Comments on: And we’re officially stuck…

By: sohotosoho

sohotosoho — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:08:45 +0000

They (well, whoever “they” are) say you should always go for the worst house on the best street you can afford. Sounds like yours is vice versa so you may be screwed regardless. Hang in there and try not to check the comps too often, it only leads to heartburn!

By: Sue

Sue — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:14:53 +0000

I have a client on the Money Merge Account who lives in Germantown (Montgomery Village) MD. When we first met about 6 months ago he told me he paid $500,000 about 2 years prior for his home (and had an interest-only mortgage of $432,000) and that home values hadn’t decreased much in his neighborhood. I suggested he talk to a realtor who was familiar with his community. He did – and found out that the value of his home was down to $300,000! Needless to say, he was pretty distraught – he owes $132,000 more than his home is worth.

In Hagerstown, where I live, the main thing driving down home values are the foreclosures and short sales, which are being priced well below market value in order to get them sold.

PS – with the program he’s using, he’ll have his mortgage paid off in about 14 years and will be saving over $308,000 in interest payments! By then, I’m sure that home values will have bounced back and he’ll make a fortune when he sells his mortgage-free home.

By: Coupon Artist

Coupon Artist — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:43:16 +0000

We are stuck as well. Between the tumble the stock market took (taking some of our down payment fund with it… stupid to have it in there, I know) and the falling home values, we are definitely not going anywhere any time soon.

There are a number of houses for sale in our neighborhood as well, far more than I ever remember before.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:25:38 +0000

Though already mentioned, it’s worth highlighting again that you should see the assessment value of your home drop. If not, dispute it. In fact, we should all pay close attention to the assessment value of our homes…even more so during the good times! There is a lot of public information available on real estate assessments in your area, and most of it can be found online.
Seize this opportunity to reduce the assessment value of your home, and then pay attention going forward. There’s a good chance this will be the only time in our lives that we will see housing prices decline so dramatically. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by, as the tax savings should go on for the rest of the time you own your home!

By: Abigail

Abigail — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 08:03:59 +0000

Actually, I’m having quite the opposite problem from a lot of homeowners.

As a renter, I have been noticing rents going up, up, up. Why? Because the housing boom meant everyone was building. They converted apartment houses into condos. Everyone was buying. Now, many are selling or just getting kicked out. They have to rent. So the demand is up. Landlords are loving it.

So my husband and I can’t even begin to imagine moving for quite awhile — which we’d probably put off for awhile anyway, since we have to pay down some debt.

By: Squawkfox

Squawkfox — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 03:18:23 +0000

Housing always fluctuates though. A price drop should only matter if and when you want or need to sell. Our home value has dropped as well, but my plan is to live here a long time. So the current price is kind of irrelevant as this is my long-term home.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:53:03 +0000

Our home assessment for property taxes was recently sent to us and its $4,000 less than before. Sadly the total amount of drop in our fee’s is about 1/2 as much as the year to year increases had been in the last few years

We also are a little “stuck” but unless a job makes us relocate we are happy in our home and comfortable with the mortgage payment.

By: SmartSecurityPeople

SmartSecurityPeople — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:09:06 +0000

The scary part of your situation is that the house across the street may be listed $40,000 less than yours but what will it take for it to actually sell? I would keep a close eye on that one to see what the final selling price comes in at.

Hopefully in a couple of years, we will all have back some equity in our homes…or at least maintain the value that we paid for them.

By: aa

aa — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:58:49 +0000

Your house is cheaper but the house that you may want to buy is also cheaper, So, as long as your house could be sold, why care?

By: Clever Dude

Clever Dude — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:23:09 +0000

@Nick, good point. Why do your neighbors want to get away from you so much? I just have divorced women on either side of us (as a note, Nick and I are neighbors directly across the street from each other. These two homes in the article are on either side of his house)

For the tax assessment, I won’t see much relief because I have that thing where the value can only go up 10% over the prior year. So even though it’s assessed at 470k, I’m only paying taxes on 300-something. The house has to plummet by half to see any tax savings, and I’ll have more problems than that if that were to happen!