Appalled (Chicago, Bridgeview: real estate, apartments, mortgage)

[Caver Girl]

I made the mistake of looking up my house this morning on Zillow, ha ha. It's worth $130k. We owe $255k. It is appalling to me, knowing we're basically throwing money away, lining bank execs pockets. And I don't think there's anything we can do about it, because we are able to make our mortgage payments. I'd love to move to south central Kentucky at some point, but I don't know how we'll ever be able to sell our house here. /vent.

[Vlajos]

I wouldn't worry about zillow.

[Caver Girl]

True, I have heard it's not exactly accurate. I am about 99% sure we are upside down in our mortgage though!

[LakeShoreSoxGo]

Zillow is fairly accurate. You can look up the when the houses were and for what price. It is spot on. The values are usually not too far off from what they are assessed at. This is why real estate agents hate it so much. You have some idea of what you are getting into, rather than walking completely blind into the market.

[sfcambridge]

You are NOT throwing your money away. You are getting a house. A place to live. That's pretty amazing. That is the most important, major expense for every one of us. Why don't you think it should cost money?

There are tons of us that can never "afford" the luxury of buying a house, and we live in rented apartments forever.

You signed a mortgage because you thought it was a good place to live for the price. If you could afford it, and knew when you signed the contract how long it would take to pay it off WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? Nothing is really changed, since you are still living there.

And of course, you did your due diligence and only bought a place because you were planning to stay for a long period of time. You should have bought your house as a place to live NOT as an "investment".

I just don't have any sympathy for you. I am not a fan of the banks that took advantage of people, but often it takes two to tango. And people who do "strategic defaults" are just as bad as the banks. I am so tired of people living beyond their means, then coming back asking for more....

[myrc60]

That is disgusting and you are the scapegoat in the mess. We got out of Chicago before the bottom fell out; why anyone thought housing should be worth that amount is beyond me. It's raised the cost of living out of reach for many. We bought a house in Bridgeview for $90k in the 90's and my father-in-law thought we were paying too much. He paid 15k for a house in Chicago in the 50's and it was unbelievable to him that housing could be that expensive. As long as you can afford your mortgage I wouldn't worry about it cause there isn't anything you can do right now to save yourself.

[Caver Girl]

Wow, you are a very angry person, sfcambridge! Trust me, I know we are lucky to be able to own property. We didn't buy it as an investment at all. But we also didn't plan to live there until we die. Things change. People change. It was a good price at the time, but since the economy has sunk (and no, it's not getting better), and the inflated housing market has sunk even lower than the economy, it just is wrong that the super rich will continue to get richer while the rest of us suffer, or just barely squeak by.

[jamaicabound60565]

Originally Posted by Caver Girl

I made the mistake of looking up my house this morning on Zillow, ha ha. It's worth $130k. We owe $255k. It is appalling to me, knowing we're basically throwing money away, lining bank execs pockets. And I don't think there's anything we can do about it, because we are able to make our mortgage payments. I'd love to move to south central Kentucky at some point, but I don't know how we'll ever be able to sell our house here. /vent.

couple things, zillow isn't that accurate sometimes up sometimes down so could be better or maybe even worse than zillow tells you.

also like other said your not throwing your money away. you need a place to live. apparently you were happy with the payments nad where you lived at one point and now your not because a website that does soem wierd calculation gives you an arbitrary value for your house.

also i know its frustrating but whats with the occupy wallstreet mentality in your lining the bank execs pockets comment? nobody forced you to buy that house and if you bought something cheaper or saved up cash you could have owned your house free and clear and not been paying anyone. since you didn't do that you needed someone to give you a loan which they did. rates are really low so you probably are paying under 6% even if youve had your loan for a long time. if more recent maybe even under 4 %

[Caver Girl]

We've known for a long time that our house's value has gone way down. I had just been curious this morning and so looked it up on Zillow. There really wasn't anything cheaper in our area when we bought it (2003). We had wanted to stay in Cook county otherwise you get screwed by super high property taxes. That's not to say ours also aren't super high, but it could've been much worse, say in Lake County or Dupage County. I go back and forth with being okay with it all. We do like our home, and our area continues to improve. And we love to travel, so being close to O'Hare is good. I would just someday like the option to move if I want to. And right now, I don't think that's possible to do - and at least remain financially responsible!!

[Vlajos]

Ok