The Celis family live in a decent sized home - in AZ, our property values have taken a HUGE dive - they purchased at the top of the market and now their home is worth a lot less - this may or may not affect their finances - if their income has remained stable and they are able to continue to pay their mortgage, they may not have financial difficulties, but if there has been any change to their income, they are underwater in their mortgage, which would present a problem, so we don't know if they are now living beyond their means or not. Obviously LE knows all the details by now and have taken this into consideration during their investigation.
My point is many people are now living beyond their means due to our current economy - homes values have drastically decreased in certain areas, some people have taken pay cuts, 401Ks have been devalued and yet the overall cost of living has risen. There are many more foreclosures and bankruptcies, and those greatly affected are the unlucky ones who purchased at the top of the market. JMO
I agree that it is possible for someone to be deeply in debt and not APPEAR to be living beyond their means. In Arizona the housing market crash has been so severe that a homeowner may have a huge mortgage debt and appear to have very little to show for it.
I also agree that LE would have looked at this in the beginning of this case. LE even called attention to the fact that they were looking at the Celis financial records on May 15 in a local news report (that was mentioned on this blog at that time).
For the people who don't feel that there were financial difficulties... have you gone to the link that was provided for the Pima County Recorder and looked at the history? This is a public record site and is much less invasive than sleuthing DUIs, drug arrests, or warrants served.
The Recorder shows:
There were 3 foreclosure actions, continuing from late 2008 until mid 2011.
Two were two simultaneous foreclosure actions (on both houses) starting the same month (Dec 2008).
In May 2011 their previous home went back to the bank due to foreclosure.
In June 2011 their current home was saved from foreclosure for the second time.
The 2 mortgages that were the subject of the foreclosures both originated in 2006. There were 2 other mortgages originated at the same time (maybe seconds on each of the houses).
There was a Lien recorded in 2006 (probably HOA for previous house)
All I'm saying is, IMO we don't have to guess whether there were financial problems. It's all listed there at the Recorders Office and this doesn't include possible credit card debt or personal loans.
I am not implying anything negative about the Celis family debt. This scenario has become much too common since the housing crash. I sympathize with their situation. It looks exactly like the downward spiral that was described above.
But I don't understand why people would say that there wasn't really a problem. They saved their current home a year ago (maybe by borrowing privately from someone). But that was only a month after losing the previous home to foreclosure. Normally their ability to borrow from a bank after a previous foreclosure would now be much more limited.
This is my opinion only. Go to the Recorder link and see what you think. A Trustee Deed is when the property actually reverts to the bank.
I provided a Trulia link showing the previous home's foreclosure a couple of days ago. I can pull that link and the explanation up again if anyone wants to see it.
Pima County Recorder link for Celis family records:
http://www.recorder.pima.gov/public...e=5/25/2012&l=CELIS&f=SERGIO&o=Sequence&v=DOC