Wall Street Troubles Fueling Mortgage Crisis

About to move into dream home, a family has loan rescinded by the bank.

ByABC News via logo
August 13, 2007, 8:35 AM

Aug. 13, 2007 — -- For Gary Cecere and his fiancee, buying a house in upstate New York was a dream come true. Finally, they had a place they could call their own.

"It may not look like much," Cecere said, but he saw the house as a perfect place to raise his robust family.

With five kids, two cats and one large dog, the new Cecere home would be a full one. "When I was at school I got the phone call," said Cecere's daughter Nicole Cecere. "We're moving out of the apartment. We're getting this house. It was exciting."

Cecere had a mortgage lined up, along with his homeowner's insurance and contracts. Then he received some startling information.

"We started packing and then we get this call," he said. The bank was pulling out on the package of two mortgage loans Cecere needed to buy his $410,000 home.

Cecere's story puts a human face on Wall Street's recent mortgage drama. Banks are tightening their standards and offering fewer loans, and costly interest rates are forcing many American homeowners with mortgages into foreclosure.

Since January, 900,000 Americans have lost their homes.

"The scale and the range of folks that are struggling with keeping their mortgages now is unprecedented," said Marina Peed, president of Impact Group, an Atlanta-based nonprofit housing counseling service.

For Cecere, visiting the home that could have been his for the first time since he lost it prompted feelings of pain and anger.

Today, Cecere and his family still are crammed into his fiancee's two-bedroom apartment. Now, the family feels the loss of all of those big plans.

"It would be nice to come home to my own bed, a yard," Nicole Cecere said.

"You're at the mercy of the banks," Cecere said.