Why bother with the gov bailout ? Think like the pigmen Wall Street criminals.
If you’re underwater and can’t afford the payments, let the bank take the house. Why pay mortgage payments on a house worth far less than the mortgage ?
Stop paying and live free. By the time the bank gets around to foreclosing, you’ll have anywhere from 6-12 months or even more in some hard-hit areas to save what you would have paid for your mortgage, which you will then be able to use to rent an equivalent house for much less than a mortgage+prop taxes payment.
After some years, when housing prices have bottomed, take your saved money and buy the same house for a whole lot cheaper.
Folks, a mortgage is a contract, a business proposition between you and the bank. It’s not a moral transgression to use efficient breech - the bank agreed to its remedies when they signed the mortgage with you. You don’t pay, they take the house, your credit takes a hit. They thought that was fair when they signed the contract, and so did you. I just don’t get why some think it’s immoral to not pay - it’s why we have contract law.
Excellent post.
Disagree. I think it is morally wrong to not pay a debt you incurred when you are able to pay it. Even if it is effecient not to pay it.
Honorable people do not do this.
It is stealing from someone.
Just my opinion. I wonder what others think
There's a lot of pressure now to subsidize the mortgage market and reduce the number of foreclosures. If that happens, then the bottom is very near because the reduction will turn the market around. Also in places in soCal we have reached the level between new listings and purchases (example Temecula area).
Two of my rentals are close. One mortgage is about even with the market value and the other is 30,000 below. I will hang on to them until the market turns. I don't want to do the down payment and loan costs again. I would rather eat the 3,000 a year for five years and keep the houses (in good locations) than take my chances on buying and re-qualifying with my DTI ratio.
Giving advise is often not a simple thing. Each person has to consider their own situation and crunch their numbers.
Insteresting comments, but maybe not for everybody; as mine weren't earlier.