How much has your house gone down in value?

[Snodog]

Why does it really matter unless you are planning to sell?

Your right of course. I was just curious to see if this housing slump was really as bad as they are telling us. Looks like it is.

[Radiance]

Why do you think it was foolish to re-finance?

First, because we did it for all the wrong reasons, we did it to cash out money just because we could, we used up the money to buy furniture go on vacations and other no-need stuff. Looking back if I knew then what I know now about finances (which is still not much) I would have paid off debt, build emergency and retirement fund, etc.

Second, I refinanced at peak value, so short after the house started loosing value, putting me immediately under water on a higher than needed mortgage payment. When I separated I could no longer pay for it and I am trying to shortsale now.

If I had not refinanced, I would be paying about 1700 for my house and I would be able to stay on it. Instead I am at a 2800 payment I can not make.

Dumb, dumb. Absolutely idiotic.

But, here I am, I cannot change the past and I can not keep on hoping for a beter past, I move forward. If I ever buy again, I would refinance only to make improvements to the house. Or maybe for a medical emergency and the like.

It has been dificult forgiving myself, but I am proud of the improvements I have made in the last few months.

[MonkeyMama]

Your right of course. I was just curious to see if this housing slump was really as bad as they are telling us. Looks like it is.

Really depends on the area. We've got a lot of friends and relatives in the Bay Area that paid in the $700k range for their homes - they have not dropped in price though. Depends on specific area. Our parents live in "less desirable" neighborhoods and they have lost some value (though not a lot).

Around here, things have definitely picked up in 2009 as well, BUT the shadow inventory is huge. (Lots of homes in default - but foreclosure process not started). I think prices here are artificially inflated, until all the foreclosures hit the market.

[ceejay74]

Why does it really matter unless you are planning to sell?

The other big reason is a lot of us suckers got ARMs and would like to refinance. Mine has adjusted (up) once and is due to reset again in November; since rates have been creeping up I'm guessing it (and my payment) will go down. For some reason the amount of principal that gets paid each month went down last time; don't see how when it's a 30-year mortgage either way and my payment went up, but it happened.

We bought in 2003 and rolled closing costs into what was going to be a $200K condo, so we bought for $207K. Interestingly enough they somehow got its value appraised at $207K; looking back that seems very suspicious, but at the time I wasn't nearly educated enough in home buying to know what was really going on.

Based on what condos have been selling (sluggishly) for in my building, our value is about $160K. We would need to fix up the floor to sell; it's had some wear and tear over the years. Without repairs we might have to go a couple thou lower than that, though our view is one of the best in the building, so maybe not. Also our property tax assessment puts it at $160K, so I think that is fairly accurate.

So depending on whether you look at the original selling price or our finaly price, it's lost $40K (20%) or $47K (22%) in value.

We owe about $170K, only pay off about $280 of principal per month, and have other more urgent debts to pay extra on, so there is really no hope of refinancing in the near future. We'll just have to suck it up and absorb the bigger payment in the fall.

[mdcrim]

Bought at $385k in 6/03. Peak was about $550k. Now worth $463k according to Zillow but realistically it's probably worth about $415k. Owe around $256k

[JinCO]

I think we are about flat for the past few years. We bought in June, 2007 for $530K. Zillow has us listed at $653K, but we did an appraisal about 4 months ago to refi and the value came back at $545K. I'm in Boulder, CO

[creditcardfree]

Not much, in fact it maybe has gone up.

In 2006, we purchased for $173,000.
Today, Zillow gives a range of $171,825 to $207,375 with a Zestimate of $197,500. This zestimate seems to be up from the last time I checked earlier this summer.

[maat55]

According to my county accessor, it went up 7k from 140k to 147k.

[Snave]

We purchased at the end of 2007 for 585K and Zillow has it at 583K now. I thought we would have been down a lot more than that. We are in a new neighborhood and some homes that I thought the builder really cut prices on are up according to Zillow. However, we recently refinanced and the appraisal was for 545K. So, that is 40 K loss, plus the 30K we have in patio and additional landscaping we added after we closed.

[Radiance]

I believe states like Florida, California and Nevada were hard hit.

[markusk]

Interesting thread.
Live in the Bay area, in Northern CA, a HCOL area.

Bought foreclosed home for 865K (July 2008) with bank paying additional 2% toward closing costs, etc.

Previous owners bought for 950K in 2004. At peak in 2006 was valued at 1.3M. That was crazy. Definitely not worth that! Zillow estimates current value at 904K. County assessed value is 835K as of January 1, 2009, so 30K loss in 6 months! Ouch.

Will stay for long-term, so paper loss, and not worried. However, reluctant to make home improvements like landscaping at this time.

[grammie]

Bought ours in 2006 for 445,000 (it had been valued at 520,000 9 months prior). It's now valued at 325,000 but there are foreclosed homes all around us for 290,000 and they still aren't selling. It's very bad here. I, too, am wishing I'd waited.

[wincrasher]

I think mine has gone up, but it's hard to tell.

I bought in April '09 for $342k. At the time, the seller had a 3 month old appraisal for $372k and my new appraisal came in at $342k (what a coincidence!).

Since then, I've added a $14k deck, $3k of landscaping materials and I've brought the lawn back from the dead using sweat and lots and lots of chemicals. Curb appeal is way up.

So maybe it's up a little.

[cptacek]

DH bought this house for $15,000 in 2005. It is a small two bedroom with one bathroom and a living room/dining room combination, and a very large side yard and a large garage. We owe about $1300 on it right now. If we were to put it on the market I don't know if we would get anyone interested in buying it. Maybe some hunters for a weekend hunting lodge or something. Or some high school kid just out of school wanting to move out of the house. There really is no "market" in this town...zillow would laugh at the suggestion.

[TBH]

I'm surprised so many of you are using Zillow for this. I love the idea of Zillow, but it is way, way off for my area.

We bought our old house for $70K in 2004 and put about $30K into it.

Zillow had it valued at $55K for the longest time, which was the value on record at the city. Meanwhile, houses on the street were selling for $125k, 135, 150, 175.

We just had it appraised twice this spring--once it appraised at $168, and once at $159. We sold it for $156K in July.

Zillow now says it's work $185K, which is totally, totally unrealistic.

I'm glad to hear it's more accurate in many areas. I find it an interesting diversion but not at all reliable for my area.