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Home ownership, the american dream?

Wed Sep 11, 2013 2:17 pm

Is anyone else in the same predicament? We bought our house almost 27 years ago and now it is worth $20,000 less than what we paid for it. I outta have my head examined for buying a house!

Re: Home ownership, the american dream?

Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:38 am

Should be nearly paid off by now. If not for the house, you probably would have blown the money on airplanes, snowmobiles and still would be paying off the bar tab...

P.S. Looks like a lot of homes for sale or in foreclosure in Waukegan. That can't help! :?

Re: Home ownership, the american dream?

Thu Sep 12, 2013 11:45 am

Pat Carry wrote:Is anyone else in the same predicament? We bought our house almost 27 years ago and now it is worth $20,000 less than what we paid for it. I outta have my head examined for buying a house!

What about 27 years of paying rent though? I'm a new home owner but my parents have doubled that money even after the crash.

Re: Home ownership, the american dream?

Thu Sep 12, 2013 3:37 pm

bdk wrote:Should be nearly paid off by now. If not for the house, you probably would have blown the money on airplanes, snowmobiles and still would be paying off the bar tab...

P.S. Looks like a lot of homes for sale or in foreclosure in Waukegan. That can't help! :?

There are a ton of foreclosures here. It will be many, many years until that problem is gone.

Re: Home ownership, the american dream?

Thu Sep 12, 2013 3:40 pm

jtramo wrote:
Pat Carry wrote:Is anyone else in the same predicament? We bought our house almost 27 years ago and now it is worth $20,000 less than what we paid for it. I outta have my head examined for buying a house!

What about 27 years of paying rent though? I'm a new home owner but my parents have doubled that money even after the crash.

It will take 50 more years to double my investment. Just getting 100k will be a 20 year journey. If I was still renting I would have been much better off. I know this is not the case everywhere, I was just wondering if anyone else has the same stuff going on w/ their american dream?

Re: Home ownership, the american dream?

Thu Sep 12, 2013 8:24 pm

What caused the overabundance of homes? Has the NAS cut a lot of jobs? With that many vacancies and foreclosures, you've suffered from some very bad luck. Most areas of California seemed to have fared better, though there are pockets like yours in Waukegan or worse. Riverside and San Bernardino counties were decimated in the downturn. People bought houses out there because they were cheap, and they were cheap because for the most part they were far away from business centers. When jobs went away, they were the hardest hit because they were the blue collar workers that over-leveraged themselves taking out multiple mortgages and doing expensive remodels and buying boats and jet-skis.

http://www.pe.com/business/business-hea ... m-july.ece

Re: Home ownership, the american dream?

Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:35 pm

Pat Carry wrote:
jtramo wrote:
Pat Carry wrote:Is anyone else in the same predicament? We bought our house almost 27 years ago and now it is worth $20,000 less than what we paid for it. I outta have my head examined for buying a house!

What about 27 years of paying rent though? I'm a new home owner but my parents have doubled that money even after the crash.

It will take 50 more years to double my investment. Just getting 100k will be a 20 year journey. If I was still renting I would have been much better off. I know this is not the case everywhere, I was just wondering if anyone else has the same stuff going on w/ their american dream?



I guess its sort of different here in Nj. Average home prices are in the mid $300s in my county so if you can get a home for 100k and maybe lose some value did you really lose vs having to pay 300-500 for a two bedroom? I had to wait till my 30's (and getting married =double income) to get a house.

Re: Home ownership, the american dream?

Fri Sep 13, 2013 8:44 am

We're kinda lucky in that one house has gone down in value while the other has gone up. Net result is about zero change in total value. Looking forward to getting the little house ready fro the market and sold.

Re: Home ownership, the american dream?

Fri Sep 13, 2013 9:46 am

We bought a house in Cali for 400k in 2008, just a few months before the crash. Put 100k down, too. Within a year it's value had dropped to 188k. It's value has steadily risen since then, it's up to about 245k now, but we still owe 270k on it. We'll just be happy if we can get out from under the debt on it, much less get that 100k back.

In the mean time we moved out of Cali and are renting it for about what we pay on the mortgage so we are lucky in that respect. We spent 110k putting a mobile on a property we bought in Washington and it is currently worth 168k so at least we have that going for us.

Re: Home ownership, the american dream?

Wed Sep 18, 2013 11:02 pm

We bought in 2001, just before the bubble really started inflating in the D.C. area. The housing prices raced up almost 80% before the bubble burst. I'm still well ahead of the game...running about 50% up at this point. I couldn't afford the house I'm living in if I had to buy it today, though.

That's astounding that the market is that depressed where you are. I can see short term losses...but to be behind the eight-ball after 20 years. Very sobering.
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