Did You Keep Your House?

[mommyto3+1]

We live in a very nice but rather expensive area and with all the credit card debt gone we should be able to swing it. However with the economy being the way it is, I am a little nervous. My husband thinks we would be able to do a land contract if we did give up the house. What are all of your experiences?

C.

[lillaimof2kids]

We are keeping our house. Here's how we decided it would be a good idea.
#1 - Our house payment is cheaper than rent would be. (We also have an inground pool and a hot tub)
#2 - We love our neighborhood and neighbors (No one calls the cops on us during our huge 4th of July party-I think they look forward to it now. Between everyone that comes over we usually end up with $2000+ in fireworks.)
#3 - We have 2 acres of land - with room to build a pool barn if we're ever financially able to.
#4 - We are out of the city limits and do not have to pay city taxes since neither one of work in the city limits.
#5 - Even with the crappy real estate market, we have about $5000 in equity. Which is very sad considering we've been here for 10 years. But it played into our favor when we filed BK. If we would've had to much equity, we wouldn't have been able to keep the house...that's how I understand it anyway.
#6 - About 5 years ago we refinance with a 20 yr. loan at 5.5%...Our house should be paid off in 15 years...by the time I'm 50! LOL
We figured we're happy here, why move. For us it just seemed like the right decision. We never second guessed about our house, we knew we would stay here.

Good luck with your decision. It's not always an easy one.

[csrhjr31]

Giving Up House

If everything goes as planned (341 meeting Thursday), we will be losing the home. We are 80,000 upside down on the house. Although I LOVE my current house, it isn't practical to keep it. We have found a lease/own home, which is $1,000 less a month in payment.

Although I am struggling with the fact that we are giving up our dream home, I know it is what is best for my husband, myself and our 1 year old son.

[Stilltheone]

Yes, we are keeping our house. I love my house and have only lived here for the last 3 years. It is brand new and we purchased it for $203K.

Right now, we ARE upside down in the house. We owe about $260K and it's worth about $245K. Our house payment is all interest only.

Why are we keeping it? Because it's still our house...our home. Where else are we going to go? Where else are we going to be able to get a brand new home, like what we have? We have 2 kids and it was important to us to keep our house.

We're comfortable with our payment. We hope to build a new home within the next 2 years and hopefully the economy will pick up within that time.

[mommyto3+1]

Thanks for the replies. I really would be so sad to lose our home. We owe 266K plus have a 30K equity line. We pay 1500 a month, interest only plus 200 a month on the line. I do want to keep the house and with the cards gone I can get the line paid off in about 3 years then will work on the mortgage.

I have 4 kids and the schools here are the best in the state. I don't want to move but at the same time I want to make the right choice which is turning out to be really hard.

Thanks again. I am thankful for this site!

C.