Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's Childhood Home Sold After Foreclosure
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is from a small town in South Carolina called Dillon — a town where the impact of the economic meltdown is being felt keenly.
From the Wall Street Journal:
Travis Jackson walks through his modest ranch house, admiring the kitchen's built-in spice rack and the red-oak floors. He draws back the curtains, and sunlight illuminates the pride on his face.
The young banker just bought Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's childhood home at a foreclosure sale.
"This is where it all happened," marvels Mr. Jackson, a 27-year-old loan officer at First Citizens Bancorp, which is down the street from the old Bernanke place. "Kind of a surreal feeling, isn't it?"
Bernanke refused to comment on theWall Street Journal's story, but he told 60 Minutes that he was sorry to hear about the home's sale:
"When you first heard that your childhood home had gone into foreclosure, what did you think?" Pelley asked.
"Well, I was sorry to hear it. But, you know, in a way, I wasn't surprised. Dillon has taken, you know, a pretty big hit in the economic downturn. Unemployment rate's about 14 percent. And there have been a good number of foreclosures and plant closings and those things I think about that," Bernanke said.
Now other details of Bernanke's South Carolina youth are emerging. It's sort of cute, actually. Did you know he was in the marching band and spent summers waiting tables at South of the Border?
As for the people who lost the house, it seems they were given a 10.1% fixed rate mortgage back in 2006.
Landmark Mortgage, a Dillon finance company, gave the couple a 10.1%, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, well above the rate for a prime loan. Their payments on the $123,000 mortgage came to $1,088 a month, including principal and interest. Landmark transferred the couple's loan to Option One Mortgage Corp., then a unit of H&R Block Inc., which packaged it with other mortgages into an $818 million security.
Fed Chief's Boyhood Home Is Sold After Foreclosure [WSJ]
Ben Bernanke's Greatest Challenge [CBS]
(Rebecca Ducker for The Wall Street Journal)
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Comments:
I got gas in Dillon once and immediately got the hell out of town. Talk about a first-class hellhole!
This is relevant, why?
Isn't Dillon also the town where that girl is from who attends a school that is literally crumbling apart and shakes and shudders multiple times daily as the train roars past?
Everything I know about South Carolina I've learned from travelling up and down the I-95 corridor. Which is to say, the gas is cheap, and there's a really good Cracker Barrel in Walterboro.
10% fixed in 2006? What the hell?
Dillion is a great town and I would move there if I could get a great job. It is a poor town and the schools aren't good but they are good people and will help you out in a heartbeat. With the tobacco sales going down the small town southerners are really hurting.
@floraposte:
"Why, that's durn near 20% LOWER than our credit cards! What a deal!"
@Rob Weddle: That is to say, all you really know of South Carolina is the "Corridor of shame"
While there are some really great places in South Carolina (Clemson University (Where I attend, as a student in the John E. Walker Department of Economics), one of the nation's top Public Universities; and Charleston, one of the best places to live/retire/vacation), the corridor of shame really shows how South Carolina's Political system keeps people down. The state lacks significantly in education, and rarely invests in its people (which is a major part of why it is in budgetary shambles) because it fails to realize that by investing in its educational infrastructure, it will create people more likely to start business and pay higher taxes through work while using fewer government services, thusly shifting the income of the state.
One word:
IRONY.
Random trivia - Dillon has lax marriage certificate rules so tons of people flock to get married there.
On a related note, I'm glad that it was Scott Pelley who did the 60 Minutes interview. He's one of the only remaining real reporters we have left in this country.
New SotB billboard for I-95 south: "Pedro Sez: 'You Never Sausage a Recession!'"
Whoever was stupid enough to sign up for a 10% rate on a 30-year loan deserves to get foreclosed on.
I'm sure we bailed out whatever bank that loan wound up with too.
I am amazed anyone listens to the Fed Chief. He has been so wrong for so long.
That looks like a really nice house, except for the green turf porch. I'd remove that, pronto.