Cole and I have been discussing our housing situation. I know I've mentioned it before but I thought I might take a shot at a more thorough explanation. In order to fully explain the situation we have to back up past the housing market bubble bust.
Cole and I were young and a little bit stupid and took on more of a mortgage than we should of. THE END!
Oh you're looking for more. Ok. Here is the long version. If we go back about 5 years, Cole and I are in our middle 20's and the angry lady that lived below us in our condo is making us crazy. We decided to make a move up. We both had good jobs and I was planning a career move that would bring a more promising income and benefits with a secure future. So we settled on moving a bit further west of our current home in Roselle where we could get a lot more home for the money and the taxes were lower. So we found this new development of homes that was just getting started. They had a townhouse model that we really liked. Of course it was at the upper end of our budget and we bought into the "you'll grow into it" myth. We also fell for the "Pre Construction Pricing" gimmic as well. The principal & interest payment wasn't bad and the taxes were not that much more than where we came from. The association fees were a little more but that was okay. We no longer had the angry lady below us. We got a good interest rate on a 30year fixed so life is good right. We figured in 4 years we'll sell it, make some money, and move up again.
Fast forward 2 years. The career move didn't pan out. Now I am making less money with no benefits or future. Turns out the property tax deal got re-assesed and doubled our taxes. The association fees continue to climb every year. We were still okay but then the bubble burst! Now the house that costs us nearly $2,000 a month taxes, fees and all is worth about 60% of what we paid for it. Now figure we only put 10% down feeling safe that property values would continue to appreciate at 3-4% a year, and now we are upside down big time. Add to this that the developer is a little over halfway done and now sales have dried up for them. So now our nice "pre-construction price" could buy you a lot more home brand new than what we have. So why buy an overpriced used townhome when you can get a new one your way for a lot less. Since they're only half done with the development this will be going on for at least a few more years.
Do not fear for us. We can make the payment and we are still saving money and able to do some nice things, but here is the problem. WE ARE TRAPPED! We can't leave. Not that I have anywhere to go! This has really become a stresser on Cole and I. We have too much integrity to just walk away as some have recommended. I have no faith in our government to help us out like many others do. (Ask them how that is working for them by the way.) It isn't the government's fault anyways. Why should they help us. We're the idiots that signed up for this deal! So here we sit.
This didn't bother me too much until I really started thinking about how much progress we could make on our Dave Ramsey baby steps if we weren't spending so dang much for our house. We could be setting more aside to replace Cole's aging vehicle. We could contribute more to the IRA's. We could have a bigger vacation budget. But now we give it all to the stupid house. Are you picking up on my frustration yet?
In addition to all of that lost progress Cole and I recently had an interesting opportunity present itself to us. However the conversation couldn't go too far because it would involve a move and we are stuck. I am not even sure it was a good opportunity. I didn't invest the time to even look closely at it because I don't want to like it. That will only further frustrate us about this whole housing mess.
So now what! Am I to just type and moan about how rough we have it? No! Some of you out there have it much worse and are sick of my groanings. I know I am! Cole and I talked a lot this weekend and have come to the conclusion that most of America needs to realize. IT IS ALL ON US! NO ONE IS COMING TO RESCUE US! WE HAVE TO SAVE OURSELVES! What a unique concept. The way we see it is our only alternative is to pay down this mortgage and dig ourselves out as fast as we can. A bigger shovel would help but, for right now we are going to make due with what we got!
With all apologies to Dave Ramsey we are kind of messing with the order of the baby steps here. We are going to skip steps 4 (15% to retirement) and 5 (College fund)sort of and jump to 6 (pay off home). We'll continue to contribute enough to the 401k to get the match but, that is it. We'll come back to those steps when we clean up our housing mess. This mortgage has just started to wear us down and it needs to go. Perhaps we are not skipping 4 and 5 but rather adding step 6 into our step 2 (debt snowball). We are just fed up. I don't want to have to say no to an opportunity to improve Cole and I's lives or careers because of our stupid house! I want to be more "Freed Up."
So wish us God's blessing on this quest. I know we won't make it without His help. He has been so faithful in this journey to date. Somehow I feel a lot better looking to God for help than to Obama and Congress. Can I get an Amen on that one? It will take years. Less than 25 but more than a few! Pray for us. We are getting a little tired of the tight budget rice and beans lifestyle! But we press on. It is worth it. God did not call us to worship at the mortage alter but to follow him. I trust him to lead Cole and I out of this prison.
We know where we want to go, we know how to get there, now we just have to do it! Makes it sound easy doesn't it? I'll keep tellin' myself that.
PS - Cole has had this plan for a while now, it just took me this long to catch up!!!
