Foreclosure and tax liability

[mvogel0]

I recently married in California and my new wife owns a house that is losing value everyday in this housing market. We can pay our mortgage fine, but are tired of throwing our money away and want to walk away from it. If we do, considering we have a non-recourse loan which is the original loan and this is our primary residence, will my credit be affected as I am not on the loan or title?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

[FlyingRon]

Your wife's credit will be totally trashed. You will find that will taint you as you try to obtain credit while you are still married. You have an odd sense of morals. Paying back money that was borrowed is not exactly throwing it away, it's living up to your commitments.

[mvogel0]

Odd sense of morals? My wife and I are hard working citizens. We bought our house in a new subdivision for $360 K. It is now worth around $150 K because of the "odd sense of morals" of the banking system as well as our broke government and the people in our neighborhood that had no right to buy a house they couldn't afford. Now we are losing our butts. Why should we keep paying hugh mortgage payments when everyone else is being bailed out. Get a clue!

[FlyingRon]

It is greedy self-centered attitudes like this that got the country into this mess. You want to say, give me $360K and if I decided I don't like the house, I'll just blow you off and then you're concerned whether anybody would loan you money again.

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.

[HelpinMN]

Wow this makes me sick, me and my wife are in a house that has lost a lot of value over the last 2 years even including the 50-60k we have put into it (20k materials im guessing 40k of sweat equity). We are trying to move back home but have little hope of selling it. We have settled on renting it for a 300 a month loss. It never once crossed our minds to just walk away, if someone does this there should be a way to blacklist their credit for life because they are obviously not people of their word.

[mvogel0]

...why should 80% of the people in my neighborhood get bailed out and walk away from their property and further deplete the value of my home while I sit here and try to be the moral ethic person that is getting SCREWED. The government and banks are letting it happen and you're saying that I am unethical to think about walking away? This mortgage crisis hurts those that try to be good and hang inthere through these tough times. The only problem is that this will affect my family for decades to get this back to even while those people walk away unscathed. I am not the fool for thinking about walking away? You are just the idiots that continue to lose out while our government further taxes us for the supposed bailout. It is like being in a classroom where the teacher leaves and everyone in the room is getting away with cheating off the cheat sheet they stole and I am the only one not doing it.....and getting an F while they keep getting A's. Nice guy finishes LAST!!!!!

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by mvogel0

...why should 80% of the people in my neighborhood get bailed out and walk away from their property and further deplete the value of my home while I sit here and try to be the moral ethic person that is getting SCREWED. The government and banks are letting it happen and you're saying that I am unethical to think about walking away? This mortgage crisis hurts those that try to be good and hang inthere through these tough times. The only problem is that this will affect my family for decades to get this back to even while those people walk away unscathed. I am not the fool for thinking about walking away? You are just the idiots that continue to lose out while our government further taxes us for the supposed bailout. It is like being in a classroom where the teacher leaves and everyone in the room is getting away with cheating off the cheat sheet they stole and I am the only one not doing it.....and getting an F while they keep getting A's. Nice guy finishes LAST!!!!!

**A: ok, good luck to you.

[ozgear]

Be aware of all advice you get from strangers. A couple months ago I had asked advice on a senario in which, prior to the housing and financial meltdown, this was posed; "would it be wise to pull out of my 401k to pay off my mortgage in light of a possible slowdown in the economy where neither would be worth much? The senior advisers thought I was out of my mind. Now look at what has happened, the government is very close to owning both the housing and the banking.
If you walk away from your contracted commitment and desire to rent my house, which I own and not the government, I will ask this question: if you can't pay for your own house what fool would I be to let you pay for mine? I will check your credit background as well.

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by ozgear

Be aware of all advice you get from strangers. A couple months ago I had asked advice on a senario in which, prior to the housing and financial meltdown, this was posed; "would it be wise to pull out of my 401k to pay off my mortgage in light of a possible slowdown in the economy where neither would be worth much? The senior advisers thought I was out of my mind. Now look at what has happened, the government is very close to owning both the housing and the banking.
If you walk away from your contracted commitment and desire to rent my house, which I own and not the government, I will ask this question: if you can't pay for your own house what fool would I be to let you pay for mine? I will check your credit background as well.

**A: what the heck are senior advisers?

[mvogel0]

In Sacramento we have some of the larger housing losses in the nation. My wife is a Doctor and I am in medical sales. We make good $, have great credit and are very responsible and have always made our payment. (In fact, we paid $60 K to pay off our second already). Buying into a newer subdivision 3 years ago was a mistake and I admit it. We are 30 years old and finally were able to get out of school and buy a home. Morally we would NEVER think about bailing out of a contractural obligation, but this bailout is affecting us in more ways than your average home owner in the nation. Our neighbors drive beautiful cars and are moving out with Plasma TVs and pulling out the cabinets, light bulbs, etc. as they abondon their houses. Our government allows this and they still get to keep these possessions. As 80% of our neighborhood does this we pay our huge mortgage while they further deplete our property values by the HUNDREDS of thousands. Why can they does this and we can't? How do you differentiate a moral decision vs. a business decision? The property value loss that may never come back will affect our hard-working lives forever. Our remaining loan is a JUMBO loan and we have 2 years left with it being fixed and then we are in trouble. Because we make enough they won't let us refinances or modify it leaving us with few options.

[ozgear]

To mvogel0: I feel your frustration and I wish I could wisely advise but I can't. I hate this whole economic situation because it will hurt a lot of good people.

To HomeGuru: My bad, I meant to refer to some posters (posers) as Senior Members.