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Published: June 27, 2008
Across the country, people are losing their homes.
Banks and lenders are taking them back in historic numbers. As the headlines have shouted for months, the Bay area has earned the distinction of having one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation during the past year. It's almost twice the national average. But the steady drumbeat of numbers doesn't show the human toll.
Lives are being upended. The terrible fear of losing a home, or living in a neighborhood riddled with foreclosures, grips many in the Bay area.
Not all of the foreclosures are the result of buyers who signed up for risky loans. Job losses and the rising cost of living have pushed many into foreclosure. Johnny Jackson, a disabled pipe layer is one of them. He spends anxious days and sleepless nights coping with the threat of losing his home because of increased homeowners insurance and other costs.
In a two-day series, the Tribune will introduce you to some of the faces of foreclosure. In addition to those whose lives have been rocked, you'll meet people who try to help and those who move the process along. The housing bubble has burst, and the awful reckoning has come.
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