Posted on 03/17/2015 9:38:51 PM PDT by george76
Some 5.4 million homes, or 10.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage, were still in a negative equity position, or "underwater," in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to CoreLogic, as their owners owe more on the mortgage than the home is currently worth. This is down considerably —18.9 percent, from a year ago—but it still keeps these borrowers from putting their homes on the market, because they would lose money. ..
Additionally, of the 49.9 million U.S. homes with a mortgage, approximately 10 million (20 percent) have less than 20 percent equity, and 1.4 million have less than 5 percent, according to CoreLogic. These homeowners also would have a difficult time selling because not only would they lose money in the process, but they also might not qualify for a new mortgage.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
It's funny how quick and anti-climactic closing on a house is when you aren't financing anything.
“18.9 percent, from a year ago—but it still keeps these borrowers from putting their homes on the market, because they would lose money.”
Actually that doesn’t stop anyone from making the sale. It means they don’t wish to make the sale not that they can’t.
Moral of the story is “DON’T BITE OFF MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW”.
Be careful with that; young people today have learned that lesson well, and most will never bear children (and therefore never need a house). While it is of course sound advice, the fact is that we are importing Third World populations because Americans have become completely risk-averse. Can’t say I blame them, but understand the consequences of that mentality.
There was a lot of fudging of numbers with home appraisals; I was fortunate that I bought prior to the bubble. Friends buying comparable properties a few years later were paying nearly twice as much, and one has already lost the home. The housing in the NYC metro area won’t be recovering for the foreseeable future, as jobs and taxpayers continue to flee; in response, the government has trafficked masses of Asians and Hispanics here to keep housing, classrooms, and store aisles full - a completely false economy. Anyone I know who lost a job and found another is making a lot less money (even if they are doing the same work); people had no idea how fast this area would collapse as financial jobs left for Asia and the ripples went outward. The municipalities have little money left after dealing with payrolls and pension obligations; the government worker caste is the last group making money, but at huge expense to the remaining homeowners...
Too bad Obama can’t run for a third term and therefore buy yer votes with a bailout, eh?
My wife and I bought our house near a market peak, and were underwater with our house for many years, and we eventually paid off the mortgage in half the time by simply paying an extra $100 a month towards the principal.
I don’t really understand why people get upset about this. You live in the home. You are using it. You are paying the mortgage, and you negotiated for it and took it out.
This ‘trapped’ thing seems like a liberal construct to me.
Yes. When my wife and I bought, we made a conscious decision not to over-buy, and bought a modest ranch with no frills, and had the goal that if one of us were injured, sick, or lost our job, we could still pay the mortgage.
I have the same problem, people just walked away from the house next door. I understand some people have to do it, because they have no choice.
What infuriates me is the de-stigmatization of debt. We wouldn’t want anyone to feel “bad” because they bought a house far bigger than they needed, three cars, wide screen televisions, cell phones for every family member and vacations in Hawaii, but for some reason, they have to default on the loan and walk away scot free.
It irritates me no end. I do think the people next to me had to walk away because they really did appear to have no choice...he had been out of work a long time, and was injured, and they had no frills that I could see. Just bad luck.
Yep. Liberals were at the root of the housing crisis, with their insistence that banks lend money to whoever WANTED it, not whoever could afford to pay it back. I HATED the mortgage process about thirty years ago, and felt like I was on trial just trying to get a mortgage, but I did feel there was a gate there to protect the lender as well. But the liberals decided that was a hurtful, discriminatory process. It sure was discriminatory...it largely kept people from getting mortgages who should have continued to rent.
But hey...owning a home is a “right”, a piece of the “pie”.
Scum, scum, scum.
I don’t think those are the people having invective sent their way, I certainly don’t feel that way towards my ex neighbor who left an eyesore next to me. He just couldn’t make the mortgage due to his circumstances.
It is the people who trumpet this as a viable and honorable strategy when you aren’t in those poor circumstances.
Screw all of those people, may they rot in Hell.
We were inundated with mosquitoes and those damned tree frogs, and ti turned out the abandoned house next to us had no pool cover, was filled with black, nasty water. We hounded the bank and the the town until they came down and at least put a cover over it.
Oh, but Duh Won did. He's set up for a couple of years in some nice digs, rent free, and has prolly skimmed/scammed enough to be set for life with multiple real (not Mc) Mansions...
Just 10% of the vacay fuel bill for AF-1 would buy most folks more house than they need...ever.
The EPA is not amused.
I was underwater for years.
Family and friends told me to declare bankruptcy and fold,lose my credit standing and basically go broke.I told them all to go to hell.I made my payments and finally sold at a small profit.
Ill second that one!!
A home you own, to me anyway, shouldn’t be an investment you’re hoping to make some bucks on when you move in 5 years. It is a place to live and call your own (outside of the tax bills each year).
I fully own my home and intend to stay here unless I hit the lottery or something. It doesn’t matter to me what it is worth. Even if you have a mortgage, the basic fact doesn’t change. Buy the house if you can afford it, rent if you can’t.
There about 5-6 houses in my sub division like that. Some sitting empty for 2-3 years now.
At the beginning of Obama’s reign the house across the street from me had loans up to 120% of value. It changed hands once a year for about 4 years when the tenants couldn’t make the payments (they blew the 20% extra on ‘stuff’).
Not to worry - local authorities in thrall to the teachers’ unions will spring into action to lower property taxes to help with the crisis! /sarc
So. Do you speak Spanish yet?
Exactly. They are only underwater if they want to move.
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