State Sen. losing rental home to foreclosure - Fox 2 News Headlines

A Michigan State Senator is finding out about the foreclosure crisis first hand and says he is losing a rental home he owns in Detroit. Senator Tupac Hunter tells the Detroit News that a long-term renter was covering the $800 monthly payments on the $80,000 mortgage he took out in 1999.

But since property values have dropped so much the renter decided it would be cheaper to buy a house than to rent. The Democratic floor leader in the Senate earns $71,685 per year as a senator, plus an additional $9,000 for his work as minority floor leader.

Public notice of the foreclosure for the home in the 12,000 block of Laing in the Denby High School area was published May 24.

Hunter said the address was a starter house for him and his wife, who now live with their two children in a home in Detroit's Old Redford neighborhood near Eight Mile and Telegraph Road.

He says his wife stays home to care for the couple's children, so they can't afford two house payments. "I've tried to pay for it myself," he said. "I tried to rent it, I tried to sell it, I tried to resolve it with the bank. Unfortunately there was not much I could do" Hunter said.

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