Reality After Extreme Makeover

BUFFALO, NY (WGRZ) -- There's excitement surrounding the tv show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. A Buffalo family will get a new home and a neighborhood on Massachusetts Street is getting spruced up, too. But, all of the stories you see on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, don't have happy endings.

In Georgia, television station WSB reports the "extreme" house was in foreclosure because the family took out a $450,000 dollar loan. They used their brand new house as collateral to start a construction business and failed. At the end, they couldn't even pay their garbage bill.

The Wall Street Journal reports a Kentucky family had to sell their made-over house because they couldn't pay their bills, including mortgage, higher taxes and utility bills.

And a Michigan family also feared foreclosure. And there are others.

Read more here from the Wall Street Journal Blog

But, homeowners in the neighborhood are hopeful.

Annabel Aroyo says, "This is what Buffalo needs, we need to revitalize the homes."

And while right now thousands of volunteers and neighbors are excited and helping, what happens when the cameras leave?

"We will reassess the property, there are no special deals for people in situation like this," says Martin Kennedy, Buffalo's Assessor.

Right now, the Massachusetts Street home is assessed at $20,000 dollars. And with a STAR exemption the owners pay no city taxes. That will almost certainly change.

"I haven't the faintest idea what its going to look like," says Kennedy, nor what the new assessment will be. He wouldn't even guess.

But, even if the home's assessment only doubled, to $40,000 dollars, between city and county taxes and sewer rates (we did the math) it's about $600 dollars. And there's no way to know what is in the family's budget.

"I'm sure the producers of the show must take that into their consideration when they pick out a family," Kennedy says.

We asked a public relations person working with the show, who told us she could not answer whether the show plans to help the family pay their tax bill next year.

But, in episodes past the show has paid mortgages for families, even set-up college funds for the kids.

And in seven seasons of Extreme Makeover:Home Edition, we've only heard about a handful of problems.

As for the rest of that Massachusetts Street neighborhood, homes are being sided, a roof replaced and gardens planted. Those cosmetic improvements will not affect assessment to other homes, according to Kennedy.