Having trouble keeping our heads above water.

[OhioFiler]

Bingo. Therein lies your problem. You cannot make it with almost 60% of your income going to the house, even with no credit card payments.

Shaq has been a swell addition to the Cavs!

[LSUTiger32]

Lets see I sell my house for 575,000. I have 525000 in mortgages, after paying the real estate broker a 5% fee for selling it, thats 28,000 that would leave me with 22000 to pay off half of what I owe on my cards. Now I still have 23000 in charge card debts and no house. I also don't have 100,000 in equity because most companies won't finance 100% of the value.To rent a house in my area is about 3500 a month, that dosen't solve the problem.The house isn't the problem.

The problem is my real estate tax went up $5000 since I bought the house, the fuel oil has tripled and so has the electric bill. The charge card rates going up to 29% also didn't help.

So totally wrong on so many levels. The house IS the problem. You may have to move out of your neighborhood or to a place that is nice but further away from the city, but you can find something for a lot less than $4,500 a freaking month. You can sell the house and come out with money to pay the credit cards in half as well as lowering your mortgage expenses. You go from $4,500 plus to even as you said $3,500 a month (which I think you can do better than if you look) and you have well over a $1,000 a month savings on the house issue and $600 or so savings on the credit cards. That's $1,600 a month to attack $23,000 left in CC debt. You can do this if you want to, very easily. If you want to file BK, that's one thing but filing BK and keeping the house will not help your situation. You will find yourself right back in the same situation if you keep a house payment of 60% of your income.

[OhioFiler]

So totally wrong on so many levels. The house IS the problem. You may have to move out of your neighborhood or to a place that is nice but further away from the city, but you can find something for a lot less than $4,500 a freaking month. You can sell the house and come out with money to pay the credit cards in half as well as lowering your mortgage expenses. You go from $4,500 plus to even as you said $3,500 a month (which I think you can do better than if you look) and you have well over a $1,000 a month savings on the house issue and $600 or so savings on the credit cards. That's $1,600 a month to attack $23,000 left in CC debt. You can do this if you want to, very easily. If you want to file BK, that's one thing but filing BK and keeping the house will not help your situation. You will find yourself right back in the same situation if you keep a house payment of 60% of your income.

Life must be boring post-Super Bowl victory! I see you're trying to keep busy beating a dead horse!

[LSUTiger32]

Shaq has been a swell addition to the Cavs!

Shaq is the man. I hope the Cavs win it this year since the Hornets are struggling without CP3 and don't look to be contenders. I heard on the radio the other day how this is Shaq's 17th season in the NBA. I can't believe it has been that long since the best team in college basketball history to not win the championship finished.

[LSUTiger32]

Life must be boring post-Super Bowl victory! I see you're trying to keep busy beating a dead horse!

Just trying to help a dude out, but yeah Mardi Gras is over and the Saints parties are starting to wind down (slightly anyway). I hadn't read the whole thread to see that he's rejected every idea. I was the first to mention the house though!

[Dannmcg357]

In any case, it only takes around $150 or so a month in disposable income to push you into a chapter 13.

backtoschool, I think disposable income alone doesn't determines 7/13. If 150 a month for 5 yrs doesn't pay off the debt then doesn't that make a CH7 eligible? But I do agree with you and others, I can't see the trustee ignoring the equity of the home, the high mortgage payment.

[OhioFiler]

backtoschool, I think disposable income alone doesn't determines 7/13. If 150 a month for 5 yrs doesn't pay off the debt then doesn't that make a CH7 eligible? But I do agree with you and others, I can't see the trustee ignoring the equity of the home, the high mortgage payment.

Not true. You can be in a plan that pays off less than 100% of the debt. The cut off for it is $6,575 over 5 years which is about $110 per month.

[rusty95]

backtoschool, I think disposable income alone doesn't determines 7/13. If 150 a month for 5 yrs doesn't pay off the debt then doesn't that make a CH7 eligible? But I do agree with you and others, I can't see the trustee ignoring the equity of the home, the high mortgage payment.

Can you please show me where I have equity in my home. I have tried to refinance in the last year and was turned down because I don't have enough equity. I have already tried that route. If I have 535000 in mortgage and the house could go for 575000, where is the equity.


And believe me the house is not the problem.

Do the math. We bring home about 8800 a month, my bills with mortgage and without the cards is about 6400. That would leave me with 2400. Now divide that by 4 (number of weeks in the month and you come out with 600 per week. That is more than enough money to live on and bank some. I have been doing it this way for 10 years.

The credit cards are the problem. Once they are paid off I will be fine.

And if I sound defensive I apologize. There are some posts on here that are making up stories about how I spend my cash. If you ask me a question I will answer it. Thank you for your help.

[readytofile]

If your house is worth more than what you owe, depending on where you live, with chapter 7 they could possibly sell your house and take it from you anyhow. Here's some info http://thismatter.com/money/credit/b...-exemption.htm Check out the making home affordable plan that's out there now. Perhaps they can work with you. Just by taking what you've told us, the website says you may qualify for a loan modification. http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/modi...igibility.html

Either way, I agree with the others. You're living WAY outside of your means for a house. There are good schools in $1500/month mortgage areas too, I swear. My girls go to blue ribbon schools with 99% pass rates and my mortgage is $1400/month. It can be done.

[readytofile]

Can you please show me where I have equity in my home. I have tried to refinance in the last year and was turned down because I don't have enough equity. I have already tried that route. If I have 535000 in mortgage and the house could go for 575000, where is the equity.


And believe me the house is not the problem.

Do the math. We bring home about 8800 a month, my bills with mortgage and without the cards is about 6400. That would leave me with 2400. Now divide that by 4 (number of weeks in the month and you come out with 600 per week. That is more than enough money to live on and bank some. I have been doing it this way for 10 years.

The credit cards are the problem. Once they are paid off I will be fine.

And if I sound defensive I apologize. There are some posts on here that are making up stories about how I spend my cash. If you ask me a question I will answer it. Thank you for your help.

575000 minus 535000 equals 40000 in equity. Plain and simple. They don't care about your fees to sell the house. Actually you don't HAVE to go through an agent therefore those fees are optional.

[readytofile]

Here's another one to check out http://www.homefair.com/articles/mor...ility.asp?cc=1

Just how well do these old guidelines apply to you in today's housing market?

• Housing should take about 25% of your gross pay or 35% of your take-home pay.
• When buying a home, look for something priced at 2.5 times your gross income.

So if you go by that, the max you should be paying in a mortgage for your take home pay is $3080. I know you don't want to see it, but it's right there in black and white. You're over expending yourself. This is what they call "House Poor". It's not your credit cards that are causing all of this.

[backtoschool]

Not true. You can be in a plan that pays off less than 100% of the debt. The cut off for it is $6,575 over 5 years which is about $110 per month.

I agree with OhioFiler. As to the OP, with $8800 a month and only a few legitimate dependents, and a mortgage payment that is higher than the regional norm for his/her area, I would assume the trustee will find $110 month or more to fund a chapter 13.

[newbie2]

Out of curiosity I pulled up New York State at the US Trustees site. New York County has a rent/ mortgage allowance of $4559 for a family of 5 or more.

The next highest counties in the state for allowances are Nassau, Rockland and Westchester which hover around the $2500 mark for a family of 5 or more.

Perhaps the OP is in New York County and his mortgage expense is dead on? Who knows.

Regardless, monthly income will go down once the withholding allowances are adjusted to reflect -0- owed to the IRS. Proactive: If I didn't read clearly enough the OPS many posts and deciphered it all wrong, then I apologize in advance :-)

[readytofile]

Out of curiosity I pulled up New York State at the US Trustees site. New York County has a rent/ mortgage allowance of $4559 for a family of 5 or more.

The next highest counties in the state for allowances are Nassau, Rockland and Westchester which hover around the $2500 mark for a family of 5 or more.

Perhaps the OP is in New York County and his mortgage expense is dead on? Who knows.

Regardless, monthly income will go down once the withholding allowances are adjusted to reflect -0- owed to the IRS. Proactive: If I didn't read clearly enough the OPS many posts and deciphered it all wrong, then I apologize in advance :-)

That may be the allowable amount but is that for someone making the same amount of money as this person? Or is the average salary more than that? Regardless of the allowable amount, they are still living well beyond their means for a mortgage.

[Klesko]

Even if you were to sale your house and break even you would be in good shape. Going from $4,900 a month payment to $3,500 a month is a huge difference.

The OP is stuck in the state alot of people are or were in that they think their house is somehow sacred and more important then anything. I dont see the need for the OP to do BK7 unless the house is worth much less then he is stating. If the OP could get something to rent for say $3,000 a month then he would have almost 2k a month to snowball this CC debt. 44k in cc debt is not alot if you can pay 2k a month.

Here is what I would do if I were the OP.

- Sale the house (Even if its only to break even)
- Rent something for less then 3k
- For 6 months put 2k into emergency savings
- For 24 months after that pay 2k a month in a snowball cc payoff plan.
- 12-24 months after that buy another house with a MAX payment of 35% of their income. Meaning something in the payment range of about $3,080 or about $400k with your property taxes being so high.

I made about $8500 a month when I file BK7. However I had $180k in CC debt and about $60k in other debts. My house was not under but I realized I would never recover unless I really made a clean slate so I let the house go. It wasnt easy trust me, but once you get other the idea that your house is sacred it all becomes much easier.