Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (Full Version)

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Harvie -> Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/10/2008 1:04:08 PM)

In many parts of the country (including where I live in California), housing prices in some areas have experienced a significant DECREASE. If this is the case for you, have you done anything about it?

Have you sought to have your property tax re-assessed and lowered?

Have you decreased the amount of insurance on your home (since its value is lower)?

Have you taken any other finance-related steps if your home value has declined?



legalnicki -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/11/2008 11:28:02 AM)

With the housing market as it is, I'm really wishing that I were in a position to buy a couple of rental properties right now. Prices are lower combined with less people able to get mortgages and people losing their homes to foreclosure seems to indicate that real estate investors/landlords can do well if they do it right.

Have you sought to have your property tax re-assessed and lowered?
No. Probably not a bad idea, though.

Have you decreased the amount of insurance on your home (since its value is lower)?
No. First, our policy is not that expensive to begin with, but second, I'm not convinced that just because "the market" determines the value of my house to be $185K (or whatever it is), that a contractor wouldn't charge me $200K to rebuild it should we lose it in some sort of catastrophy. Contractor's prices are going up just like everyone else's. Plus, we are making small improvements here and there, so I feel it all balances out.

Have you taken any other finance-related steps if your home value has declined?

No, we're fortunate that despite the foolishness of taking an 80/20 mortgage 4 years ago, we still have approx. $20-30K in equity. This is because when we purchased the house, it was in pre-foreclosure and had been vacant for a few months. The bank wouldn't allow a short sale, but we were still happy with the price. We are going to wait a little while for the mortgage industry to settle down a little bit and then we'll be refinancing our notes (one is a 5 year ARM, set to change next year).



earthless -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/11/2008 1:42:53 PM)

Our house has nearly tripled in value in just the last seven years (big city - brick house - near all modes of public and private transportation) BUT it doesn't mean much when everything else costs the same. [&:]



APZR -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/11/2008 1:59:33 PM)

It's not so bad here... but we didn't have the crazy, heated run up in prices from speculative buying.



kernsfamily -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/11/2008 2:03:47 PM)

not so bad here, either (Dallas)...

Our home had more than douibled in the 10 years that we've owned it....and, if anything, the "appreciation" in value may have just slowed a bit...

still....houses in our immediate neighborhood STILL go up for sale, and sell fairly quickly, for higher and higher prices....

alot of that, iam told, is due to our region's fairly strong, and stable, economy....



2shaye -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/11/2008 4:18:52 PM)

Our small little home has increased in value over 4x what we paid for it. In the last year, the value has decreased about $125,000, but we still have hundreds of thousands in equity.

Our property tax is re-assessed every year, so I don't worry about that.

I would not lower my insurance. We have a policy that just pays for the interior and possessions. I re-evaluate that every few years and make adjustments.

The only other finance-related thing we're doing is re-financing and pulling out money to do some remodeling and repairs.



Random -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/11/2008 7:13:04 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: legalnicki

Have you decreased the amount of insurance on your home (since its value is lower)?
No. First, our policy is not that expensive to begin with, but second, I'm not convinced that just because "the market" determines the value of my house to be $185K (or whatever it is), that a contractor wouldn't charge me $200K to rebuild it should we lose it in some sort of catastrophy. Contractor's prices are going up just like everyone else's. Plus, we are making small improvements here and there, so I feel it all balances out.



That is an excellent point. While you general need insurance limits high enough to cover your mortgage, what you are insuring is the cost to repair/replace, not the market value. If you lower your limits, and it costs more to replace your home than your new limit, you will be stuck with the cost.



GroupW -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/11/2008 7:58:15 PM)

The only adjustment I can make is to accelerate the rate at which we're paying down the mortgage. So far, we've paid down about 15% of the balance in three years. Goal is to have that paid off in 7 more years. I have a 10/1 loan that has 7 years to go before it adjusts. Would like to get the amount down to something small by then. Zero would be nice!



ofa23 -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/11/2008 9:51:26 PM)

My house has gone down in value about $50,000. I haven't had the property value reassesed because the value now is still more than when I first purchasesed in almost 7 years ago. I would actually pay more in property taxes if I had it reassessed at today's value.



Papa-san -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/12/2008 12:10:42 PM)

I sold mine about a month before the crash began... The buyer has put close to 100K into it, and can't even get what he paid me for it... I'll wait for the economy to finish collapsing before I start picking up new properties... It still has a long ways to go before it's done...



car2ner -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/13/2008 9:20:24 AM)

Our property value seems to be stable at this time. I do know that on the south side of Atlanta, you can get a lot more for you money than on the north side. Even with a good price on our house, good neighborhood and schools, I think people are looking for those bargains from folks worried about not being able to sell. I can't blame them. When the house sells and we move further south, we wil rent for awhile.



creationtalk -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/14/2008 8:57:31 PM)

My property/home has lost some value in the past year, but then it nearly doubled in value in Sept. 2005 (had I wanted to sell), compared to what it cost to build, when every one who lost a home in Katrina was looking for somewhere to live...this downturn is an adjustment back to normal. I don't think prices have yet fallen to pre-Katrina levels.

I have not made any adjustments to my insurance. I think that it would cost at least what it is insured for if not more to replace.

I had my property reassessed this year, but that was mainly because I had a mobile home on the property pre-Katrina that was no longer there and I wanted it removed from the tax assessment. I was warned that my taxes would probably go UP as a result of the reappraisal...but that didn't happen (possibly because some buildings that had been there at the pre-Katrina assessment are now gone and the stable is barely there awaiting funds to repair or replace.)



U376977 -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/16/2008 2:13:25 AM)

I am in the mortage business and there is one point that many people miss. You only have "lost value" if you bought in a huge real estate bubble area; CA, NV, FL, NY etc.; It will take you many years to regain your value. And since most people sell or move within 4-7 years you will probably be upside down on your mortgage when you sell. But if you are in more stable areas of the country then even if your home has lost some value ---if you are in for the long hall---the value will come back. It may take a few years but it will--so you have not lost. (I understand that you would lose "opportunity costs" of average 4% yearly appreciation of your home--the number of years it will take you to recover from your declining value + gain your 4% appreciation per year).
Whatever you do--do not just walk away from the mortgage. The lending agencies have just issued new guidelines saying that a forclosure or "deed in lieu of" will prevent you from getting another loan for 5 years and you will have to have a 680 credit score and must put down 10%. Only exception will be if you have "extenuating circumstances" then it would be 3 years (like a serious medical condition that you can document that caused financial hardship and you defaulted. But the agencies define what is an acceptable "extenuating circumstances." For example, divorce is not allowed.) The old rule was 2 years. This is a major pull back.
The good news is that the agencies are trying to develop a program to allow people upside down on their mortgage to refi. out instead of going thru foreclosure. The agency and lender will lose money on the deal but it will not be a much as a foreclosure or as much as what 2 million forclosures will do to the economy this year. No word yet on the programs. But if they are put into place--an investor (major bank) will have to contract to sell the products in their retail and/or wholesale channels.



Harvie -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/16/2008 3:40:24 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: U376977

I am in the mortage business and there is one point that many people miss. You only have "lost value" if you bought in a huge real estate bubble area; CA, NV, FL, NY etc.; It will take you many years to regain your value. And since most people sell or move within 4-7 years you will probably be upside down on your mortgage when you sell. But if you are in more stable areas of the country then even if your home has lost some value ---if you are in for the long hall---the value will come back. It may take a few years but it will--so you have not lost. (I understand that you would lose "opportunity costs" of average 4% yearly appreciation of your home--the number of years it will take you to recover from your declining value + gain your 4% appreciation per year).
Whatever you do--do not just walk away from the mortgage. The lending agencies have just issued new guidelines saying that a forclosure or "deed in lieu of" will prevent you from getting another loan for 5 years and you will have to have a 680 credit score and must put down 10%. Only exception will be if you have "extenuating circumstances" then it would be 3 years (like a serious medical condition that you can document that caused financial hardship and you defaulted. But the agencies define what is an acceptable "extenuating circumstances." For example, divorce is not allowed.) The old rule was 2 years. This is a major pull back.
The good news is that the agencies are trying to develop a program to allow people upside down on their mortgage to refi. out instead of going thru foreclosure. The agency and lender will lose money on the deal but it will not be a much as a foreclosure or as much as what 2 million forclosures will do to the economy this year. No word yet on the programs. But if they are put into place--an investor (major bank) will have to contract to sell the products in their retail and/or wholesale channels.


1. I am in California (we bought in 2003.)
2. We don't have a mortgage.



relady -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/20/2008 11:46:24 PM)

quote:

1. I am in California (we bought in 2003.)
2. We don't have a mortgage.


No mortgage, wow. How is your home's value? Up, down or same as when you bought?



Psalm22 -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/21/2008 5:01:27 PM)

My assessed value went up some due to the market segment I am in (lower middle range for condos). I have taken no steps to do anything; I kept a close eye on comparable units for sale, and pick up the flyers and online ads so i can track the asking prices. So I have a good idea of the worth of my condo when the assessor's office revalues it every year.

Anchorage is in a fortunate position. We have a pretty stable market. Yes, selling prices have mostly leveled off and most take longer to sell, but there's no big downturn or lots of people in trouble.



davelinde -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/21/2008 5:13:06 PM)

We've been in our home for 13 years and at the high it had increased in value by about 2 1/2 times. We just went into contract to sell it at about 25% off the high estimate. The buyers will have some good evidence to appeal their property tax assessment (we sold at ~90% of the assessment)

It took more than a year to sell. If I'd known then what I know now we would have begun with more aggressive pricing. But we didn't.



GroupW -> RE: Has your house lost value? If so, have you done anything about it? (4/21/2008 9:31:48 PM)

It could have been worse - my neighbor priced his house too high initially. He's since lowered, the price but always keeps it about 10% higher than where it should be. He's probably lost $75k versus where he could have sold it initially, and that doesn't include what it's costing him to carry the house.

It's been on the market for almost three years.

BT



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