Refinancing, collapse of Central States leaves him with 2 mortgages
Keon Williams is on the verge of being thrown out of his house – a startling turn of events, considering that for nearly three years since refinancing in 2008, he faithfully paid his monthly mortgage and his property taxes.
“I did everything I was supposed to do, but I’m being evicted,” says Williams, 38, sitting in his neat but sparsely furnished dining room on N. 44th St. “I never would have imagined something like this could happen.”
Williams, an ex-Marine and single father of three teenagers, finds himself caught up in the continuing fallout from America’s mortgage meltdown. His right to continue living in the home he bought, the home he has been paying for, is in jeopardy in the aftermath of the collapse of Central States Mortgage Co., the now-shuttered firm that was once the largest mortgage broker in the state.
The problem: When Williams refinanced with Wauwatosa-based Central States in 2008, cutting his 12.5% interest rate nearly in half, Central States’ affiliate, Interim Funding LLC, didn’t pay off the original mortgage. Battered by the housing crisis, it took the proceeds from the refinancing and paid other lenders, said Stephen Kravit, attorney for Richard Jungen, a shareholder in Interim and founder of Central States.
Williams was left with two mortgages – including one that he didn’t know still existed. His small home at the corner of 44th and W. Keefe Ave., with a recent assessed value of $117,200, had become collateral for two loans totaling more than $265,000.
In March 2009, the holder of the original mortgage, Illinois-based Amcore Bank, foreclosed on the home, which was auctioned off at a sheriff’s sale in the Milwaukee County Courthouse on Jan. 31 of this year.
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