Walk away from house????

[1967]

One thing to consider.

If you decide to pay each month and later on you decide that you don't want it then you might regret wasting the money when you could of saved it. Like you my kids were also born here and it is sad. I'm well over that however,a house is nothing but a bunch of studs, drywall, and carpet.

Like your neighborhood mine is in the same situation. Even if I did pay each month I still end up with a house that isn't worth the price of admission. That's a dog that won't hunt.

Before seeking out a good attorney I went to a financial adviser friend and it took him about 5 minutes before he told me that it's a loosing situation. At this point it's a bad investment, so that's the ultimate question for you, is it a good investment. If you had the cash and a buddy wanted to borrow money for a situation like yours would you borrow it to him based on the merits of quality investments? Sounds like the answer is no but that's for you to decide.

I've had people offer me to buy my house outright and I can pay them directly. That's a rare opportunity but it's still a bad investment. My neighborhood has a ton on foreclosures and it's getting worse by the day, my house just keeps dropping in value.

Like I said earlier, I'm gonna live here rent free for as long as I can and save the money.

All the best!
Mike

[debbie42]

We were in a very similar situation. We had built our house 6 years ago, our son came home to it, we put a lot of cash down when we bought it, trying to do things the right way (I used to think those 100% financing people were nuts but they didn't lose tens of thousands on a down payment for a home that will never recover it's value). When trying to decide about keeping the house, what made us decide to surrender it in our Ch.7 was that we did not want to be stuck in a declining neighborhood for probably 10+ years before we could even ever break even, much less recoup money we had put into it.

So we rented a newer (smaller) house in a much nicer neighborhood than we were leaving. We had printed our credit reports before we ever missed a credit card or mortgage payment (all were current before meeting with our bk attorney) - so we really had no problem renting because we did it with awesome credit scores.

For us, we had to really put the emotional attachments aside and make a business decision. I miss things about our old house all the time but a new (rental) house was part of our 'fresh start' and I feel we made the right decision. It is still sitting empty, but our lawyers made us sign something saying we would be out within 60 days of filing. They said it was the law in FL...I see so many people staying for months and years for free but I wouldn't like not knowing when I would get evicted, etc.

Ok sorry this got so long....good luck whatever you decide.

[florida]

Thanks everybody -this is a difficult decision.
We are still up in the air but we have decided to seriously look and see what other housing options are available. Obviously we won't be moving anytime soon - but just get a feel and see if it sways us one way or the other.