No community in the eight-county Philadelphia region has been hit as hard as Willingboro. Since 2008, when the crisis was in full stride, 15.9 percent of its housing stock was in foreclosure, says RealtyTrac, which analyzes the data. Two terrible forces crashed into each other in Willingboro: The township, one of the original 1950s Levittowns, has among the region's largest concentrations of high-priced, exotic mortgages and of families with declining incomes.
The difficulties are far from over. The township, which reported 411 vacant homes a decade ago, now reports 700 and counting.
Before a lousy economy beat them down, the fiercely independent Bailey and his wife, Nicole, were making do. When Bailey was in the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, Calif., the couple moved into a tiny apartment on the base and supplemented the furniture that the previous occupant had left behind with chairs and a couch they had found in a nearby Dumpster. The Baileys lived within their means and had no debts.
Later, in Blackwood, when they were ready to make their leap into home ownership - a three-bedroom, two-bathroom ranch in Willingboro - they tempered their enthusiasm with a strict rule: They weren't going to spend more in mortgage payments than they were paying in rent on their apartment.
Nicole Bailey, 32, picked out the house on the rise, while her husband, 33, worked as a Marine recruiter in Trenton. She laughs easily now at her first impressions: "When we first got the house, I remember that feeling of it being somewhat on a hill, and I was like, 'This is a little prestigious.' "
