[quote=yellow8yellowm]If you didn’t put any money down, you should not be getting help. Nobody should be getting help, but if somebody must be first in line to get it, it should be the people actually made a down payment and never took out a HELOC.
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Well…..I don’t necessarilly agree with this. Not that I need help to stay in my house, mind you. But this POV is a little generic.
I didn’t have any money to put down. After making $30k/year for a decade, I went back to school and got another degree. Shortly thereafter, my salary curve went much higher. I could afford a mortgage now but I didn’t have cash for a downpayment. It was hard enough to come up with $10k for closing costs. Remember, 20% of a $350k house is $70k. How many of you have $70k or more in liquid cash? I’d guess not that many.
However, I’ve put money into my house:
1) New roof ($6k)
2) Interior remodeling ($5k)
3) Paint ($5k)
4) New lawn ($1200)
It would be tought to walk away because I now have ‘skin in the game’ in that I’ve spent money on the place above and beyond regular maintenance.
I’ve paid CASH for all of it. I’ve pulled NO money out of my house. However, what pisses me off is watching the market come down around me as all the people who overbought or took more equity out of their house than they should have driven property values into the ground. I did everything right (other than the DP) and I’d get screwed if I tried to sell now–and I bought in 2003, long before the top of the market.
