[mittons]

Sooo I am in the mortgage business and we all know how the economy has effected the housing market...Well today they let go 2 more people. Our office of what used to be 50 a year ago is now down to a whopping 6. I still thankfully have a job but for how much longer is the question.

My question for you all is if you were in my shoes married to a college student with a mortgage payment would you all try to sell your home even if you will just break even and move in with your parents or would you sell and rent a Town home until you were to get laid off or would you just try to tough it out?

I love my house but it's not a forever home. I don't mind renting as long as there is a little bit of a yard for my daughter to play in. As far as moving in with my parents it would be free but....my dad is well dying and I just don't know if the environment would be an ideal situation for my daughter to be in...but on the other hand that little girl cheers him up like no other person can.

Ugh who ever thought when they were a child that being an adult would be this hard!!

~Becky

[mondk]

Here is a thought I just had...move in with your parents for now and rent your house for as much as your mortgage payments are. Then save up some money or whatever and either look for rentals or a different house to buy and then maybe try to sell the old house. Then you don't have to keep making payments on an empty house while trying to sell and living with your folks. I hope this makes sense.

My dad is really getting up there in years too and is 70+ He loves staying here with us during the week and helping take care of Joshie. He's not dying but his health isn't the best, so I "nurse" him while he's here. I try to make healthy meals (he is diabetic) and set all his meds up for him every week. I also take him to all his Dr. appointments. I love doing it because he's my dad and I love him and I know his years are numbered. I think it is good for my kids to spend time with their grandpa also and my dad's face just lights up when he is with the boys.

Sorry to write so much; just the ideas were a-pouring out tonight.

Blessings, Michelle

[Kellileanne]

I agree, live with your parents a while and rent out your house. I was going to do the same until we got clearance to move to dh's first duty station but it looks as though he will be deployed asap so we aren't doing that. But, it is an option.

[Mom2MandyandTristan]

This is a tough situation. Now can you rent out your house for the mortgage payments? If not I say stay. Worse case scenario if you guys get in to a bond you can always attempt to so a short sale. Not to get too personal but do you have any equity in your house? If so stay. I'm no expert I just know that recently when hubby quit his job we had to discuss our finances and our best options. Our house payment is about the same or even a little less than what our rent would be so staying made sense. We don't owe nearly as much as it's worth so we can always tap that in an emergency. I would also advise (if at all possible) save up an emergency fund (usually of 3-6 months living expenses). Also don't forget about Unemployment, I would research it now to see if you can get a guessitimate as to how much you might get. I haven't suggested moving in with the folks mainly because things can go bad in a situation like that (I had to move with mom for a little while to save up for a bigger place when I had Mandy and those 6 months were the worst ever, we get along better when we don't live together hence why I moved out at 17). I also don’t see how you would be able to save money. If your tenant stopped paying rent you are still obligated for the mortgage and if you rent a home you are obligated for rent and a mortgage. Sorry if my advice/suggestions made things worse, it's what hubby and I had to discuss recently and these were all our scenarios. I hope your decisions come as easy as ours.

[mittons]

The parent thing for me would be okay, but I would go nuts! My Mom is wonderful and will not give advice on how to raise my child. My Dad however is a completley different story. That drives me nuts. We kind of had it in our head to sell and basically break even, we have roughly 30k in equity but after closing and realtor fee's we will have some money left but not much. And that is if we get our asking price.

With more talking we think we are going to try to sell, we do have enough money to make it until January. But then rent, We don't mind if we are spending as much money as our current mortgage payment, we just figure it's better on credit to break a lease if need be vs. foreclosure.

I don't want to ruin Makenna's chance of living in a decent place when she is older because Mommy and Daddy went into foreclsure.

[mondk]

I heard someone, maybe Suze Orman say that with the present economy, the rate of foreclosures this year is really high, higher than ever I think they said. Our mortgage payment is a little over a thousand a month, but we got an FHA loan, so our payment includes our taxes and insurance. I think the only way we'd move is if I had to get a job somewhere other than around here (after I get my degrees that is). I love our house, despite the fact that it is a manufactured home; we want to put a basement on it in a few years after we've built up more equity.

Blessings, Michelle