There is no comfort in knowing you could lose your home, in which you’ve made many memories, because of financial difficulty. According to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties, foreclosure filings – default notices, scheduled foreclosure auctions and bank repossessions – were reported on 332,292 U.S. properties in October, up nearly 19% from that time last year. One in 385 U.S. homes received a foreclosure filing that month.
Since the highly publicized foreclosure woes of Evander Holyfield and Michael Jackson, more celebrities have joined the thousands of homeowners hit by financial strain of a weakened economy.
Toni Braxton
Location: Los Angeles
Grammy Award-winning singer Toni Braxton faced foreclosure in October on her 2,306-square-foot condo in the Century City neighborhood of Los Angeles that she purchased for $725,000 in 1996. Braxton defaulted on a Bank of America mortgage loan on the property and owed $12,503 . The property, which was listed at more $1.2 million by Sotheby’s International Realty Sunset, was sold this month.
Whitney Houston
Location: Mendham, New Jersey
Pop icon Whitney Houston put her Mendham, New Jersey, home, where she wed Bobby Brown, on the market for $2.5 mlllion. The home was bought for $5.6 million in1992. According to reports, Houston almost lost the home in 2006 after tax officials claimed the 46-year-old singer failed to pay taxes for four straight quarters.
Michael Vick
Location: Duluth, Georgia
Michael Vick, who recently completed a jail bid after a 2007 conviction on dog fighting charges, has housing woes of his own. His multimillion-dollar home is being sold as part of court-approved bankruptcy plan that includes the liquidation of his assets. The home was last reported on the auction block for $3.2 million in March with few takers, and has still not yet had a buyer.
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Lisa Wu Hartwell
Location: Duluth, Georgia
Lisa Wu Hartwell and her husband, former Oakland Raiders linebacker Edgerton Hartwell, lost their Atlanta home in August after defaulting on their loan. They paid $2.9 million for the house in 2007; the bank resold it for $1.9 million.
Sheri Whitfield
Location: Sandy Springs, Georgia
Sheri Whitfield, who went through a nasty public divorce from former NFL player Bob Whitfield, lost her home to foreclosure in May. The house, which was originally purchased for almost $2.2 million in 2002, sold for only $1.1 million.
Michael Jackson
Location: Santa Barbara, California
Deceased pop icon Michael Jackson’s real estate woes continue since his sudden death in June. His infamous Neverland Valley Ranch was set to be auctioned in March after foreclosure last year, but was instead sold to Los Angeles private equity firm Colony Capital for $23.5 million two months later.Â
Evander Holyfield
Location: Fayette County, Georgia
The former heavyweight champion’s 54,000-square-foot estate, valued at an estimated $10 million, was reportedly under foreclosure in June and set to be sold the following month before being pulled off the auction block. The auction was halted until further notice by the attorney’s office handling the foreclosure. The 109-room mansion was the second of Holyfield’s that had gone into foreclosure proceedings. Another home in the county, valued at $216,000, had been set to be sold in that auction as well.