Key West Mayor Morgan McPherson, a real estate agent and advocate for affordable housing in the island city, now has home woes of his own: Both his primary residence in Key West and a rental property in Rockland Key are in foreclosure.
"Obviously, it's a humbling process," McPherson said Tuesday. "I'm still committed to public service. And my wife and I are working at saving our home so our four kids can have a safe place to grow up."
The double whammy began Jan. 28 when Branch Banking and Trust Company filed a foreclosure action against McPherson and his wife, Christina, to recover $646,500 due on their house, a three-bedroom home with a pool in the New Town section of Key West.
Last week, the Bank of New York Mellon filed to recover another $555,814 owed on McPherson's previous home – now a rental – a smaller three-bedroom house on a canal in Rockland Key, a few miles from Key West.
The McPhersons moved from Rockland Key to Key West in March 2005, months before McPherson was elected mayor for the first time. McPherson said his growing family needed a bigger house, and that he could not run for Key West mayor living outside city limits.
To help finance the Key West house, he refinanced the Rockland Key home that he had bought in 2000 for $270,000, which had a market value of $477,000 in 2005.
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