I certainly get why they couldn't get a loan mod if he's only making $45,000 now but the article says at one time his salary was $120,000 but even that isn't nearly enough to qualify for a $750k mortgage, is it? I have no idea, in fact, how a familly could afford such a big loan on that income. Let alone the utility bills, taxes, etc. on such a large house.
In all fairness, it sounds like they were able to make it work for nearly 11 years...(since the house was built in 2000)... I haven't walked a mile in their shoes, so I make no assumptions as to their ability to make it work, or whether it worked for them at some point, and things went down the tubes, etc. I think they probably had the capability to live their dream for awhile, and then the situation changed. NOBODY has a crystal ball to see what the future holds...and if everybody acted on the assumption that they should never assume positive changes and some risk, nothing would ever get done.
I agree that I have never walked in their shoes, in fact, my comments were not even aimed at this particular situation so much as wondering aloud how ANYONE could truly afford a house that big and expensive without a much bigger salary. But I do know a lot of times what banks would see as an "affordable" payment would be horribly high to me. A few years ago we thought of moving and I simply laughed out loud when a mortgage broker quoted a sum that we supposedly "qualified" for that was so ridiculously high I actually thought he was kidding. No doubt many people go ahead and purchase homes based on such "expert" advice, and no doubt also that many are making the decision now to be shed of such burdens especially with the housing downturn.
And there's good reason to believe, I think, that he was probably making a LOT more than he was by the time Emily's death occurred, and that he spent so much time with ILUG Foundation, and related activities that perhaps he had to leave his regular job behind, or took another job with less pay in order to have more time to devote to what was important to him... Without examining his tax returns for the last 11 years, it would be hard to know....
Me?...I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume that he was carrying a debt-load that he could afford...until something happened, and then he wasn't...
LadyJazzer wrote: Me?...I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume that he was carrying a debt-load that he could afford...until something happened, and then he wasn't...
I'm just going on what he himself says in the article, that at his old job (presumably when they took out the mortgage) he was earning $120,000 a year. Again, this isn't personally aimed at this particular family, there seem to be a LOT of people out there who are willing to be "house poor" for the sake of a nicer house. I guess I'm just old school, when I bought my first house the rule of thumb was at least 20% down and never a mortgage that was more than 3 times your gross annual salary. I realize that a few years ago when all the "creative" mortgages appeared that would have seemed laughably quaint, but it did have a certain sense behind it that still holds true I think.
I bought a building for my business instead of renting like I had done for the 10 years prior. After getting cancer last year and having a recent diagnosis of more cancer, I now have to lose my building which has about $250k of equity since it won't sell and I can't keep up during chemo. I hope I can keep my house, but if I can't, I will still survive renting.
I really feel for this family because of their loss, I can't imagine that kind of pain. However, we all make financial choices and sometimes those choices have to be undone. This economy will take no prisoners for quite a while and most of us will have to adjust our lifestyles and spend within our means.
Positive thoughts and prayers for you CriticalBill. And hoping that you can sell your building and keep your home if at all possible.
Lots of hard choices having to be made these days.
bumper sticker - honk if you will pay my mortgage
"The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." attributed to Margaret Thatcher
"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government." Thomas Jefferson
