I'm walking from my underwater mortgage

NY Post ^ | 01/31/10 | JANET SPEER

[TigerLikesRooster]

I'm walking from my underwater mortgage

By JANET SPEER

Last Updated: 7:34 PM, January 31, 2010

Posted: 4:34 AM, January 31, 2010

I stopped paying my $1,450-a-month mortgage on my 200-year-old, four-bedroom home in September 2008 -- after making the hard decision to walk away from my mortgage because it is hopelessly underwater.

It is not an easy decision to walk away from your home, and in the beginning I actually felt like a loser. That was the hardest part.

You see, I was raised to live up to my financial responsibilities. I was taught plenty about personal responsibility. But in this case I had no practical solutions to my financial dilemma -- I lost my job, was turned down for a mortgage modification and owed a lot more than the house is worth.

I WOULD RATHER FIGHT THAN SWITCH HOMES

I am a single parent with three children, one with medical issues. So, with only unemployment benefits and child-support money, I decided to pull the plug on my mortgage payments.

[HereInTheHeartland]

“Bottom line, she sucked 54K out of the bank and now she’s leaving them high and dry. “

Sounds like she stole $54,000. And the taxpayers will get the bill. She should be jailed.

[Lera]

This house is worth $20,000 more than when she bought it.
If she wouldn’t have been stupid and refinanced and sucked $54,000 out of it she would still be ahead .
Some people are just to stupid to own a house.

She has a permanent renters mentality thinking that you never have to repair anything also (complains that the toilet is not working - How hard is it to go to Home Depot and buy a kit to repair for under $20 or a whole new toilet and a wax ring for under $200 ?)
Some people are just to stupid to own a house.

I can’t believe she got away with living their for 18 months without paying anything.
I guess I can figure out how she votes.

[Arkinsaw]

A few years ago we refinanced and paid off all of our other debt. At the same time we changed our mortgage from a 30-year to a 15-year at a lower interest rate that basically kept our payments the same. We started making extra payments at that time with the money we saved not paying credit card payments anymore. We are now down to getting it paid off in the next four or five years.

Our house is a dinky little starter house. We never got onto the upgrade bandwagon. It was too small for our family so we converted the garage into another room. It was still too small but now the kids are going to be out about the time we get it paid off. So we will have a house sized for two again that is paid off.

Glad we didn't go overboard, stayed within our means, and didn't end up having to walk away. We didn't end up with a McMansion, but then again we didn't take on any unnecessary risk either.

[maine-iac7]

The article doesn’t say where the money went.

ah, yes,it does -

[cynwoody]

sell the homeowners into prostitution

Not a sound business plan.

[kcvl]

1) She bought the house at $100,000
2) It went up to $154,000 and she refinanced it at $154,000 which means SHE TOOK OUT $54,000 in cash.
3) Its now down to $120,000 and she cant afford mortgage so she is walking away.

This house originally cost $100,000. In 2005, as the housing market heated up and I needed cash, I refinanced it. An appraiser said it was worth $154,000 -- which I thought was too high but nonetheless accepted. I cashed out the house at that value.

[kcvl]

Today, with the housing market in bad shape, the house is worth about $120,000. On top of that, it is starting to fall apart. Several thousand dollars worth of repairs here; a thousand dollars there -- it all adds up. At 51, I am in no condition to do the repairs myself, with a bad leg and a touch of arthritis. Why would I invest my money, anyway, on a declining asset I never intend to own?

I used the money I accumulated from not paying the mortgage to pay off all my credit-card debt

I feel no shame. I am not suicidal. When I think of what really counts, I do not think of money(unless you count the credit cards that she ran up); I think about the health of my children. Besides I am not the only one.

I am single and dating again.

[tcrlaf]

Probably one of those fools who refied to do something STUPID, like buy a car, or refi credit card debt.

What idiot finances a car or a credit card for THIRTY YEARS????

[ChocChipCookie]

I used the money I accumulated from not paying the mortgage to pay off all my credit-card debt and clean up all my other debt -- except for the house.

This is the only mention of where money went and it wasn't the 54K. It was the money that should have gone toward house payments.

[ChocChipCookie]

Here’s what I would like an answer to. Why WON’T banks work with people in these situations? It’s like they are forcing people into foreclosures when there simply has to be a better solution. Most creditors would rather get 50% of a debt, for example, than 0%, but that seems to be what the mortgage companies are willing to take.

[kcvl]

She says that she stopped paying her mortgage in Sept 2008 and hopes to be out of the house by the summer (of 2010). That is 2 years of not paying her mortgage.

[kingpins10]

After this year, you’ll be lucky to find additional buyers. I’d hold on to your cash.

The crash of ‘08 will soon look like a picnic.

[kingpins10]

Some banks are working with people. But let’s face it, most of the people that are losing their homes are unemployed and have exhausted what little savings they have. If you have no job, you do not qualify for an adjustment.

It is better for the banks to take these homes and sell them. Unfortunately, because of govt intervention this is going to go on for years because of ‘shadow inventory.’

[jjm1776]

According to the article, she took out a SECOND mortgage on the equity her home had rose in its value. It is this she is walking away from.

Nevertheless, being bilked into a loan you shouldn’t be bilked in doesn’t absolved you from responsibility.

I wonder, perhaps, if the devolution of our education system does not beget the crux of the blame here. Many members of Free Republic were able to notice the outrageous rate she was paying on her home based on the price and monthly payment. Me thinks they had the last vestiges of real teachers in this country (of whom I was lucky enough to have had), not those bought and sold for by Godless Sachs and their union and lawyer ilk

True moral behavior cannot be destroyed by immorality. The homeowner was foresaken by temptation, something I feel every time a Westerwald or Mettlach beer stein waltzes across ebay! (I’m a big stein collector)

Please don’t make excuses for the homeowner in this article or those that you know who came up on hard times, for the moral fiber of this country has not destroyed by the bankers or the politicians. It was destroyed and will continued to be ravaged by “We the People!”

The sooner we realize this and pull one another - the best and most resilient people the world has ever known - up by our bootstraps, the better, and more worthy of the title “AMERICAN” we shall be.

I’m done for the night.

John

That’s right, I said “Godless Sachs” - please report me to the committee and let me be done away with in the dark of night.

[kcvl]

Three kids and how is it that rent will be less that 1400?

She has a new boyfriend. Someone should advise him to RUN!

[ConservativeVoice]

btt

[investigateworld]

Good points.

But notice when a US company outsources to China, and screws the US employee, many here will say, "that's just good business. Management owes the stockholders the best return on their investment".

Yet these types will condemn anyone (as do I) that walks from a mortgage obligation......

Pity more folks aren't FReepers.

Ex-texan* and I were beating the drum on this bubble back in 2005.

*For which he was called a blog pimp.

[matthew fuller]

"The second transaction didn’t turn into a personal ATM mahine like she planned, so she is using that as an excuse to not pay back the money she borrowed."

Sounds like an ATM machine, or oil well or something like that to me.....She took $54,000 out of the house, and has been living in it several years RENT FREE....

[When do we get liberated?]

This pisses me off. I make a six figure salay in a business I have 15 years of experience in. I have a 730 rent on a 600 sq foot apartment. I have a mortgage on a property with renters that pay the mortgage plus 90 bucks. My credit is shot from 06 07 so a second mortgage is out of the question. I have next to no furniture, a tv I bought in 1995 and a 2003 model car. All I do is pay back debt month after month, it drives me crazy, but I swear I will frame the first dollar I own.
Think I give a damn about her troubles?

[bruinbirdman]

"Buying a product and taking out a loan are to different and distinct business transactions. She borrowed money AND bought a house."

"The second transaction didn’t turn into a personal ATM mahine like she planned, so she is using that as an excuse to not pay back the money she borrowed."

The bank agreed to the loan, contracting to repossess the house if the mortgage terms are not met.

The bank took the risk and will own the house. The borrower will suffer a poor credit rating and any principle accrued. The seller of the house is the winner.

yitbos