Stephanie Mills’ Home is arguably one of my all-time favorite songs. “When I think of home, I think of a place where there’s love overflowing. I wish I was home, I wish I was back there with the things I’ve been knowing…” But for thousands of our people home is becoming the place that they have to leave because they have fallen victim to the subprime mortgage mess. And sisters and seniors have been disproportionally effected. 

This month, The Nation has a compelling story of how this subprime fiasco has impacted one African American family in Atlanta. Remember when everyone you knew was flocking to the new black mecca because they could buy a big house? Well, a lot of them are losing them now. Even Evander Holyfield’s $11 million home was scheduled to be auctioned tomorrow (before he got himself together–I wonder if he paid the child support too). The reality is that most of the folks being impacted by this mortgage mess are not first-time homeowners but those who refinanced, like George Mitchell, when home values shot up. And now, the proverbial chickens have come home to roost and most people can’t afford to make the new payments.

Atlanta is not the only place where this shift is evident. Back in January, I remember the story The New York Times did on how less populated hair salons were proof positive that sisters in Baltimore were being hard hit with the subprime crisis. Single mothers and other sisters trying to make a better life for themselves had to get real. (You know it’s serious when we start cutting back on those hair and nail appointments).  But even that may not be enough to stave off the inevitable. Then there are the Detroit neighborhoods that were having a renaissance before falling into have dispair.
How did we get to this place?

1. We didn’t read the fine print. Subprime swindlers preyed on our people, particularly seniors because they could get us to sign stuff if we took them at their word.
2. We got greedy. When home prices skyrocketed we took out lines of equity or refinanced for things like paying off our credit cards bills (which we then proceeded to run up again), go on vacations and do home improvements (at least we wanted to do home improvements but we never got around to it).
3. We not only wanted to keep up with Jones’, we wanted to outdo them. You know how we are about having the best. (This is the same mentality that causes us to buy luxury cars while living in a housing project).
4. We were looking for the easy way to home ownership.

The truth is that we may not be able to keep the bottom from falling out but we can start thinking more strategically about how to regain our our footing as homeowners. That means, forgoing the short-cuts and going back to the way our parents did it. Save and buy what we can really afford.