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I am a renter, but my friend owns a low-end condo. He's had it for 18 years. A mortgage broker talked him into refinancing it a couple of years ago, which he did because the broker was his cousin and he trusted him. His cousin told him to refinance with a loan that started out with a good rate, but would balloon into an impossible rate in two years. He said it would be okay, because by then my friend would would be old enough to get a reverse mortgage.

He was totally wrong -- you can't get a reverse mortgage if your current loan is almost as much as your home is worth. So my friend's payment nearly doubled and he simply did not have enough income to pay it. It was not his fault -- he was lied to.

So don't be too quick to condemn folks in foreclosure. This is an older, homebody-type gentleman who was acting in good faith when he took his cousin's advice.