[xquuzme]

To make a long story short, we closed on the purchase of our new home in April 2006, one week later I was diagnosed with a condition that resulted in almost six months in the hospital having four brain surgeries, a few spinal taps and some other procedures. Needless to say, this unexpected medical expense and loss of employment resulted in us first filing for bankruptcy, which we did SOLELY to be able to keep up with our mortgage payments, and eventually ended up with us in foreclosure.In addition to the unexpected medical issues, our county raised our property taxes three times in thre years, and because our mortgage company required that we pay our property taxes through them, our mortgage payment skyrocketed:Our 1st mortgage payment, due 5/1/06 was $1459.54 (Loan terms 30 yr Conv @ 6.625%) By 12/06 our monthly mortgage payment had jumped to $1718.61 with the property taxes being $1266.60/yr. By 12/07 our monthly mortgage payment jumped to $2207.91 and the property taxes to $3995.22/yr. By 12/08 the mortgage payment had jumped to $2413.47 and the property taxes were now $6272.10/yr. Apparently, counties in Illinois (I'm not sure if it's the same everywhere) are able to base the current property taxes on what our home's value was three years prior -- at the peak of the real estate market/boom! What is especially disturbing is that our purchase price for this home, only four years ago, was $227,943.00, and today there are three of the SAME EXACT model homes as ours, same number of rooms, square footage, etc. listed for sale in our town with asking prices between $167,000. and $169,900. Our home has dropped at least $61,000 in value in only four years! When I contacted our mortgage company to see about loan modification, etc., they refused to listen that our income THIS year is only a little over a half of what it was the year prior, yet they insisted on basing what we could afford in a loan mod on what our income was the previous year.So, time passes, our home goes up for sherrif sale auction four times over two months with no bidders/buyers. (Why would anyone pay their starting bid of $221,532. for this house when they can purchase the same house MUCH cheaper??) and today, when I look at the forclosure website, I see that our home was sold to the plantiff, our mortgage company, for $155,879!If they would of worked with us, and lowered the principle of our loan to reflect current home values in our area (like I begged them to do), we would of been able to make those mortgage payments, but they refused to do that as well.So, my question is, WHY would they purchase our home in auction, for $155,879. and most likely be stuck with it indefinitely, as not one home has been sold in my area since september of 2009, instead of just lowering the principle for us, to the current value, and not only would they of been receiving payments on it, but they wouldn't of been stuck with YET ANOTHER empty, forclosed home?? How does this make any sense?When property values have decreased SO MUCH in such a short time, WHY does the homeowner have to eat the difference? Banks and mortgage companies have highly-paid advisors and market analysts, don't tell me they didn't KNOW the real estate market was going to crash! Since the mortgage company agreed to lend us money for the price of that home, apparently, they proceeded as blindly and without research as well, eh? THEY are the ones who get paid the big bucks to know better!