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Let's say you bought a house, like it did, in early 2003.
I spent a year looking, and thought I did the best I could at the time, I've never missed a payment, even when my wife was out of work for years ast a stay at home mom. The value nearly doubled by 2006, and I was a genius in my wife's eyes. Now, we are underwater on the house, and I am the fool that is to blame for wasting our savings. Suppose, my wife wanted to get a divorce for my financial incompetence.
Would she have a case, or are macroeconomic factors to blame?
Discuss.
(Hint. This is not a real estate thread.)
It is only your fault if you are trying to walk away. Otherwise, if you can pay for the house then, stay in the house. Housing shouldn't have been looked at as money making scheme. Of course if you took out loans against your house then it is your fault.
I was a realtor for 15 yrs, working with some good and some bad realtors. The loan agents are another story, could not stand some of them.
Value only matters, if you need to sell the home you are currently in. If you do not need to, let the home price adjust then decide what you wish to do.
If your under water on your home, you can always do a short sale with the bank, but suggest you get a realtor who specializes in short sale properties.
A lot of banks are willing to work with underwater owners. Will refinancing the home help in anyway.
No home prices thruout time and does not matter which party is in office, have declines, and values do rise, but in some areas, those hard hit with short-sales, bank repos, and foreclosures suffer immensely.
In areas hard hit by this recession, because we are in a recession, no matter what others call it, will take around 4 to 5 yrs, to recover.
I would not come down hard on yourself, when people buy a home, they can never specualte what the future will bring, but a good word of advice. If you cannot afford to buy the home of your dream, don't buy it. If you cannot afford the payments on that dream home, and yet buy the basics to live by, don't buy that house.
It is only your falult if at the time of your purchase of the said property, you had trouble making the payments back when, and trouble saving for that rainy day, which believe you me, can happen i know at anytime.
Let's say you bought a house, like it did, in early 2003.
I spent a year looking, and thought I did the best I could at the time, I've never missed a payment, even when my wife was out of work for years ast a stay at home mom. The value nearly doubled by 2006, and I was a genius in my wife's eyes. Now, we are underwater on the house, and I am the fool that is to blame for wasting our savings. Suppose, my wife wanted to get a divorce for my financial incompetence.
Would she have a case, or are macroeconomic factors to blame?
Discuss.
(Hint. This is not a real estate thread.)
I would say that if you didn't refinance it that it's not your fault. If you boosted your mortgage up during the bubble it's your fault.
But no, you couldn't foresee what was going to happen with the market. People need houses, that's just the way it is.
I did not borrow anything "on the house." It is simply worth $50k less than I paid in 2003, according to zillow.
My point was say I was hammered by the bubble and housing crash. Is my wife right in saying it was incompetence or mismanagement on my part that caused that $50k to disappear?
You are only under water if you owe more than it's worth.
Most of the time you see that, it's because there wasn't an adequate down payment.
Or any efforts towards building equity outside of normal payments (most of which, at 2003 rate) are being put towards interest.
A loss of 50k during a bust does not make anyone immediately at fault or underwater.
But you're saying you haven't made any headway in equity in 10 years?
And btw, who cares unless you're trying to sell it right this very second?
Let's say you bought a house, like it did, in early 2003.
I spent a year looking, and thought I did the best I could at the time, I've never missed a payment, even when my wife was out of work for years ast a stay at home mom. The value nearly doubled by 2006, and I was a genius in my wife's eyes. Now, we are underwater on the house, and I am the fool that is to blame for wasting our savings. Suppose, my wife wanted to get a divorce for my financial incompetence.
Would she have a case, or are macroeconomic factors to blame?
Discuss.
(Hint. This is not a real estate thread.)
I recommend marriage counseling.
Are you trapped by being underwater, i.e. do you need to move for job or personal reasons (aside from this hypothetical divorce) and cannot sell the house? Are the payments affordable?
If you bought a house in 2003 and put 20% down you should not be underwater now. I guess she might complain about that, but the fact is housing was and is expensive and where are you going to live? The other option is renting and there are often limitations to a rental. Did you take advantage of owning in this way?
You can get a no-fault divorce but making reasonable financial decisions with the information you had at the time is not grounds for an at-fault divorce. Impotence, incarceration, adultery, abandonment, etc. would be grounds.
Let's say you bought a house, like it did, in early 2003.
I spent a year looking, and thought I did the best I could at the time, I've never missed a payment, even when my wife was out of work for years ast a stay at home mom. The value nearly doubled by 2006, and I was a genius in my wife's eyes. Now, we are underwater on the house, and I am the fool that is to blame for wasting our savings. Suppose, my wife wanted to get a divorce for my financial incompetence.
Would she have a case, or are macroeconomic factors to blame?
Discuss.
(Hint. This is not a real estate thread.)
So, your wife thinks it is an investment?
Might just want to ask her if it has shrunk or if it no longer has a roof etc.
Basically, you signed on to make a certain series of payments.....you got the house still.....there you go.
Why would you buy at the top of a bubble? People try not to buy stocks when the prices are high. Same applies to any other asset, like one's house.
2003 wasn't the top of the bubble. It was on the upward slope but around here houses are fetching close to 2003 prices. We refinanced in 2003 but only for 70% of house assessed value--we were lucky our credit union was so conservative as to not allow more than that.
Let's say you bought a house, like it did, in early 2003.
I spent a year looking, and thought I did the best I could at the time, I've never missed a payment, even when my wife was out of work for years ast a stay at home mom. The value nearly doubled by 2006, and I was a genius in my wife's eyes. Now, we are underwater on the house, and I am the fool that is to blame for wasting our savings. Suppose, my wife wanted to get a divorce for my financial incompetence.
Would she have a case, or are macroeconomic factors to blame?
What advice did your account and real estate attorney give you prior to buying the house?
You did consult with an accountant and a real estate attorney before you bought the house, right?
You couldn't afford the $75 to $150 consultation with a real estate attorney? Then why were you even looking at houses? Independent unbiased advice is exactly that.
As far as her divorce claim, your competence level was imputed knowledge, known in advance or reasonably foreseeable, and in any case, not grounds for divorce-for-cause. If she wants to jump ship, she can, but there's a price to pay: no alimony, no child-support and she leaves the marriage with only that which she entered.
You should divorce your wife for being so financially artarded that she thinks her home is an 'investment.'
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