I recently received my state tax assessment for my house in maryland. I was shocked to see that the value of the house has dropped by $100k since 2007.
How did this happen? Lots of fraud and foreclosures around me.
In case you were wondering, yes, i'm underwater. My prayer has been for continued trust in the Lord in this situation. Anxiety would not be God-honoring and rash decisions would result in huge financial losses.
I think that i'm officially "in it" for the long term. Exactly where I don't want to be, but that is the only option.
Have i considered walking away? Yes. But i'm convinced that to do so would be a sin. Texts like "The wicked borrows and does not pay back" have a hold of my conscience. Also - I wouldn't have considered walking away from the mortgage had the house maintained its value nor would I have done so if the house had appreciated in value.
There is the temptation to feel like a sucker in all of this. The people committing fraud and walking away from their mortgages are only making things worse for me and I sit around like a fool just losing money.
But the Lord sees all of this and he is faithful. Please keep me in prayer.
thoughts?
yeah, no choice in the matter, JCM. chalk it up to a lesson learned. but what lesson?? you're not ms. cleo and couldn't have predicted the economic downturn. even if you'd known that a bubble would bust, which a lot of people did know, you wouldn't have known WHEN that bubble would burst. i'm certainly not the person to give financial advice (i.e. the chick who has enough student loans for three lifetimes) but you're definitely correct to simply sit on the condo. what other alternative is there? plus this gives you a chance to witness Almighty God do some amazing stuff while your hands are tied :)
ReplyDeleteWell, I advise a refi with your bank to reduce the amount that you owe on the condo. . .so my daddy is into to real estate and he was saying that alot of banks realize that the situation and have been able to reduce the amount financed through a refi based on the current appraised value. To me, it is worth asking. Another option is to let someone take over the note (assume the note after the refi?). Admittedly I am not entirely clear on how the assuming the note works but I can look into it.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what- mos def don't fret. Everything will work out just trust the LORD.
D