the foreclosures out there are freaking me out! (Houston, Dallas: insurance, credit card)

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by GHJohn

Which is why I've never understood the point of those car ads where they say you can save tons of money on a new ford truck or whatever they are selling. If you have a car or truck that runs fine wouldn't you save more by not buying a new car or truck?

Watch the commercials closer. Not really car ones but like furniture stores. They are THE WORST! Most of them never even show a stick of furniture. Just keep popping up: ZERO DOWN, NO PAYMENT, NO INTEREST UNTIL 2020!

I love those the most. Like that furniture is going to be worth a dime by the time the first payment is due. LOL!!! So the furniture is worn out and they have not even paid one dime towards it. shaking head

[Grainraiser]

"I think I shall soak some pinto beans in his memory"


Add some cornbread and ice tea and I will be right over LOL!

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by Grainraiser

"I think I shall soak some pinto beans in his memory"


Add some cornbread and ice tea and I will be right over LOL!

DANG, I'm hungry now. That sounds good.

[lh_newbie]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

A lot more than most people realize. Of our friends that have bought a house in the last 2 years every single one of them either paid it in full at the time of purchase or put down MORE than 30%. The people that are able to "get ahead" still in this day are the ones that have ALWAYS stuck to a budget yet still had enough extra money to splurge on big ticket items and "extras" whenever they wanted and something caught their eye. It is your lifestyle and spending habits during the GOOD TIMES that will help you sustain during the down times.

Yup - when we bought our home 2 years ago, we actually did the 80/10/10 (80% primary mortgage + 10% secondary mortgage + 10% down) thing because we wanted to have enough $ left over to do the renovation of the master bathroom + not touch our emergency fund + we needed a new HVAC system. We both hate owing money - so we tightened the belt while we remodeled, got a great deal on our new HVAC and was able to pay off the 2nd loan after 11 months. Our mortgage is roughly 61% of the value of the home at this point (partially due to increasing the value of the home, partly due to paying extra), and we continue to pay extra each and every month with the full intention of paying it off in 15 years (or earlier if only our company's stock would do better... hehe).

Brian

[5stones]

I went to Europe probably a dozen times from 1997-2003 for less than $400-$500 per ticket. I got many of those for $300 something.

my first trip to Europe was in 1990 HOuson to Frankfort to see my now hubby...RT $315!
Several other trips there befroe I moved there and the most expensive ticket was... $470. The Dollar was 1.70 to 1 mark. (when we left in 93 it was 1.40)
Glad I don't live there now!!

ZERO DOWN, NO PAYMENT, NO INTEREST UNTIL 2020!

LOL
hubby and I ALWAYS laugh at those..."DON'T pay till YOUR DEAD!" Let your kids deal with the debt!!
I like the "ONCE a YEAR" sales...yeah right like next week they aren't going to have the "FINAL clearance DAYS" sale of whatever the sale of the week is!!
WHEN don't furniture stores have sales?

OH we put 20% down on this house.
VA was hard since in 2005 the market was crazy...we did put 85k down which in a normal place that would have been well over 20%!
(the first one no... it was VA loan..we used all our savings to pay off our car loan to get the house, so we would only have one loan)

[HockeyDadof2]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

Nope, Aruba. I waited to the last minute and it was the only thing available that I could also get decent airfare for. So Aruba it is.

Have not been to Atlantis but friends have. Kids loved it. That place is HUGE!!!! Too much of a crowd for dh there. He prefers the lowkey places.

HAVE FUN!!!!

Have a great time!!!

[rosscountry]

Originally Posted by Panks

I was reading an article that said TX,CA and two other states ( I forget the other 2) have the highest rates of foreclosures. But when I looked at the homes in TX, they were mostly in the 100k range.

So my question is..what the heck is going on when people can't hold on to a 100k mortgage thats probably $700 a month with tax and insurance??? is the job market so bad that they can't get another job or are the pay out there so low that a 100k mortgage in TX is like a 300k mortgage in CA?

I'm not being a snob. I know no one wants to walk away from a house unless they have no choice, so I'm trying to figure out whats going on before I get myself into serious trouble. I know in CA, people were getting ARMs and couldnt make the payments when they adjusted up..but thats for mostly 500k+ homes. I cant imagine that they overpaid for their homes by paying 100k so they'd rather let the bank have it back...it must be something else and not knowing what is really making me nervous.

I'm nervous that I'm going to jump from the fire into a frying pan since I dont have a job lined up. So do you think relocating to TX be an insane move without getting a job first? especially since I'm a recruiter and it looks like finding jobs out there must be difficult.

I'd be much obliged if I could get some clear headed thinking from y'all

Many of those 100k homes are owned by investors who have decided that the business was no longer in their favor so they have chosen to walk away/turn their back on the property and let it go into foreclosure.

This is why most builders are not to happy when they here that an "investor" is looking to buy a home. Some of them tend to buy a home as basic as possible and put as little into it so they can maximize profits.

smaller investors seem to like the 100-200k range.

There was a statistic that came out that showed that of the 800,000 foreclosures US wide 35% are investment properties.

Since Texas is considered so desireable and inexpensive folks from more expensive markets are coming in and swooping homes up even when they shouldn't.

[Lakewooder]

I remember when the infomercial and RE book types were promoting buying new tract houses in the Dallas suburbs. I heard many times they were bought by out-of-staters who never even looked at them. They would hold 'seminars' in hotel meeting rooms and serve a free dinner.

A large number of those 'investors' were from California and they were using their inflated home values to borrow equity for the downpayment on the rental homes here.

We can see how that turned out.

[DWong]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

Yes, the lower end priced homes have been hardest hit with foreclosures in the DFW market. Several cases have been pointed out as to why. You have to look at the market that these homes were targeted at and who built them. Many of the builders were not building quality homes and throwing them up and trying to get people in them as fast as they could. With that came many problems w/ the homes themselves. The buyers don't have the funds to fix the problems themselves before selling it and no one is going to buy it w/ all of the problems so sometimes the buyers did walk away from their home. The builders can fight, stall and keep from having to make the proper repairs to the home too. There are many instances of this around. These are the neighborhoods to avoid. You can find plenty of neighborhoods in that price range that are NOT being hit with foreclosures but the homes may be a bit older but they will be better built and in better areas. When the builders are touting how cheap the home is price wise you know there is a reason.

Then the buyers themselves. I'm not saying that all people that are in the income bracket that can only afford a home in the $100K range are bad in their financial judgement (heck, our first house we built was in the $80's) but many are. Enough to make a huge difference. They are coming out of the rental market to where they may have lived in an apartment or rental house that all utilities were paid and they did not have to worry about property taxes. I'm willing to bet that close to 100% in this market did have their taxes & insurance escrowed which is a good thing so they were not foreclosed on for not paying taxes. BUT, w/ a landlord if you have a bad month and you have been a good tenant they may let it slide. The mortgage company is not and way too many times people that get behind or have a hardship don't make a call to their creditors at the first sign of trouble to see about working things out. They wait till the foreclosure notice comes and by then it is too late. Too late to put it on the market to sell in a timely fashion especially if others are all facing the same thing and if the builder is still building in that community. While they may have hit this hard time because one lost a job, medical reasons, job relocation, etc it boils down to the fact that you have a market of people that are not used to nor have been taught how to make sound financial decisions. Before they even bought the house they very possibly could have already been in financial hardship w/ high credit card debit (which means higher interest rates) or whatever. I also can not tell you how many times I've heard people in this bracket say when told about their credit history/score w/ blemishes on it (lots of unpaid school loans) that they are "owed this house". Because the mortgage company/builder is scared of getting sued for discrimination too many times they go ahead and approve the buyers only for them to end up foreclosing down the road.

The other problem is investors. Investors coming into these neighborhoods and buying up as many houses as they can. Some bought them to hold for a little while and flip since our market was strong and not being hit like other areas and some bought them as rentals. When they figure out that the rental market is not that great and try to sell off their inventory but can't they do end up letting them be foreclosed on.

Might have been a while since we've lived in an apartment momofdfw, but I'm pretty sure they don't include electric in ur rent.... at least not in CA?

[USA_Mom]

Originally Posted by DWong

Might have been a while since we've lived in an apartment momofdfw, but I'm pretty sure they don't include electric in ur rent.... at least not in CA?

Well it depends on the complex, my aunt lives in Ontario in an older complex (Ontario, California not Canada LOL) and her electric and water is included in her rent.