New Jersey's foreclosure rate looks bad - 6.28 percent as of the second quarter of this year. But as bad as that is, it does not include homeowners like the Eiseles.
They are among the additional 4.26 percent of homeowners who were at least 90 days behind on payments but not yet in foreclosure, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Together, the figures make up the state's rate of "serious delinquency" and provide perspective on just how distressed homeowners are: 10.54 percent in the second quarter, the sixth-highest rate in the country.
The uncertainty about what will happen to the Eiseles' house, or to their dream of raising a family on the edge of Wharton State Forest in the town where she grew up, has consumed Melissa Eisele.
She tears up as she talks about the strain it puts on her marriage. She worries about whether she's shielding her 2-year-old daughter, Savannah, from the stress. She wonders if the family would be better off declaring bankruptcy and starting over.
"Just tell me," Eisele said, shaking her hands at the sky as if the bank authority that rules over her home could hear. "If you want me out of the house, just tell me."
Eisele is in "limbo land," where her home is still her home, but maybe not for long. It's a situation more common in New Jersey than in nearby states.
New Jersey's rate of serious delinquency was well above the national average of 9.11 percent in the second quarter. Pennsylvania was at 6.44 percent.
In the first half of this year, New Jersey inched past even shell-shocked Michigan, where the August unemployment rate was 13.1 percent.
How did it get so bad?
Some experts say homes may be languishing in a lengthy court-foreclosure process, keeping the delinquency rate high even as foreclosure filings slow.
