who bought the home .. was it some big corporation that is snatching up houses and renting them, driving up
the market and making it more difficult and expensive for people to buy homes? Didn't get that answer.
But as of the date of the sale, the woman owed $235 ($6.30 is just the interest portion on what she paid in the past and she was unaware of that amount). But that was in 2011. As of today, she owes $20,000. However, I suppose that is because she certainly couldn't pay the taxes on the home in 2012 and 2013, since it had been sold.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/28/pennsylvania-widow-loses-home-6-tax-lien/8432411/
The story also said that her husband took care of the finances until he died in 2004.
"In appealing the sale, Battisti told the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania that she "has struggled to assume responsibility for the financial matters previously handled by her husband," in addition to "physical and emotional challenges that have caused her to be tardy in paying taxes."
Those challenges included "a serious physical injury suffered by her daughter, the murder of her son's best friend at college, and a serious physical injury that kept Taxpayer out of work for some time."
I guess what surprised me the most was her picture. My brain automatically equates 'widow' with 'elderly'. She isn't.
On edit: I can understand somewhat women in their 80s who never handled the family finances. For someone who looks more like they are in their 50s-60s (my age), I find it incomprehensible that she wouldn't know how to handle the finances, and very unusual. I keep reading stories that 85% of American home budgets are handled by the wife, and that is my life experience with friends and family as well.
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