More News

Nearly a thousand people looking to navigate their way through the country's financial crisis turned out for a housing fair in Gaithersburg on Saturday, many seeking help from foreclosure advisers who were asked to participate in the eight-year event for the first time.

Though there appeared to be no panic, there was an abiding sense of caution and restraint amid the throngs in search of information, resources and counseling from a slew of county, state and federal agencies, mortgage companies and Realtors — more than 80 booths in all.

"We realize we can't do this alone," said Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney A. Katz during a brief ceremony to commemorate the event, sponsored by two dozen local governments and agencies. "It's going to take each and every one of us to get this crisis solved."

While it was a reflection of the lengths to which homeowners are schooling themselves on how to steer clear of the muddle, it was the muddle personified. By day's end, the nonprofits HomeFree-USA Inc., the Latino Economic Development Corp. and Housing Initiative Partnership had counseled upwards of 100 homeowners facing foreclosure.

For Alicia Cristina PanameÒo, a 46-year-old single mother of four, the economy's steady decline has come hand-in-hand with dwindling house-cleaning jobs.

She is struggling to keep the condominium she bought last year, after having to sell the Gaithersburg home she bought four years earlier.

Two years ago, she refinanced the home for the third time, and the broker gave her a deal she couldn't believe — only 2 percent interest, cutting her mortgage payments from $1,650 a month to less than $1,100.

"I was jumping for joy," she said. "I thought to myself, ‘This is an angel that descended from heaven.'"

But on her first statement, she saw something she didn't understand about deferred interest. Every month, that figure kept rising. She was forced to sell the house last year and move her children, ages 3-12, into the condo.

Making her circumstances worse, her house-cleaning clients have been letting her go as they cut costs. Down now to only a few clients, she makes maybe $1,400 a month. Her condo mortgage is $2,500 a month.

She has already maxed out five credit cards, and last month took out another for $3,000. That covered September. She has no idea how she will pay her October bills.

"What am I going to do?" she said in Spanish, breaking into tears. "I pull my kids to me and tell them that I love them; I try to give them what joy I can, but I'm drowning in all of it, and I can't tell them. I can't let them know that I'm suffering inside."

She left Saturday's fair with hope for an appointment with the Latino Economic Development Corp., one of two nonprofits that the state and county are funding to help troubled homeowners.

"The truth is, I don't know what's going to happen," she said. "But I have hope that this program will help me."

It's a fate that Patrick and Rika Mitrik are determined to avoid. With several friends and family members in foreclosure or financial crisis, the Gaithersburg couple perused the fair looking to shore up the knowledge they'll need to protect their home of five years.

"We don't want to get in the same situation that our friends and family are in," said Rika. "We have to educate ourselves to stay out of that situation."

Even with the struggling economy, the couple is still considering some looming home improvements, husband Patrick said, even if his wife's job opportunities as a translator have all but dried up.

"You just have to be conscious of what you buy," Patrick, a software engineer, said, holding his infant daughter. "I have a job still, so I feel alright. But that could change next month, who knows."

And as an artist and art instructor Laura White strolled by the booths, mulling over the possibility of finally becoming a homeowner, she was daunted less by Wall Street's crisis of confidence than by her own sense of timing. The 36-year-old said she and her husband aren't quite ready to make the leap from their apartment into a house, but the fair was an ideal setting to educate herself on the ins and outs of buying a home.

"I'm here to just sort of dip my toe in," she said. "That's what anyone should do in a situation like this."