UGH.
Since we started our discussion about moving to Taos, NM, we have been looking at houses for sale on the internet. Although we are not ready to move yet, I found my perfect house this weekend…2 acres of land, solar panels, 2 workshop rooms, an office, etc.. It is perfect. But there are 2 problems with it: 1. It is about $30,000 over our comfort level on what to spend on a house, and 2. We are not ready to move.
With the incredible rise in foreclosures this year, a lot of people are obviously having trouble paying their mortgage. We all know that this is mostly due to the fact that people took out interest only or short term mortgages, and they can no longer afford the payments. If you are in this situation, there are a few things you can do starting today to help ward off foreclosure on your home:
Notice the trouble early and start planning for it.
Try to get refinanced if you can prior to getting in any deeper.
Don’t think you can afford that house you want down the street? Think again. Thanks to some enterprising mortgage lenders, you can now get 40 and 50 year mortgages! Now you can finally buy that way too expensive, beyond your price range bungalow you have always wanted.
Or can you?
In California, that is. I am sure it not as high other places, but a 79% jump in foreclosures is a pretty big jump, wouldn’t you say? According to Inside Bay Area, California had 16,273 foreclosure filings in February, up 79 percent from a year ago which does not bode well for the future of real estate here in California, at least not in the short term. Not surprisingly, most of these loans are subprime loans that are now coming due…uh oh. Between the people that had no idea what they were getting into and the real estate sharks, this is not going to be pretty.
