I hate my house. Not in the sense of I hate its floorplan or neighborhood. I hate the financial dimension of it.
We had the exquisitely bad timing of buying very close to the peak of real estate prices. The price had been lowered on the house before we bought, and I think we offered slightly less than asking. At the time we thought it was expensive but as good as it was going to get. In the worst case prices would stay flat or rise very gently, so we'd be able to sell and get out. Right? We couldn't have been more wrong.
Prices have tanked nationally. Ours specifically has been falling at the rate of a decent used car every year. Our property taxes have gone up by about a car payment a month. Can you say negative net worth?
Which leads to a baffling question. For reasons that I won't get into, my wife is committed to refinancing this albatross of a house. So we are. Since the house is so far under water, the only lender we could get is our current mortgage holder. Ok, fair enough. Not a big deal. I'd rather it be otherwise, but that's life.
But here's the crazy part: refinancing would expose them to less risk. We actually want to shorten the term of the loan. Sure, it's risky loaning on a house as far under water as ours, but they're already exposed to the risk. We're talking about decreasing that risk. You'd think this would be a no-brainer.
But it isn't. They now need a mountain of paperwork to make this happen. IF it happens. I cannot wait to see how this plays out. I've got the popcorn ready for a good show.
We had the exquisitely bad timing of buying very close to the peak of real estate prices. The price had been lowered on the house before we bought, and I think we offered slightly less than asking. At the time we thought it was expensive but as good as it was going to get. In the worst case prices would stay flat or rise very gently, so we'd be able to sell and get out. Right? We couldn't have been more wrong.
Prices have tanked nationally. Ours specifically has been falling at the rate of a decent used car every year. Our property taxes have gone up by about a car payment a month. Can you say negative net worth?
Which leads to a baffling question. For reasons that I won't get into, my wife is committed to refinancing this albatross of a house. So we are. Since the house is so far under water, the only lender we could get is our current mortgage holder. Ok, fair enough. Not a big deal. I'd rather it be otherwise, but that's life.
But here's the crazy part: refinancing would expose them to less risk. We actually want to shorten the term of the loan. Sure, it's risky loaning on a house as far under water as ours, but they're already exposed to the risk. We're talking about decreasing that risk. You'd think this would be a no-brainer.
But it isn't. They now need a mountain of paperwork to make this happen. IF it happens. I cannot wait to see how this plays out. I've got the popcorn ready for a good show.
No comments:
Post a Comment