Baseball star Canseco loses home to foreclosure

16 years ago

Thu May 1, 4:27 PM ET

Former U.S. baseball star Jose Canseco said on Thursday he had lost his California mansion to foreclosure -- one of the first celebrities to publicly admit being a statistic in the U.S. housing crisis.

Canseco, 43, one of the most flamboyant U.S. baseball players until his retirement from the major leagues in 2001, told the celebrity TV show 'Inside Edition' that it did not make financial sense to keep his 7,300 square-foot (678.2 sq-metro) home in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino.

'Inside Edition' said it had foreclosure documents showing Canseco owed a bank more than $2.5 million on the house.

'I've been out of the game for about eight or nine years and obviously this issue with the foreclosure on my home,' he told 'Inside Edition.'

'I do have a judgment on my home and it to me is very strange because it didn't make financial sense for me to keep paying a mortgage on a home that was basically owned by someone else,' he said.

Canseco said the foreclosure was not a difficult issue emotionally. But he sympathized with the millions of other Americans who have already lost, or face losing their homes, because of soaring interest rates on sub-prime loans.

'I decided to just let it go, but in most cases and most families, they have nowhere else to go,' he said.

It was not clear from the 'Inside Edition' report where Canseco was now living.

U.S. home foreclosure filings jumped 23 percent in the first quarter of 2008 from the prior quarter and more than doubled from a year earlier, real estate data firm RealtyTrac reported this week.

Canseco was one of the first Major League Baseball players to admit using steroids in his tell-all 2005 book 'Juiced.' His personal life has also been controversial with two divorces and several run-ins with the law for violence.

Canseco said a good portion of the money he earned in his heyday went to pay for his divorces. 'I had a couple of divorces that cost me $7 or $8 million,' he said.

PLEASE DISCUSS, BECAUSE I'M SPEECHLESS....

Here is a link that might be useful: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080501/sp_nm/canseco_foreclosure_dc

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Comments (17)

bmrbabe
16 years ago
I have absolutely no sympathy for celebrities, especially uber-rich sports stars, who make millions and millions and squander it away. This guy is a good case in point. A pox on all their houses!
terezosa / terriks
16 years ago
Gee, I don't know why people bother to make payments and keep their cars. Everyone knows that they lose value the minute you drive them off the lot.
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bdpeck-charlotte
16 years ago
Not really surprising. Atheletes are notorious for burning through money. No sympathy for people losing million dollar homes, I only have sympathy for people that were duped into bad re-fi's that they didn't need in the first place.

Even ESPN had a report on Tracy McGrady (NBA Houston Rockets) on how he's changed his spending habits since his rookie year.
jlhug
16 years ago
Maybe I'm a skeptic, but there was nothing that said he couldn't make the payments. He said "it didn't make financial sense for me to keep paying a mortgage on a home that was basically owned by someone else"

That almost sounds like he just walked away from it because he didn't want it anymore.
qdognj
16 years ago
I read the article the same way..he didn't say he couldn't make payments.I took it as he decided NOT to make any more payments. And if that is true, i hope the bank has a way to recoup any money they may have lost on the home...
clg7067
16 years ago
Yep, same here.
triciae
16 years ago
I hope he's got a pitbull for a loan officer!

/tricia
spy10021
Original Author
16 years ago
My take is the same - he just walked away because he didn't want it anymore. What an idiot....
solie
16 years ago
IMHO the story is so poor (his quote doesn't even make sense - why print that?) that it's hard to draw any conclusions.

He could have chosen to walk away - but why admit that? Maybe he's trying to create the impression that it was a choice because it makes him seem more financially sophisticated (in his mind).
sue36
16 years ago
I bet he IS having financially difficulties, but his over-'roided ego won't let him admit that is the issue. He must be upside down (or close to it) on the loan.
C Marlin
16 years ago
He mentioned a judgement... His foreclosure appears to have nothing to do with the current housing mess, just hit the news at the same time. Only relevant issue appears to be, his house is not appreciating so he is walking away, hardly news worthy.
If his mortgage is purchase money, it is non recourse.
ultraviolet
16 years ago
IIRC, if he'd sold the house the money would have gone to an ex-wife. So he basically did it to try to "one up" her, not because of financial difficulty or bad loans.
talley_sue_nyc
16 years ago
a home that was basically owned by someone else\

if he'd sold the house the money would have gone to an ex-wife.

So it's the wife that is "someone else," not the mortgage holder?
IdaClaire
16 years ago
Arrogance and a huge sense of entitlement.

What a d*ck.
jlhug
16 years ago
So, it's ok to stiff the lender because you don't want to pay your ex spouse?

I'm sitting on my hands......

I cannot type what I really want to say and not get thrown off GW.
Brewbeer
16 years ago
'I had a couple of divorces that cost me $7 or $8 million,' he said.

I wonder if it was $7 or $8 million. The difference between 7 and 8 million would be enough for me to retire now instead of working for 25 more years.
bethesdamadman
16 years ago
I don't think that the words "baseball star" and "Canseco" have been used in the same sentence in at least 15 years.