What's your home worth now vs. when you bought it? + semi-political rant
 

My home: 2 bedroom 1 bathroom condo in inland San Diego, a nice area but a lower value area compared to much of San Diego.

When I purchased my home: March 2007 (90 day escrow so I moved in in June).

Price I purchased at: $280,000

Loan I got: 80% financing (20% down) at 5.25% fixed 30 years

Estimated price NOW per Zillow: $204,000

What I believe it's more likely worth now: $190,000...most recent sales are 2/2 going for $200k-$220k, my place is a 2/1 and the couple recent sales of those are $170k-$175k, though I got my place completely refurbished as it was a condo rental converted for ownership.

The worst part: All these stupid bitch people around who bought places they couldn't afford with absolutely horrible interest-only loans are bitching about everyone doing them wrong and demanding government assistance, and they're probably going to get it. I make a decent living, not decent enough for the mortgage payments to be completely painless, but decent enough that I should not be going into foreclosure anytime soon. I was smart about getting a good loan, bought at what would have normally been the right time to buy (before summer which is typically the hot time of year), put a lot down to get a killer loan and not have to pay mortgage insurance, etc.

Now, about a year and 4 months later, not only is my equity in my condo completely wiped out, but I manage to owe more than its worth. People who made horrible financial decisions, buying a house they couldn't afford to begin with etc. will likely get bailed out and lord knows...get a huge discount or perhaps their house for free or some bullshit. I will get NOTHING. Me being young, white, and male will assure me of that too because young white males are supposed to be the most powerful people in the world and not disadvantaged in any way.

I don't mind helping people that need help. I donate thousands of dollars a year to charities even at times when I can ill afford to, usually in the wake of natural disasters like Katrina and the Myanmar cyclone, etc. Those people did nothing to deserve the havoc their lives received and truly deserve the help they get. I wouldn't say that everyone facing foreclosure today entirely dug their own hole - clearly home values plummeting and the economy are kind of going hand in hand, and some lenders did in fact have horrible lending practices (I worked in a real estate appraisal management firm and can say most loan officers would shit in your grandmother's mouth to get a loan closed). BUT - I do not feel the least bit sorry for people that spent well beyond their means, got an ARM mortgage aka ticking time bomb and knew what would be coming, and are now bitching that they can't afford to pay their mortgage and woe is them. People want to pretend that everything bad that happens to them is out of their control and put all the and it's total horseshit.

The government is about to help all these people at taxpayers' expense, including taxpayers like me who are feeling close to as much if not as much or more of a pinch from crashing home values. WE won't be helped because we're not stupid enough to have gotten ourselves in a situation where we couldn't afford the house we lived in because of making a stupid decision, getting a horrible mortgage, etc. Worse yet, the government's probably going to cut funding from education since it always seems to be the first place they look so that future Americans will be even more stupid than today's Americans and probably repeat the same mistakes tenfold. Not that it matters anyways - schools don't teach shit about managing finances even though as we all see, it's one of the if not THE most important aspects of life in the real world...perhaps they expect children/teens/college students to learn from their parents, most of whom don't know shit about managing finances either.

I don't know - I just don't see the government planning to do a damn thing to actually fix any of the problems that caused this - just try to cover all the bullet holes with band-aids and forget it happened and then wait for it to happen again before doing the same. I almost don't even want to vote for president - do any of you believe one of these two presidents will seriously change anything about the flaws in our society/economy?

You can't go off zillow its always way low with anything I've checked for going market prices. :2 cents: Call a local reality office and they will normally give you a close appraisal for free.

Wait a few years and prices will go up again. With a bit of patience, you shouldn't lose any money on the deal.

sucks that you bought at the top of a bubble.

Zillow is not good for real value.

However a few of my friends in the same boat as you in fact some estimates say nearly 60% of homes are underwater in value now due to the economy other reports say 5% so who knows I will go with 30% of homes being under water... But they Bought a house that went underwater in value. Something not to be expected when buying a home.

Ya might want to keep your eye out for the government buying mortgages should the democrats make office. Basically under some of the provisions of the bail out home values can be re-negotiated and then adjusted accordingly for Mortgage. Soon paper work may be issued and you can get involved with that program should it come about.

I feel lucky to have got what I got in getting a foreclosure.
SO even some devaluation from the economy is not so bad for me. I can live with it.

Now for me zillow says its worth 20 grand more, that cant be right. I know mine has gone down.
The problem was once apon a time a bank/ mortgage person was a person of authority. So when these people told people you can afford it.They believed them.

mortgage insurance is a bunch of shit

I don't just blindly go by Zillow. I had said what I thought about the value given the recently comparable sales shown, including some within my complex. I had bought the last 2/1 from my complex so there's a chance I'm underestimating if 2/1 in this complex are considered more desirable than 2/2s, but I know enough about appraisals not to blindly go by Zillow or any other automated appraisal. It's more apparent through the recent comps in general that my value is what it is. Zillow is generally way off in rural areas or suburban areas with less selling activity or with clearly defined neighborhood or market boundaries that appraisers/realtors know that Zillow may not. In an area like this, especially given I've got a condo, it's got more of a chance of being close to reality.

This place had gone down about $55k in price by the time I bought, plus they had started offering 1 year free HOA (around $3500). So not exactly at the top of a bubble. I think prices had been going down since Oct or Nov the previous year.

The unfortunate part is that likely the top priority for mortgage assistance will be on the horrible ARM mmortgages people got. I got a great mortgage on the other hand, fixed and non-interest only, so normally while they'd help fix the mortgage by fixing its terms, they're probably going to look at mine and go "er, what's the problem?"

sucks man.

i have a few investments that got rocked this year but still are covered because they are rented out, worst is 380k (phase I priced) to 215k with comps in the area dropping at 200-240k. even with values being somewhat okay the problems outside of the loans such as vacant tracts and crime have really hurt

i put down a good amount also because most were non-owner occ investments...

zillow kinda sucks for values and i noticed your in SD, might want to check out Trulia to see what is going on in your area, another very trusted source is socalmls.com to see non speculative values and actual prices in the area

We purchased our home 8 years ago for 225,000 - Zillow says it's worth 463,000 now.

We're about 8 minutes from Microsoft tho so that has helped I'm sure.

I have always loved SD, I can't see how that market can just fall like that and not come back. It's one of the nicest parts of the Country. But if it does continue to fall, you can bet your ass I will be buying.

Are you dense? This was McCain's brilliant idea.

I paid $325,000 for my house. According to Zillow, it is now worth $237,000. The larger house on the corner (500 sq feet larger) is on the market for $235,000, so that will obviously drop my value quite a bit once it sells.

I actually just drove through my neighborhood and I looked at every home. Only 1 for sale, and none are bank owned. I am thankful that through all this, our neighborhood is still in amazing shape, there are no neglected homes and the area around it will be filled up with high end retail and mansions in the next 2 years.

Eventually the market will swing back up. Just when everybody thinks things are going 1 way, they will go the opposite In this case, we all think it's going down...so let's see how it is in 3 years from now. I expect a decent recovery. =)

Uhmm no McCaine just mentioned it, and the idea was written up by Democrats and the very concept of it was on the 700B deal papers. Maybe you should read more about the matter before spewing misinformation.

So wait, AlienQ is giving advice to research something before talking about it ?

About time you learn the fucking lesson pal, you're the first one to talk shit about everything.

You bought your house to be a "home" ie somewhere to live and enjoy. Treat it as such. It's $ value will rise and fall and rise and fall over time. But this is of no significance to you, as it's your "home".
Now if you bought it as a commodity, then likewise, treat it as such. When investing it's nice to get around a 10% return on a commodity. So in housing, that'll be represented by it's rental $ possibility. To put it simply, if you could rent it for $1000 per month, then its value is really around $150,000. So if you want some idea of how far it needs to fall, then check out the rents in your area.
I'm in Spain, where the property market is in free fall (companies offering 2 for 1 ie buy 1 get another thrown in for free)...but still the market has a long way to go....down. There is an overhang of almost 2 million properties (ie empty) and until these are sold....
Personally, I think property should be worth a little more than it cost to construct, but that's another story.