She was one of the biggest rappers of the 1990s, but the $9,935 monthly mortgage on her New Jersey mansion eventually caught up to her... In 2002, Lil' Kim, born Kimberly Jones, purchased a 6,000-square-foot mansion on two acres in Alpine, New Jersey, one of the wealthiest zip codes in the country, for $2.2 million. The gated property sat just 15 miles from Manhattan in a neighborhood that has been home to Chris Rock and other high-profile residents. Annual property taxes alone exceeded $23,000. Within a few years, Lil' Kim began missing her monthly mortgage payments of $9,935. HSBC Bank initiated foreclosure proceedings in 2010. For years, the two sides attempted to resolve the situation through mediation, which began in 2015. But in 2017, a Bergen County judge ruled that Lil' Kim was in default. Court documents showed she owed over $1.9 million in interest and taxes. The home was sent to auction with a starting bid of $100, a figure that stunned observers given the property's estimated value of $3 million. Days before the foreclosure was finalized in May 2018, Lil' Kim filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection, temporarily stopping the sale. Court filings revealed she owed more than $1.47 million in back taxes, over $4 million in combined debts, and $664,474 in late mortgage payments. Her income had dropped from over $823,000 in 2016 to $398,000 the previous year, with monthly expenses including $2,200 on wardrobe and over $10,000 on travel and entertainment. Lil' Kim later said she filed the bankruptcy solely to stop the sheriff's sale and buy time to get a loan modification. By 2020, she told a judge she had managed to save the home and asked to be let out of bankruptcy proceedings. The house that was supposed to represent everything she had achieved almost became the thing that took it all away.