Nash County couple copes with foreclosure

Gene Scarborough has fashioned himself the prototypical jack of all trades over the years. The former college psychology student sold life insurance for many years in and around Rocky Mount before dabbling for a while as a Baptist minister and eventually stumbling into his latest career as a tree removal specialist.

Scarborough has experienced a lot in his 64 years. But he never dreamed he’d find himself on the relinquishing end of a home foreclosure.

“This was my entire retirement package,” Scarborough said. “I have through the years been putting large money into a nice home, anticipating that as the economy went up, it was more secure than Wall Street. But I guess it wasn’t.”

Scarborough and his wife, Lonya, settled into their “dream home” four years ago. Nestled off a back road in rural Castalia, the three-bedroom brick home was to be the couple’s nest egg.

The one catch: banks would only offer the Scarboroughs a variable-rate, 30-year mortgage. But the tree removal business was booming in 2004, and Scarborough figured interest rates might drop in the long run.

He was wrong.

Like millions throughout the nation at the peak of the housing market surge that characterized the first half of the decade, Scarborough said he and his wife were “sitting on top of the world.”

Then the bubble burst.

The interest rate ballooned in 2007, real estate values plummeted, and by the middle of 2008, the Scarboroughs owed more on their home than it was worth.

The tree removal business was caught in the landslide. There’s little demand for expensive tree removal services when people aren’t sure if they’ll be able to keep their job or pay the bills, Scarborough said.

“When my business was not picking up, when I had borrowed more than I wanted from my mother (to cover the mortgage), I said, 'I need to sell this place.’ But, everybody in the world in Rocky Mount and Nash County is trying to sell property,” Scarborough said. “I could not get enough money if I put it up for sale to equal what I owed on my house, so that would have been a disaster.”

By the middle of the summer, Scarborough knew he and his wife had run out of options. Countrywide Financial foreclosed on the property a few weeks later. In August, the Scarboroughs’ dream home, appraised two years ago at $253,000, sold from the steps of the Nash County Courthouse for less than $190,000.

Scarborough and his wife, with less than 10 days to vacate, packed up as much as they could and moved into a family-owned home along the Pamlico Sound. What possessions wouldn’t fit in the small, uninsulated summer home, the Scarboroughs gave away.

“You can’t live in a piece of paper telling you what your stocks are. You can enjoy a nice home and watch it appreciate,” Scarborough said, wiping tears from his cheeks. “That was my logic in putting my retirement into that home package because it without a doubt has been the best, most appreciating, most secure asset that a person could have. And when it gets to where your home – your most secure, most appreciated, most loved asset – is taken away from you, that tells you how deeply we’re in trouble in this country.”

If business at his Affordable Professional Tree Service doesn’t pick up, Scarborough said he’s considering the idea of working as a chaplain at a hospice center in Pitt County.

People are hurting, Scarborough figures.

And he’s right.

As the economic crisis grew last year, Americans became increasingly stressed, leading to worsened mental health, according to a Gallup-Healthways poll released this week. Sleeplessness, depression and suicide rates in the U.S. have grown each month since the middle of 2008, the study said.

And the trend continues.

“If you haven’t ever had grief, you don’t know how to talk about it,” Scarborough said. “I’ve had my share. My wife has certainly had her share. I know what it feels like to lose something you love dearly.”