http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/06/real_estate/Shahzad_foreclosure/?postversion=2010050612Faisal Shahzad's $65,000 home equity piggy bankBy Amy Haimerl, senior producerMay 6, 2010: 12:52 PM ET
SHELTON, Conn. (CNNMoney.com) -- Faisal Shahzad lived on the downslope side of affluence in the small Connecticut hamlet of Shelton. On Monday, while Shahzad sits in a jail cell in downtown New York City, a judge is scheduled to foreclose on his home, clipping Shahzad's last attachment to the American dream.
Like many other homeowners across the U.S., he used his house as a piggy bank. Shahzad, who is accused of trying to detonate a Nissan Pathfinder in the center of Times Square last week, took out a second mortgage on the home just months before he left the country for what prosecutors say was a stretch of bomb-making training in Waziristan, Pakistan.
That second mortgage gave him access to a $65,000 credit line, secured by the tidy three-bedroom suburban house he bought in July 2004 for $273,000. Though the frothy real estate market was flinging around cheap money, Shahzad put down the traditional 20%, financing a mortgage balance of $218,400 at a 4% interest rate.
The 30-year-old had a steady job as a financial analyst at Affinion in Norwalk, Conn. He was trading up from a condo he had recently sold. He seemed like a good risk.