. The couple is elated to be closing next month on their first home in St. Paul , thanks to the troubled economy . De Vore and Kohan first told their story on CNN 's iReport.com . Share your economic survivor story with CNN . The timing could n't have been better for the couple to purchase a modest three-bedroom , one-story stucco house . De Vore and Kohan locked into a historically low mortgage rate of 4.9 percent this month . The couple selected a foreclosed home , slashing nearly $ 20,000 off the final price . `` We would n't have been able to buy this house if the economy were n't the way it is , '' said De Vore , 25 , who works in the financial aid office at a private college in St. Paul . `` We were in the perfect position . '' There were more than 300,000 foreclosure filings reported nationwide in December , marking a 17 percent increase from the previous month and a 41 percent increase from December 2007 , according to RealtyTrac , a foreclosure listing service . Meanwhile , unemployment continues to climb to rates unseen in decades
Editor 's note : This story is part of an ongoing series of profiles CNN is doing about economic survival in this time of financial crisis . Married couple Lindsay De Vore and Eliot Kohan on their delayed honeymoon to Orlando , Florida . -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- At age 23 and fresh out of college , Eliot Kohan was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia . He was told he had four months to live . He survived . But the disease left him and his wife , Lindsay De Vore , who live in St. Paul , Minnesota , saddled with thousands of dollars of medical bills on top of their student loans and daily expenses . But their struggles taught them an important lesson in saving money . `` When you have medical issues , it 's easy to spiral into some sort of depression , '' the 26-year-old a technology analyst for a private contracting company in St. Paul said . `` My goal was to keep moving forward . I wanted to create some stability for our us . '' All of that hard work saving for the past few years has paid off