Republican Congressional hopeful Tiffany Burress at risk of losing North Jersey home to foreclosure

GOP congressional hopeful Tiffany Burress and her ex-NFL star husband are on the verge of losing their ritzy North Jersey home to foreclosure just as Burress embarks on her first political campaign.

Burress, a personal injury attorney running for the Republican nomination in New Jersey’s 9th Congressional District, bought the palatial $1.5 million home on Huntington Terrace in Totowa with her husband, Plaxico, more than two decades ago, according to court records.

But after a series of financial missteps and an earlier brush with foreclosure, the couple stopped paying the mortgage’s monthly installments, court records show.

“Defendants defaulted under the terms of the note and mortgage by failing to make the payment due on November 1, 2024, and remain in default,” court documents read.

Last January, the U.S. Bank Trust Company sent the Burresses a notice of intention to foreclose, then moved forward with the proceedings in May.

The Burresses filed a contesting answer in Passaic County Superior Court in September, but Judge Frank Covello brushed that aside in late December and said the foreclosure could proceed.

It’s not clear how the looming troubles will affect Burress’ political future.

The Pittsburgh native is running in the GOP primary to try to unseat Congresswoman Nellie Pou, a longtime state lawmaker who won the House seat in 2024 after former Rep. Bill Pascrell died in office at age 87.

Pou, a Paterson Democrat, defeated her Republican challenger by five points — a narrow victory in a normally Democratic district that swung 20 points to the right and voted for Donald Trump in 2024.

That gave New Jersey’s 9th District, an hourglass-shaped district that starts at the Hudson River and stretches northwest across Bergen, Passaic and Hudson counties, the distinction of being one of 13 districts nationwide that voted for Trump but still sent a Democrat to Congress.

If Burress wins the GOP nomination in June, she will face the freshman congresswoman in November.

In a January campaign ad, Burress attacked Pou as having “a charmed life” buoyed by the goodwill of Democratic Party bosses.

“North Jersey needs something different,” Burress said in the ad. “Not the same tired partisanship … doors didn’t just open for me, I busted through them.”

But the Burress family has its own baggage, especially when it comes to financial troubles.

The couple twice modified their $897,000 loan — once in 2016 and again in 2019 — which eventually extended the maturity date to November 2059, court records show.

After they signed the second modification on Dec. 10, 2019, the Burresses were responsible for an unpaid principal balance of $862,000 at a 5% interest rate, records said.

Neither Tiffany Burress, her attorneys nor her campaign responded to several requests for comment.

It’s not the first time the couple has fought with the bank.

Court records show the couple stopped paying the mortgage on the 5,500-square-foot home in July 2017, even though Super Bowl champion Plaxico reportedly made nearly $30 million during his 12-year NFL career.

The bank moved to foreclose, but the Burresses settled the dispute in 2020.

Plaxico, who caught a game-winning 13-yard touchdown pass against the then-undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII in 2008, also sold his diamond-encrusted Super Bowl ring over the last two years, according to the New York Post.

A November 2024 letter from the former Giant authenticated the piece. Heritage Auctions auctioned off the ring last February on behalf of its new owner, who remained anonymous.

The auction house’s sports director told the paper the ex-NFL star likely sold the ring a few months earlier.

According to CBS, the ring eventually sold for more than $280,000, making it the second-most expensive Super Bowl ring ever sold on the open market.

Less than a year after he made his historic touchdown catch, Plaxico shot himself in the leg with an unlicensed gun outside a Manhattan nightclub.

The incident cost him his career with the Giants, who later released him. He was sent to jail for nearly two years on a weapons possession charge.

All the while, his financial troubles mounted.

In 2010, the bank moved to foreclose on his $4 million, 6,900-square-foot mansion in Lighthouse Point, Florida, according to The New York Post. The Venetian-style home eventually sold in a 2014 short sale for half of what he had orginally paid for it.

The Burresses also sold another home, this one in Virginia Beach, in 2013 just before it headed to auction.

The $480,000 sale settled property liens stemming from a $160,000 debt Plaxico owed to a woman he hit while driving in Florida in 2008.

Two years later, the state of New Jersey hit Plaxico with a $46,000 bill for back taxes he never paid on the $1 million in income he made in 2013.

He pleaded guilty to a tax evasion charge, the court sentenced him to five years of probation and ordered him to pay $56,000 in restitution, acording to the New York Post.

In 2019, the Forest Hill Field Club in Bloomfield secured a $3,200 judgment against him for unpaid club dues.