I Bought an Expensive House. My Bad, Not Yours

Because many folks need the house equity so they can get Home Equity Lines of Credit, or 2nd (3rd) mortgages...they've run up too much consumer debt, and their home's equity is how they're going to pay their credit card bills.

So...when the equity goes away, those whom have lived beyond their means...the chickens come home to roost, quickly.

 

An excellent point. I've wondered what the big deal is myself. I understand why people who have lost a job or seen their wages cut would be in trouble. But simply having one's value go down for one's primary residence when one is not looking to sell shouldn't affect making a mortgage payment.

 

I have had that same conversation with my wife many times. The value of your house should have nothing to do with your obligation to make your payments.

 

People lose jobs and income. Peoplle have to move to have a job and can't sell a house they owe more on than it is worth. Not all overbought...who'da thunk the home prices would crater?

 

Anybody paying attention to who was being approved for mortgages could tell what was going to happen.

The government didn't listen to the ones who knew.

The lenders.

But as long as government mortgage companies were taking the loans...

hey, let's roll.

 

My opinion is the practice of 2nd & 3rd mortgages, in order to turn one's house into an ATM, is a big factor in the people who can't dig out of these holes.

 

This Is the Problem!!!

:wavey: People, like myself, paid the asking price for the home we occupy. The problem in my area of the country is that our home values took a dump, and we are nearly 64% upside-down.

That is not our fault. No one ever thought the day would come when they were so far underwater, that they were going to financially drown. As I said [in another post], I have an obligation to honor the contract I made with the bank, and I plan to keep that word. However, there are way too many people, in my community, who have simply walked away from their homes, and their irresponsible act has made it nearly impossible for the remaining homeowners to sell our home should we have a change in their income [due to job loss, unexpected illness, etc.].

There are two kinds of folks right now [actually, there may be more than two kinds]. The responsible, and the irresponsible! It is the irresponsible folks that are driving down the values of the homes around my neighborhood. They took out loans they knew they could not afford, should they loose their job, or when their ARM moved up, , and now they've walked away. This has caused a financial nightmare for people of integrity. We can meet our payments, but, all of a sudden a home that was worth $400,000.00 just a year ago, is now worth $180,000.00. This causes even the responsible people to contemplate walking away too.

• This is my point though: I don't think there were people who bought homes and walked away who thought, or even envisioned that there would be a possibility that the USA would one day bail them out of their mess. There is no way anyone could have seen this coming.
• In fact, it was just the opposite. A whole lot of folks bought their homes thinking they could flip them in a year of so, and make a pocket full of change. These are the ones who now have that proverbial "deer in the head lights" look on their face when it comes to this drastic turnaround and financial blowout.
• The fact that people are walking away from their homes shows that no one did so looking for a government bail out. If they thought there'd be a bail out, they'd still be in their homes.

As for me and my family, unless something drastically changes in our monthly retirement income, we can afford our home, and we will stay. We just can't sell it when I turn 65, and use the equity for senior community living. However, we will weather out the storm, and hopefully, one day see the water from above the surface, and NOT from below.

Shalom

Pastor Paul

 

I agree. We are dealing with people who don't want to accept the consequences for being bad stewards of their gifts.

 

That's true until you lose your job.

 

I'm self employed.

 

Unfortunately, the number of people in this country with a strong work ethic seems to be dwindling. And the current climate of freebies and handouts isn't helping strong work ethics to make a come back.

 

With Obama as president, your financial future is seriously at risk.

 

I didn't comment on that. I was simply commenting on your statement that just because the value of your house goes down doesn't mean you can't still make the monthly statements.

 

With Bush's depression getting worse everyone's future is strongly at risk.