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> delaying my next move We could absolutely afford the mortgage, even if we both lost our jobs and had to find lower pay replacements. We were conservative in
by josefresco 8y ago
> delaying my next move
We could absolutely afford the mortgage, even if we both lost our jobs and had to find lower pay replacements. We were conservative in every calculation. We put 20% down etc.
Buying a new home is where we tripped up. Right when the economy was starting to crash we bought another house (wife was pregnant) and put our first home up for sale. At the time of course, no one new what was ahead of us "recession" wise.
Obviously in hindsight it was a mistake, but at the time homes were selling like hotcakes and we didn't worry. Prices were also still climbing quickly and we worried that in a few years we'd be priced out of the market.
However, it's worth noting that our first home's value has still not reached it's peak (what we paid) so if we stayed there, we'd still have negative equity. Luck, timing etc. etc.
- rootusrootus 8y agoYeah some places have really struggled to come back, I get that, and timing does make a huge difference. A friend of mine bought his house in 2006. There were some other factors as well, but that timing was definitely a factor in it taking nearly 10 years for him to get positive again so he could sell it.
- josefresco 8y agoThanks for the chat. The region in question isn't struggling, it's just that the values were so inflated pre 2008 that "coming back to earth" has taken a long time. The takeaway for my wife and I was that it's better to be fiscally conservative, or enormously fiscally aggressive but nothing in between. We crossed that line every so slightly and paid a huge price.