Life in Limbo

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - She may live in an epicenter of the U.S. housing crisis, but Vickie Lewis is far from any stereotype conjured up in coverage of the record number of Americans whose homes are in foreclosure.

She is not a real estate speculator, house flipper or rental-property investor. She did not lie about her income or buy more house than she could afford. She was not lured into an adjustable mortgage with a teaser rate that later went through the roof. She has never tapped her equity with a second mortgage or a refi. She even has about 20 percent equity left in her home.

No, what happened to Vickie Lewis could happen to anyone: She got sick, lost her job and fell behind on her house payments.

So for the past four years, Lewis, 48, has seen her name on dozens of legal documents and spent hours in court as her mortgage holder, Washington Mutual Bank, pursued foreclosure on the only home she has ever owned. And she has no more idea now than when this began where or how it all might end.

Millions face similar limbo this year
Lewis has become one of millions of American homeowners who will spend at least some of this year in foreclosure limbo, unsure if lenders will give them a second chance, or if lawmakers or the court system will intervene to help keep them in their homes. The situation has gotten so bad that federally owned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have ordered mortgage servicers to halt foreclosure sales on owner-occupied homes through the holiday period.

"I just want to be able to keep my house," said Lewis, quietly desperate as she shared coffee and cake with visitors gathered around the dining table in the modest home at issue — a low-slung, 1,400-square-foot, three-bedroom rambler in a gritty neighborhood of this city in northeast Florida.

The bank's efforts to keep that from happening should serve as a cautionary tale for all homeowners, said Lewis' attorney, April Charney. She considers Lewis' struggle to save her home part of what began as a "giant Ponzi scheme" by the financial sector that has now progressed to a "looting of the country."

The foreclosure crisis has hit especially hard in Florida. Of the 1,823,245 U.S. homes in foreclosure in November, 274,033 — or just over 15 percent — were in the Sunshine State, according to RealtyTrac, an online real estate database.

Lewis is one of scores of clients represented by Charney, an attorney with Jacksonville Area Legal Aid who has developed numerous foreclosure defenses that have kept many of the troubled borrowers she represents in their homes for years.

Charney's defense of Lewis has been based largely on claims that Washington Mutual did not follow federal regulations by offering her a "reasonable opportunity to get current" and "a face-to-face meeting" before three monthly mortgage installments went unpaid, among other requirements.

According to court filings, prior to foreclosure, WaMu never discussed any options with Lewis other than demanding all back mortgage payments in full. The bank is now demanding the entire balance, which had since ballooned by thousands of dollars with the addition of "illegal and outrageous" charges for attorney's fees, collection costs and insurance, the filings allege.

Washington Mutual's attorney in the case, Jeff Gano of the Florida Default Law Group, declined msnbc.com's requests for an interview. Washington Mutual spokeswoman Sarah Gaugl also had no comment on Lewis' case, including the allegations that the lender ignored federal rules.

Washington Mutual's version
But court documents filed on behalf of the bank allege that Lewis was habitually late in paying her mortgage and that WaMu "tried repeatedly to work out an arrangement" with her to get the loan up to date.