Imagine the pilot episode: Ty Pennington surprises a tearful family in their recently renovated home while a voice-over fills in the audience: The Smith family was in dire straights when the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” team re-did their run-down 1970s home, unintentionally jacking up property taxes and pushing utility bills through the roof. Now the “Extreme Makeover: Mortgage Edition” team is going to step in to relieve them of some of the financial burden. The show could even team up with national servicers and government-sponsored entities to promote the use of Home Affordable modifications and refinancings. That is, of course, if there’s a mortgage still attached. Some of the families featured on the shows enjoy the charity of local communities that band together to pay off the existing mortgage on the property, like one north Texas family whose home makeover was completed recently. A Dallas Morning News article explored the issues surrounding this family and a second north Texas family whose property taxes rose to $8,000 from $1,500 after the team made sweeping rennovations to their home late last year. Utility bills skyrocketed from the use of the house’s new features, including extra lighting installed for the show’s premier. It’s a testament to the financial burdens of home ownership as the American Dream that are often overlooked. Even charitable efforts to make life better for already financially-challenged home owners (usually with other circumstantial hardships piled on) have left them possibly more burdened than they were before.

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