are you upside down on your house?

[97guns]

just curious, out of a dozen or so people i know that own houses a good 1/2 of them are upside down on them and the sad part is that 3 of them have been in their houses for over 25 years. they used their house like an ATM when it was peaking when they should be cruising to retirement right now.

[MonkeyMama]

The foreclosure rate in my peer group is over 90% where I live. It is INSANE. (I am thinking those aged 25-45-ish? I am 35).

What is interesting is the worst off ones bought not at the peak, but bought a long time ago. & used their homes as ATMs. Yes. Definitely what I have noticed too. (So, the older ones who paid a very small fraction for their homes, were the first to fall. Home prices were amazingly low here just a decade ago).

I have a hard time thinking of even one person who has been able to keep their home. Without fretting about how to keep it for the long run. Regionally.

We are in the black. The opposite side of this is since everyone is in the same boat, everyone talks pretty openly about their home equity issues. I've talked to several people who I can tell just have not a clue how are not upside down. (We put 20% down. That alone would do take care of it, in our shoes - we bought in 2001). The thought apparently crosses few minds these days. I also don't think they realize that we have never borrowed a dime against our house. That may be the bigger factor? We've actually been paying it down for 10 years versus borrowing more? It's clear to me that the though of not using a home as an ATM is foreign to most of these people. Just the other day someone said to me, "Oh, you bought your house a long time ago - no wonder you are not upside down." That is logic no one has spoken to me in about 5 years. Usually when I point that out as a reason why we are doing okay on equity, I get blank stares.

It just astounds me.

[disneysteve]

We are in the black. We bought in 1994 for $142,000. We put down 20% ($28,400). We took a home equity loan once in 1998 to pay off my car and some student loans. That was repaid years ago. The home is currently worth about $250,000 and we still owe about $76,000 so we've got equity of about $174,000.

[BuckyBadger]

We bought 4 years ago for about $250,000 and put $40,000 down (16%). We now owe $190,000 and the horse is worth $260,000. So we have about $70,000 in equity.

[GREENBACK]

I'm in the black. Fortunately home values never dropped much in my area. Like others have said, I put 20% down when I purchased it 11 yrs. ago so no PMI and instant equity to boot. I could have paid it off by now but have refied a couple of times. I have plenty of equity in the home and my monthly payment is about what a one bedroom apartment would be in this area.

Incredibly, I'm only a couple hours from Detroit and the stories about this issue I hear are horrifying.

[Emerald]

I bought in 2008 with 20% down, but prices have dropped 35% since then, so I am officially underwater.

[Petunia 100]

I am very upside down. I bought a foreclosure in 2007 for 231,400 with 20% down, plus I immediately put money into the house. Cosmetic repairs, painting, new flooring, new light fixtures, new wooden baseboards, new wooden shelves in closets, general clean-up. When I refinanced in March 2008 (for a lower interest rate) my house appraised at 250k. Now Zillow estimates it is worth 122k. I believe that is more or less accurate. I owe 180k.

I may refinance again under the new HARP rules, if the loan terms are attractive.

[MonkeyMama]

To clarify - we bought for about $300k in 2001, put $70k down, and owe $200k today. Home is probably worth $250k.

I wanted to clarify that I think it is a miracle that we are not upside down - LOTS of foreign investors swooping in to buy foreclosed homes. So though the foreclosure rate is very high here, home prices have held pretty steady for a very long time, through it all. I realize I could very easily be upside down on my home, even not partaking in all of the extreme fiscal irresponsibility that was so common in my city.

[PRICEPLUS]

Never looked at home as an ATM. Out of debt, out of danger. Paid in full s the mortgage goes.

[Ima saver]

I bought my first house when I was 21. I paid it off when I was 32. I have built two houses since then, paying cash for both of them. My house is valued at about $500,000, I live on two acres with 500 feet of creek frontage. I have never even had an ATM card and neither has my husband.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Bought $575k, got cash back from seller about $15k for repairs, put down 20%, owe $410k on it, could sell for $549k easily probably what we bought it for or more. Prices where we live are high because of school district.

[JuniorTT]

We bought in 2004 for about $296k with about 10% down. Made pretty aggressive payments along the way and finally paid it off in full this August. I think the current value is around $265k. So we're way in the black but I sometimes wonder about co-workers and neighbors.

[Snodog]

Bought our home in 1997, paid $60,000 and put $4,000 down. We currently owe $35,000 and home is worth $145,000.

[feh]

Originally Posted by 97guns

just curious, out of a dozen or so people i know that own houses a good 1/2 of them are upside down on them and the sad part is that 3 of them have been in their houses for over 25 years. they used their house like an ATM when it was peaking when they should be cruising to retirement right now.

Our neighbors did the same thing - bought their home in '92. Walked away from it last year. I can only assume they had multiple mortgages. It's inconceivable to me that somebody could be upside down on a house after 20 years.

We bought our current home in '07 for cash.

[97guns]

this forum is probably a bad place to conduct this poll, what would the numbers be it i were to hang out in front of walmart?

[Petunia 100]

Originally Posted by 97guns

this forum is probably a bad place to conduct this poll, what would the numbers be it i were to hang out in front of walmart?

Agreed. If you hung out anywhere in my town and asked this same question, you would get very different results. Home prices in my town have fallen 70% from the peak in 3rd quarter 2006.

[asmom]

We are upside down. We bought in 1998 well before the peak. We never missed a payment, had a fixed rate from the beginning, have not borrowed against our home. Yet, we are upside down because everyone else did the exact opposite of what we did. Therefore when they lost their homes, values plummeted including ours. That's the way it goes. 13 years in and this! At least home prices appear to have stabilized and a couple of homes in our neighborhood have actually sold in the past few months so that's a positive. We will probably be right side up again in about 3 years. We weren't planning on going anywhere anyway.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by asmom

We are upside down. We bought in 1998 well before the peak. We never missed a payment, had a fixed rate from the beginning, have not borrowed against our home.

How much of a down payment did you have when you bought?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Right if you bought in 1998 and paid off 13 years it should be half paid off right? Halfway through the mortgage? And you bought before the rise in prices?

[photo]

I own 100% of my house, which has more than doubled since its purchase over 20 years ago.