Please tell me if I'm being super hormonal (I am 39 weeks pregnant on Thursday so that's entirely possible :P) or if there is any merit to this idea at all. To be honest, it's more of a rant than anything...
My husband and I make a combined 110k between both our jobs and rental property. We have no credit cards, have recently paid off the last of his student loans and my car, and our debts now are my 20k student loan, a 93k rental property, and 165k balance on our 15 year mortgage for our primary home.
Saturday night his car (93 honda civic) was stolen and much of it stripped. This is not the first time we've had an issue with this car. It has been broken into two times before (head unit stolen) but this time the entire car was stolen, wheels removed, and battery, plugs, wires, etc. under the hood stolen before leaving it in some alleyway. We previously had a 94 honda accord that was stolen as well by some young teenagers and taken for a joyride and left in a neighbors driveway down the street which cost us nothing to fix, but was quite a headache and still not something you like to see happen. We live on the outskirts of one of the largest cities in Pennsylvania for almost 5 years now, and although our street is quiet and nice, only 3 miles down the road is "downtown" which has a very bad connotation. We moved here almost 5 years ago and refinanced earlier this year right before I became pregnant. We owe about 7-10k more than what I think the property is worth, but it was our intention to stay here 4-5 or so years until our daughter is school age and then move right before she has to enter the school system (since we are in a poor performing school district). With a 15 year mortgage we would've paid off a large amount of the mortgage and would be in good shape for our next home.
As it is right now, I just feel uncomfortable. We have a short driveway with a very small garage that barely fits my husbands honda civic. I'm thinking maybe he could start parking his car in the garage instead of at the end of teh driveway (behind my car) and that would deter any theft. The scary thing is now I feel like this invites the thieves to come even closer to my home.
There have been no instances on the block of home theft/burglary, only some car issues (and to be honest, we seem to get the brunt of it since his car is considered popular in the inner city). I don't know if a car burglary is serious enough that I should be scared of living here, or if maybe I'm just blowing things out of porportion. Part of me says to sell the car and get one that no one in the inner city would want, but my husband drives 55 mi each way to work, and reliability wise and gas wise, the Honda civic is by far the best car out there. Plus this is one of the few cars he is familiar with, and can do most repairs and maintenance himself which saves us a lot of money. Am I just being difficult and do you think there's something else out there that would satisy our needs but not entice thieves? Should we consider moving and taking a loss on this home for added security?
I feeling increasingly uncomfortable raising a child in this area. If I could put a bubble around the 5 blocks around my house it would be so nice, but the reality is we have a depressed economy with a lot of job losses and high crime in the inner city, and a lot of desperate people that will do this sort of thing within only miles of our home. With a baby on the way, my parents are more than willing to let us live with them for a couple months rent free (and my mom would babysit) until we figured out exactly what we're doing. We make a good income and considering the progress we've made in 2 years on our debt, I'm confident we could pull out of the house loss fairly quickly (especially living with my parents). So many thoughts running through my head. Anyone else have any comments? Sorry for the long rant...I just really needed to get this off my chest.
Bad, bad Weekend
October 12th, 2010 at 11:19 am
October 12th, 2010 at 12:46 pm 1286887592
Your hormones are just exacerbating what is already there, so it might not really be as bad as you think. Hang in there!
October 12th, 2010 at 02:40 pm 1286894454
You are in an excellent place financially. You have a good plan. The theives are only interested in the car, not you. Don't let them cause you to make financial decisions you wouldn't make otherwise.
October 12th, 2010 at 02:56 pm 1286895367
October 12th, 2010 at 04:43 pm 1286901804
I personally think Toyotas/Hondas are over-priced/over-rated. OF course, the auto theft rates is one reason why I steer clear of Honda/Toyota. We live in a high auto theft area and we tend to drive older cars which are very popular for thieves (Toyota/Honda). I don't expect anyone to steal my old Ford. Dh and I both had a Toyota/Honda for our first car - don't get me wrong - they were awesome. 1980s years. But Ford has some really nice cars these days - they cost a fraction used as some of the Japanese cars - though are just as reliable (in my opinion).
I think some of it is relative. My own neighborhood has gotten somewhat of a bad reputation over the years, and I couldn't tell you why. Neighborhood watch is very good as is police force (very involved with community). Any problems are always quickly nipped in the bud. I have always lived in a big city, so auto theft and break-ins is a given for any exposed car. There is no other crime to speak of (knock on wood). I find it ironic because I work in a really bad area (drugs/prostitution) so I giggle when my upscale neighborhood is painted as some ghetto.
But, having always lived in a big city, I think we have more tolerance for petty crime. We are just used to it. It's why we have a garage.
When you move, maybe I would consider a 2-car garage as high on the list.
Our neighborhood is rather upscale which makes it a bigger target for vehicle crime. IT depends where you live, but if you moved to a nicer neighborhood around here hopin for less car break-ins, that is not what you would find. Our cars were broken into more in our lower-middle and middle class neighborhoods. But I will tell you the only reason we have never had a car break-in in our upscale neighborhood, is because we have a garage for both our cars. Plain and simple.
October 12th, 2010 at 06:28 pm 1286908085
Everyone else, thanks for the insight! I posted over at the forums that our current plan is to garage the car every night (when and if we getting it running well again) until I return to work full-time and at that point decide if we want to buy another used car that won't be as enticing for the city scum (we'll need one sooner rather than later as the current car has 270k miles or so on it), or possibly save for a downpayment on our next home if we're still feeling anxious. This disrupts my plans of paying off my student loan, but I think it might be worth it if we're still feeling uneasy (which I have a sneaking suspicion we won't be if we take the right precautions).
October 13th, 2010 at 02:47 am 1286938057
October 13th, 2010 at 01:52 pm 1286977957
October 15th, 2010 at 10:04 am 1287137045
Jerry