7.5 million homeowners "underwater"

[PA Democrat]

At least 7.5 million American homeowners owe more on their homes than they are currently worth, according to a report released Friday.

In other words: If they sold their homes today, they'd have to bring a check to the closing. Ouch.

Another 2.1 million people stand right on the brink. Their homes are worth less than 5% more than the mortgages they're paying on them.

The technical term for this phenomenon is negative equity; more colloquially these borrowers are often referred to as being "underwater."

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/30/real_estate/underwater_borrowers/index.htm?cnn=yes

10 states with the highest rates of underwater mortgages include a number of battleground states:

Nevada 609,577 47.8%
Michigan 1,145,572 38.6%
Arizona 1,287,076 29.2%
Florida 4,248,470 29.2%
California 6,461,981 27.4%
Georgia 1,456,327 23.2%
Ohio 1,905,000 22%
Colorado 1,045,773 18.3%
New Hampshire 144,479 17.2%
Texas 2,721,638 16.5%

[glowing]

1. I'm not sure how I factor out.. I def. could NOT sell my house at this time.

[SoCalDem]

2. We've been "upside down" on ours SEVERAL times since '82

That's why people should NEVER remove equity..If you have to sell in a down time, you get royally screwed:(... Even with the phantom equity we "lost" by NOT selling, if we HAD to sell, we could still "make" money, because we could afford to price it to sell..

[Romulox]

3. BANKRUPTCY REFORM should be at the top of the new admin's agenda, but with Mr. BAPCPA as Veep

There is little hope of that. Same with War on Drugs reform.

Biden was a terrible choice. :wtf:

[Uben]

4. I bought a house in 1980.........

.....sold it in 1995 and broke even! This is not a new phenomena, it has happened before. People just had to stick it out. You take your losses when you have to. Life's a gamble, and buying a house is no sure thing. Although the numbers are vastly higher this time around, the interest rates of the early eighties really hurt homeowners. I was paying 9.875% fixed rate! I survived.

[SoCalDem]

5. Our 2nd house in Denver was 15.7%..and we bought it in a sellers' market

and had to sell due to a transfer, in a BUYERS' market.. we damned near had to stay behind as live-in help to get rid of the thing.. we lost about $20K on that deal, since we borrowed on life insurance to renovate it.. We finsihed off the basement (added 2 bedrooms, a bath & a family room & re-did the kitchen, replaced carpet and there was still wet paint when we sold it...

It took us 5 years to save up enough to buy our calif house..

[Name removed]

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[PA Democrat]

7. Quit spamming.

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