Lowell Deeds

A story in today’s Globe reminds us of the human cost of the housing crisis. Tuesday afternoon, just an hour before the foreclosure auction on her Taunton home was to commence, a woman faxed her mortgage company a letter saying she’d be dead by the time the auction began. The mortgage company called the police who arrived along with the bidders. They found the homeowner dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. She left a note urging her family to use the insurance proceeds to pay off the mortgage.

As we track the statistics on foreclosures, it’s important to remember that each represents a crisis for some individual or family. It should also remind us that as far back as 2003, this nationwide outcome was entirely predictable, yet too many people were making too much money to put on the brakes before the stakes got so high.