Our Story...help?

[Joel Fraser]

Long story short, our mortgage rate is 10.something%. I will spare you the details, but we were hassled by Ameriquest to refinance, and in all fairness we allowed ourselves be convinced. Well, they lied - about the rate, about paying the taxes and homeowners, about it not being an ARM. In late 2005, we moved out of the house to a rental, and tried to sell. There were issues with the realtor we listed with (we had to go to court, he was a snake!) and by then, the market had changed. We were forced to move back. Plus, come to find out, AMC hadn't been paying our taxes so we made a plan with the borough and were paying monthly. So, AMC was bought out by CitiResidential last fall, and that company decided to pay off the balance...without checking with us first. They also decided the three years escrow was due within one year! So our payments doubled to $2500. At one point, we were 6 months behind.We did partake in the class action lawsuit against Ameriquest/AMC so I'm sure that limits any legal possibilities. My husband lost his job the day he went back to work after our daughter was born last April. We got behind on our mortgage, of course, and PA has a program that we took advantage of, just to buy time. Fortunately, a family member was able to pay the money we were behind and the escrowed taxes and are up to date as of now. (However, Julys payment will be late.) Our credit is shot. I don't work, we have five kids.Our payment is $1600/month right now, but is set to go up again soon. We have no consumer debt, just a $280/month car payment. And its great we don't have debt, but we also don't have any savings. We do have equity in our house, at this point, if it sells. We simply can't afford the payment. (Our original payment was $1000 - that I could do.) Can anyone tell me what my options are? Thank you, thank you, thank you for this site. I just found it tonight and know I will be up for a while, reading as much as I can.