I've been down this road before. I want to refinance and I can't. It's so frustrating to see all the money I'm losing every month by not being able to. Here's the quick recap...
-Bought home in Feb 2006 for 166k. They had to break it into two loans 8% and 11% to avoid PMI? I was still in college and my husband had next to no credit either. We took what we could get.
-By December 2007 our home value went to 225k and we refinanced our two loans into one home equity loan at 7.24% fixed for 25 years. Looking back we should've refinanced into a mortgage at that point, but we were stupid and didn't realize you could roll the closing costs of the mortgage into the loan and would've had a better interest rate.
-So now, 2.5 years later I'm desperate to refinance to a 15 year loan but our equity has dropped to 0. Just had an appraisal done last week and the value came in at 160k. So disheartened. All the work we did (building deck, knocking down walls, reconfiguring kitchen, painting, etc.) and the home is now worth 2 thousand less than what we owe. The mortgage consultant at PNC is trying every avenue, but so far no luck. Right now we need to bring 15k to closing and that's not going to happen. I've tried refinancing at every other bank in the last 6 months and nothing has panned out. We're not behind on payments. We bought a house we can easily afford. Why am I penalized for trying to be responsible??
Why can't I refinance?!?!?!
August 6th, 2009 at 05:31 pm
August 6th, 2009 at 05:50 pm 1249577407
August 6th, 2009 at 06:06 pm 1249578396
When rates rise, which they eventually will, you will be pleased.
& if it isn't fixed, well, rates are low enough now. Buys you time to turn around the situation. The market will eventually improve. To only be upside down $2k is not half bad (I live in an area where MANY are upside down six figures).
I've said a million times around these forums. There is nothing to be jealous of about people losing their homes, etc. Be PROUD you bought a home you could easily afford, and be happy that you can afford to keep it. The rest will work out in the end; don't sweat the short term.
August 7th, 2009 at 05:44 am 1249620284
August 7th, 2009 at 07:34 am 1249626878
are you planning on selling now?
if you are not, why don't you sit back and enjoy the hard work you've put into your home, and watch as your home slowly climbs in value again, as it inevitably will.
if you are planning on selling, well the obvious thing to do is hold off as long as you can until value climbs again. it can't go down forever. it boggles my mind why people think it's a big deal if their house value is less currently. everyone is in pretty much the same boat right now, it's just the way it is.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:24 pm 1249680251
August 10th, 2009 at 11:15 pm 1249942548
September 4th, 2009 at 08:12 pm 1252091573
Jerry