Was Anyone Else As Stupid As Us (and probably 1/2 of my neighbors)

[gottalovepluto]

For your next home:
Build or buy smaller. Get all the energy efficiency necessities.
Save more money for retirement.
You can be happy and living without financial stressors is priceless!

OP is here worried about ending up underwater on their current home and you’re ready to sell them their next one? Read the room.

 

[Dakota731]

OP is here worried about ending up underwater on their current home and you’re ready to sell them their next one? Read the room.

Sometimes it will help if you can sell your home and buy a smaller, less expensive house. Less mondy on taxes, utilities, upkeep as well as a mortgage. Same thing goes for expensive vehicles people purchase. Every case is different so a one size fits all answer won’t work.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Sometimes it will help if you can sell your home and buy a smaller, less expensive house. Less mondy on taxes, utilities, upkeep as well as a mortgage. Same thing goes for expensive vehicles people purchase. Every case is different so a one size fits all answer won’t work.

No kidding. But we’re talking OPs situation and they established they aren’t leaving their house and they are rather at risk of losing their house if they can’t get a lower rate in the future. PP rolls in here sounding like one of those bots we get that sorta gets the thread topic and then spouts off life advice- no kidding a small energy efficient house will help you save for retirement. That’s as useful as telling OP if they just move to Podunk, NM everything will be more affordable! Problem solved, duh!!

 

[mistysue]

OP is here worried about ending up underwater on their current home and you’re ready to sell them their next one? Read the room.

How is advice on how to not be stuck in a cash strapped situation not the appropriate response?
I've never understood the concern about being "under water" - we decide what our home is worth to us when we buy it. What anyone else wants it to be worth is irrelevant. The issue here is an interest/payment adjustment, and payment is addressed by refinancing or by spending less on a home.

 

[gottalovepluto]

How is advice on how to not be stuck in a cash strapped situation not the appropriate response?

It’s not the dang topic of conversation! OP ain’t leaving unless they get kicked out which they’d like not to be, they made that crystal clear and that’s their choice. To roll in here with life advice for “next time” is beyond useless and rather condescending. OP wants to survive the next few years. They were kind enough to update the thread as some of us did wonder how it was going and others are undoubtedly here reading and in the same position. PP didn’t bother to read the thread, we covered in depth on what OP should have done (and buy a tiny energy efficient house was not it LOL).

 

[mistysue]

It’s not the dang topic of conversation! OP ain’t leaving unless they get kicked out which they’d like not to be, they made that crystal clear and that’s their choice. To roll in here with life advice for “next time” is beyond useless and rather condescending. OP wants to survive the next few years. They were kind enough to update the thread as some of us did wonder how it was going and others are undoubtedly here reading and in the same position. PP didn’t bother to read the thread, we covered in depth on what OP should have done (and buy a tiny energy efficient house was not it LOL).

I guess I read all of this and feel like it is still part of the conversation topic. Maybe it's just the part you don't like?

 

[gottalovepluto]

I guess I read all of this and feel like it is still part of the conversation topic. Maybe it's just the part you don't like?

Exactly! This is about surviving now. Not general advice for buying future homes. When you’re drowning in the now, focusing decades out into the future can just make you drown faster.

 

[mistysue]

Exactly! This is about surviving now. Not general advice for buying future homes. When you’re drowning in the now, focusing decades out into the future can just make you drown faster.

Oh- ok then that's a personal preference type thing. When I've been drowning I've felt better working out future plans so I have ideas of various paths. To me, how to buy better next time is helpful while to you it's apparently "beyond useless and rather condescending" but other people find it useful. Even if the OP wants to stay in the house for now, it's realistic to think eventually there will be a next home, and when it happens, it seems most people who get into this situation once need those mental checkboxes of how to not repeat the same stressful scenario over and over.

 

[Heroes_or_Villains]

Well, it's been a little over a year now. I am beyond aggravated that nothing has changed in terms of interest rates. Rates are even worse than when I first posted, and I am still terrified of our ARM adjustment. Being perfectly honest, we still can't afford a fixed-rate mortgage at 7%. I am hoping and praying that maybe things will improve in 2025 or 2026.

With that said, our family has been trying to be more responsible, and I have been working on trying to find a way to save more money in preparation. Over the past year, we managed to put aside a little over $17,000 for future mortgage payments, in a high yield savings account. This is about half of what our higher payments will be, and I am hoping we will be able to save more as time goes on. We have also cut back dramatically on extracurricular activities for the kids and skipped vacation this year.

Some people would probably question my thinking. Our home is not even increasing in value anymore; it's kind of going sideways, if not a little down in value. My thinking is that I already have the kids in a great school district, and buying this house was utter chaos. I just have no desire to sell or even try to start over. It's just not worth it to us.

Keep your fingers crossed for us. We are really trying to get ahead of everything. My husband has been looking for higher-paying jobs but hasn't been successful so far. The job market is just so tough right now.

Keeping my fingers crossed over here for you! You're doing the right thing by saving where you can to plan but as many others have mentioned, expectation is that the first rate cut will come in September and while that may only end up being a quarter (or we can hope half) percent, it can move the needle on where mortgage rates land. One thing to consider as well is if you are aiming to wait to refinance until the ARM resets, you could also in theory refinance to another ARM (perhaps go with a longer term 7 or 10 year), which will again have a lower rate than 30 year fixed. But if this type of potential future variability gives you anxiety, then your plans for preparing to refinance into a fixed rate make sense. As you can see, A LOT changes in a couple years so you still have a pretty decent time runway until you get to your 2027 rate adjustment.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Exactly! This is about surviving now. Not general advice for buying future homes. When you’re drowning in the now, focusing decades out into the future can just make you drown faster.

Dave Ramsey offers advice on debt paydown and routinely tells people to sell their expensive cars with high payments and buy something old and cheap instead. I’m not sure if he offers similar advice for when people have a house they can no longer afford.
It might not be so simple to sell and buy something cheaper but it’s easier to sell and be disappointed than to enter foreclosure.