POLL: Are you under water on your mortgage?

[Cap'n Ken]

The never-reliable Zillow says 55.7% of metro Atlanta mortgages are under water (people owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth). How about you?

Voting in the poll won't show others what you answered - in case you're sensitive about the issue. I won't call it fully anonymous because votes do get put in a data table where they are associated with your user ID, and if I wanted to I could go figure out who voted which way. But I really don't want to.

[enduser]

Does this include the scenario where you don't technically owe more than the house is worth, but the equity is not great enough that a bank will allow you to refinance? That feels and functions like underwater even though technically it is not.

[Fawkes]

Does it count as "underwater" if you expected to have a certain amount of already sunk equity that seems to have evaporated?
Acording to Zillow, I am underwater, but they seem to always go low on the valuation...also according them, if I'd sold the house in 2006, I'd have made a ton of money. Silly me.
If you're only talking about what's owed... then I'm probably "dog paddling" but not under.

[Cap'n Ken]

I think "under water" here would be in the strictest sense. You owe $150,000 on your mortgage but your house is now only worth $125,000. That's the stickiest of wickets. And I wouldn't base the answer just on what Zillow shows, but if you have a good sense of market value independently as well.

Being stuck in a mortgage you'd rather not have or knowing you've lost some amount of positive equity are big deals as well.

[Fawkes]

I think "under water" here would be in the strictest sense. You owe $150,000 on your mortgage but your house is now only worth $125,000. That's the stickiest of wickets. And I wouldn't base the answer just on what Zillow shows, but if you have a good sense of market value independently as well.

Being stuck in a mortgage you'd rather not have or knowing you've lost some amount of positive equity are big deals as well.

I'm not sure it's something to freak out about... I bought my house to live in... I may never sell it so it won't matter if the investment value is off  a little bit.. AND, if you plan to hang in for at least 3-5, (10?) more years, things have pretty much GOT to recover... either that or we'll have problems of far higher priority than the investment ROI on the house... 

[enduser]

Nice little dead cat bounce going on in 2011 according to my Zill.

[Cap'n Ken]

I think "under water" here would be in the strictest sense. You owe $150,000 on your mortgage but your house is now only worth $125,000. That's the stickiest of wickets. And I wouldn't base the answer just on what Zillow shows, but if you have a good sense of market value independently as well.

Being stuck in a mortgage you'd rather not have or knowing you've lost some amount of positive equity are big deals as well.

I'm not sure it's something to freak out about... I bought my house to live in... I may never sell it so it won't matter if the investment value is off  a little bit.. AND, if you plan to hang in for at least 3-5, (10?) more years, things have pretty much GOT to recover... either that or we'll have problems of far higher priority than the investment ROI on the house... 

Yeah, it's a bummer to know values have dropped quite a bit, but you really have to look at your situation and not forget the other possible outcomes had you made other choices. My in-laws have gotten worked up over the loss in value of the home they've lived in for 35 years and have no mortgage on, but they tend to forget what kind of situation they might be in had they cashed in on that value and bought some other place at the peak of the market.

I think realistically our house is worth roughly what we paid for it (I'd think slightly more) almost eight years ago. I'd sure like it if it were worth 50% more than we paid for it, but I'm content with having done the conservative thing and paying down the mortgage rather than being tempted to draw out "equity" and whatnot.

[J. Grouchy]

Acording to Zillow, I am underwater, but they seem to always go low on the valuation...

Definitely not so in our case!  According to Zillow, our house if valued $60,000 more than we owe (principal only, of course...).  I have no illusions of being able to sell that high, though.  Honestly, I don't really have a good grasp of what we COULD sell for, but I get the feeling we'd be lucky to break even on a sale.

[Opti1]

Bank says I'm not under water.
Don't know what an RE agent would say.

[Mudd]

I'm totally under-water.  Bought my place for $184K back in '06 and a comp was recently appraised at $114K.

I didn't put any money down on the place and it is an interest-only loan, so technically I haven't lost any money yet.  I plan on living there indefinitely, and was tempted to buy another unit in the place but don't want to put all of my eggs in one basket.

[cmcewen]

Just bought my first house 3 wks ago. Haven't made the first pmt yet. It appraised at the purchase price (shocker). Don't have much else to go on, but I'm pretty sure we paid a little bit less than what it would be worth in a halfway decent market. Not sure what is typical these days, but in April we paid 23% less for it than what it went on the market for in October. It was a flip that the guy purchased May of last year.

Not sharing just to piss off the folks who have seen their own home value go down. Just thought that might be info relevant to the OP.

[Fawkes]

Just bought my first house 3 wks ago. Haven't made the first pmt yet. It appraised at the purchase price (shocker). Don't have much else to go on, but I'm pretty sure we paid a little bit less than what it would be worth in a halfway decent market. Not sure what is typical these days, but in April we paid 23% less for it than what it went on the market for in October. It was a flip that the guy purchased May of last year.

Not sharing just to piss off the folks who have seen their own home value go down. Just thought that might be info relevant to the OP.

Right place, right time. You're gonna be happy about that decision for a long time to come.

[SteveD]

I answered "no" and I don't mind getting rather specific.

I bought in Ormewood Park in '04, and I've paid that mortgage down to close to $200K, and I'm reasonably sure I could get close to what I paid for it back in 2004 if I put it back on the market (upper 2's).  I was unsuccessful in trying to sell it in late '06 early '07 because I think the agent had it listed far too high (upper 3's dropping to lower 3's by the time I pulled it off the market.  The renovated house across the street sold in the lower 3's last year.

In East Atlanta, I purchased in foreclosure at the height of the real estate boom, just before the crash, in the summer of '07, but since it was a foreclosure I still think I got a good deal on it, even in the face of the crash.  I've paid that mortgage down to close to 300K, and I'm reasonably sure I could sell for far more than that today, even in the midst of the crash, especially with all the improvements we've made on the house.

So, I don't think I'm under water on either one, right now.  Now, if home values continue to drop, either or both could turn into an under water situation, but if values go that low I'll just throw in the towel. 

[barbecuesteve]

We're not underwater, but that's because I paid cash for such a huge portion of our renovation. The house is probably worth a little less than I have in it, but quite a bit more than the mortgage.

[cmcewen]

Just bought my first house 3 wks ago. Haven't made the first pmt yet. It appraised at the purchase price (shocker). Don't have much else to go on, but I'm pretty sure we paid a little bit less than what it would be worth in a halfway decent market. Not sure what is typical these days, but in April we paid 23% less for it than what it went on the market for in October. It was a flip that the guy purchased May of last year.

Not sharing just to piss off the folks who have seen their own home value go down. Just thought that might be info relevant to the OP.

Right place, right time. You're gonna be happy about that decision for a long time to come.

Thanks, I hope you're right. Lord knows we waited a long time to pull the trigger.