labor under that burden of intellectual honesty.

The number of houses owned by either McCain or Gore (to which my commemt was addressed) has nothing to do with the current state of the nation''s finances nor has either man taken part in any "looting" of the people. McCain''s wife''s family made money selling beer and Gore inherited his father''s shares in Occidental Petroleum. Making money selling beer and gasoline has not a thing to do with hedge funds (not that hedge funds are to blame for the current situation).

Indeed, if there is anyone to blame it is the ordinary citizen who wanted, among other things, to own a house bigger than he could afford and demanded that a way be found to borrow the money to do so.

That we had built an economic house of cards was all too apparent quite some time ago. There''s plenty of blame to be spread around including a lot that falls on very rich people who should have known better. But the notion that the poor innocent average citizen has been screwed by a tiny cabal of wicked capitalists is drivel.

[rillifane]

"In order for someone to become rich someone ELSE has to LOSE"

Posted by newster1

Apparently you don''t understand how markets work.

While commodities trading is a more or less zero sum game for speculators the stock market is not. Nor, of course, are the stock and commodities markets the only way that people make money.

And if stockholders get rewarded while employees are not then I would note that the jobs for the employees wouldn''t have existed in the first place if the stockholders hadn''t risked their money. And yes, the job of executives is to make sure that the stockholders profit and not to reward the employees at the expense of the stockholders. Of course, a wise manager strikes a reasoned balance between the needs of both since that produces the higest profits in the long run. But a business does not exist to be nice but to make money.