Iowa Lieutenant Governor’s Home Auctioned to Pay Loan

Iowa’s lieutenant governor became the latest victim of the lingering farm credit crisis today as her home of 22 years went on the auction block to satisfy a bank loan.

Lt. Gov. Jo Ann Zimmerman said her foreclosure is not unlike nearly 10,000 other foreclosures that have “changed the face of Iowa” during the last two years.

The Ankeny State Bank foreclosed on the home last December to satisfy a judgment against Zimmerman and her husband, Tom, who were unable to meet payments on a $95,000 loan for their 292-acre beef cattle business in Madison and Clarke counties.

The Zimmermans, who built the home in 1965 and raised their five children in it, had put up the house as collateral for the loan.

“It’s what a lot of people are suffering through right now. It’s not something that is fun to live with,” Zimmerman, a Democrat who was elected last November, said. “Both of us feel we can come back, but it just depends on the cattle market.”