[ikka]

"We fell behind (with the mortgage) and twice we agreed to new repayment schedules that didn't work out," said the 31-year-old, a compliance officer at a small bank on Chicago's blue-collar South Side. "It's been a lot of stress. But this time, if all goes well, we should be able catch up."

In August 2006, Reeves and her husband bought a $214,000 home with almost no money down, leaving them with a monthly payment of $1,636 -- higher than they planned on, especially with her husband's furniture sales job largely commission-based and business not good due to the U.S. housing slowdown.

They bought at the top, went higher than their planned budget, and were dependent on commissioned sales to make the payments. What did they think was going to happen?

[lOKKI]

If they are using credit cards for “essentials” then they didn’t have any room in the budget to buy a house to begin with.

But here’s my question:
If they bought the house with zero down, they aren’t in trouble because they depleted their savings. So the problem lies in the size of the house payment. What would their rent have been each month if they weren’t buying? Wouldn’t the rent be pretty close to the amount of the house payment for a similar size house?

What am I missing here? Wouldn’t they have been in this same trouble anyhow?

Help me understand this, please.

[RockinRight]

I make 100% commission too...does that mean I shouldn’t buy a home? Fact is I make about twice what I could on a salaried position with similar requirements...and that’s in a SLOW market.

Fact is while that’s a part of their problem, it’s much greater than that. I’d be interested to see if:

A-they even verified income
B-what has he made historically at this job
C-what his wife makes