SAN FRANCISCO – Graciano and Buena de la Cruz bought their two-bedroom house in San Francisco two decades ago when the neighborhood teemed with drug dealers.
In 2006, the couple refinanced and signed up for a “pick-a-payment” loan with an adjustable rate, one that provided low monthly payments at first but later ballooned as the interest rate climbed. Graciano, who is 70, and Buena, 62, fell behind on payments.
Now, the de la Cruzes must sell their house to pay off a $640,000 debt. They will join the ranks of African-Americans who do not own their homes, a rate nearly 30 percentage points higher than that of whites in 2016, according to a new report.
“I can’t sleep,” said Graciano de la Cruz, a Yorkshire terrier named Flower at his feet in a home crammed with VHS tapes and bicycles for seven kids now grown. “I fear I might get a knock on the door, and the banker will come up with sheriff’s agents talking about, ‘You got to leave now.'”
The nation’s homeownership rate appears to be stabilizing as people rebound from the 2007 recession that left millions unemployed and home values underwater, according to the report by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.