Melodrama

From the Press Democrat, we have a lovely little Spanish soap-opera The Pachecos.

Neil Pacheco just about gave up hope after five months of shopping for a home.

The monthly payments seemed prohibitive on the $484,000 house he was eyeing on a cul-de-sac in Windsor.

But then the slowing housing market turned in his favor. The seller, who had lowered the price by almost $6,000, knocked another $8,500 off the price tag - and then agreed to pay $10,000 toward closing costs.

Add in some creative lending help, and Pacheco, 26, and his wife, Graciela, 27, got the house off Los Amigos Road in the Lakewood Glen subdivision.

Ooh, "creative" lending. Sounds a bit ominous.

Pacheco works as a food server at River Rock Casino and runs his own landscaping business. Graciela works full time as a cook.

Slightly more than half of their combined income will go toward their $3,100-per-month house payment. And that doesn't cover insurance or property taxes.

A "food server" and a "cook" bought a $460K piece of property. More than half their combined income will go towards the mortgage, and that doesn't include insurance, property taxes, or maintenance.

How can this not end badly?

It gets better:

Their monthly payment is more than three times the $1,000 rent they were paying for a two-bedroom apartment.

Three times the rent must mean that they are three times richer, right? Right? RIGHT?

And then comes the grand finale:

"We know that we can do it," said Pacheco of the relatively steep house payments. "We want to work hard for this. We were working hard before."

Wish in one hand, and shit in the other. See which one fills up first, Pacheco!