Posted on 02/24/2010 2:58:14 PM PST by george76
More than 11.3 million homeowners -- nearly one-fourth of all Americans with a mortgage -- owe more on their loan than their home is now worth...
More than 10% of people with mortgages owe 25% more than their home is worth.
The number of underwater mortgages increased by about 620,000 from the third quarter... Another 2.3 million mortgages had less than 5% equity in their home, which could be wiped out if home prices fall further.
Underwater mortgages are concentrated in few states: California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan and Georgia. In Nevada, 70% of mortgages were underwater. In California, more than a third of mortgages were underwater.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
My parents were children during the Great Depression. That and WWII were the defining events of their lives. While I do not equate the RE bust with the Great Depression or WWII, I suspect that the bust will have similar effects on many who will spend decades getting themselves out of debt. While paying debt they do not buy as many consumer goods and thus are something of a drag on an economy that relies on consumption.
No, I was underwater in my home during the Texas real estate crash of the late 1980’s and lost my oil field job. However, I did not go whine about my problem and instead worked as a cabbie and a bartender until my industy rebounded and I kept our home.
Why not just make the form a three liner?
Big talk from someone who is living in gov’t housing I’m paying for,, eating food I’m paying for,, wearing clothes I bought for you...
Yeah we’ve had this discussion before. It just bothers me when people take joy at other peoples misfortune.
yep, teh bible also talks about wars and disasters. I don’t seem to remember much about Jesus taking glee at those peoples misfortune.
Many people think their problems will end with foreclosure. In FL, you still owe the amount on the promissory note.
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NEGATIVE, FL is a non-recourse / judicial state .. I don’t know where you got that info that the bank gets the house and you still have to pay???
If you know of any nice beach property that is defendable against foreclosure (ie. in a CDO/CMO , recording/assignment issues etc. etc. ) and the mortgagee is both preparing to let it go by default in a foreclosure hearing and they are willing to give a quick claim to me for a nominal fee let me know!! I may not ever own the property but I’ll control it for years and years and rent it by the week/month to vacationers...
All these people in glass houses throwing stones at those who are suffering. very biblical
“but I’ll control it for years and years and rent it by the week/month to vacationers...”
Sounds good in theory but there are dozens and dozens of empty vacation houses along the beaches. In some places 30% of the homes are empty.
Big talk from the man whose freedom I’m providing. Maybe you ought to give it up before you criticize.
Oh, wait, without that freedom I’m providing... you WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO.
So, go ahead, save your money.
I’m thinking you wouldn’t recognize this quote, based off your reaction:
“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Normally that would be true, but in this economy, whether you put down 1% or 20%, once you lose your job, you are immediately "underwater". Those who bought only as a home to live in, overpriced or not, and are in this position have my deepest sympathy. Sadly, the situation is not going to improve. I said it before, but it is wort repeating, the 1930s are going to be looked upon as the Golden Years.
No, I don’t think we’re happy at others’ misfortune. But some of us are indeed happy at our good fortune - at least I am. If you have a problem with that, I can’t help you.
And what would you like me to do instead? Decline the opportunity to buy a home now that it’s finally within my reach? It’s those of us who postponed buying in an overpriced market who are and will be propping up the market when it drops to reality.
If you, for instance, bought an overpriced home and now need to dump it, I’m the guy who’s willing to buy it from you. Without buyers like me, the price would drop even further. So take your lumps, learn a hard lesson, and be glad somebody like me lived for years on beans&rice in a rented shack. Otherwise you’d be even worse off.
“No, I don’t think we’re happy at others’ misfortune. But some of us are indeed happy at our good fortune”
Sorry, I musta been confused by your rants about their whining stupidity and missed your happiness at your own good fortune.
No, your confusion is in thinking I ever ranted about their whining stupidity.
Me too. I was in Texas as well at the time and took a major hit. Hung in there, continued to pay the mortgage and live in the home and sold it twenty years later and still took a 5K loss. Everyone I knew was in the same boat.
Neidermeyer, thanks for your patriotism.
Oh how my peers laughed and laughed at me as they bought their fancy condos and lofts and drove around in their fancy luxury cars with Steve Winwood and Bruce Hornsby playing on the stereos. They had their health club memberships and their Caribbean vacations with the umbrella drinks and the young native girls who couldn't say no.
Meanwhile, I'm scraping old-lady wallpaper off the kitchen wall and vacuuming cat turds out of every crevice and dealing with a basement prone to flooding everytime it rains more than an inch. But at least I had no problem making my mortgage payments (which were less than what I had been paying for rent) and my Ford Festiva was paid off and I got to take the kids to Chuck-E Cheese every once in a while.
Oh well, they laughed at me then. But many of them aren't laughing so hard now. Especially since I paid off that house, got another fixer-upper, sold that house at a tidy profit and now live almost mortgage free in a half million dollar house. It's also nice that I don't have to eat at the Chuck-E Cheese anymore.
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