A lot of these people were told they could afford the house. The mortgage anyway. Most people don't know the money a house, even a new one, sucks in over a year.
“A lot of these people were told they could afford the house. The mortgage anyway. Most people don’t know the money a house, even a new one, sucks in over a year.”
You’re right. When my mother passed away in 2005, I inherited her house. The mortgage is entirely paid on it. I did not sell the house right away and after I did the accounting for the estate, I found out that the house was costing me around $15,000 a year to maintain, including repairs (big ones periodically come along), home owner’s insurance, property taxes and utilities. Heat needs to be on in the winter so the pipes don’t freeze and it’s useful to keep the electricity going. The only utility that I discontinued was the phone.