Assets up $380.75, liabilities down $445.28.
Does not include gold and silver, bonds, CDs, retirement, or illiquid assets.
Inspired by monkeymama's foreclosure post, I checked my street: one block up, our block, one block down. We didn't have many foreclosures--just one Notice of Trustee Sale from 2003 on our block, and a dead woman's house that didn't sell fast one block over, but I think that's because people with 0% down found new construction more alluring than these "Welcome Home GIs" mid-century houses. That's not to say our neighborhood didn't suffer, it just didn't zoom up in price. Summer 2008 saw the most inflated values, I believe, as people were priced out in better areas.
The top two properties for equity (both above 48%) in my Schadenfreude tracker are on my street. They didn't do cashout refinances. When I calculate the total amortized principal+interest from current mortgages, and divide that by their current Zillow values, the results are both under 1. All properties but two (those are four bedroom houses on our street that Zillow last year recalculated their values to be roughly $92000 per bedroom) have lower equity from May 2010, despite some having 20-year and 10-year mortgages.
By the end of the year, I think I can get my HELOC balance to equal 10% of my mortgage balance. It's a tidy goal to work towards. Probably more realistic than the hoped-for return to 60% equity.
Three Weeks into YNAB, plus downward equity
January 16th, 2012 at 04:37 pm
January 16th, 2012 at 04:43 pm 1326732233
January 16th, 2012 at 04:54 pm 1326732858
1) PRE-foreclosures, which are "short sales" and are usually "listings" that can be accessed by an Agent.
2) FORECLOSURES which are sold "at the Courthouse Step" and are not "listings" in the traditional sense and are not available to agents via the "mls multiple 'listing' service".
3) POST-foreclosures are "listed" (in the Multiple Lending Service) after a property is NOT sold "at foreclosure" and the owner's lender becomes the owner of the property. These are usually called REO's or Bank-Owned Properties.
I am not a real estate agent, so #2 comes closest to my nonprofessional idea of foreclosure. I visit my county website. I use its Geographic Information System maps to access a range of parcel numbers. Then I go to the Records division, use the online records search, and search for "Notice of Trustee Sales" (this is not a universal term, your county may have a synonymous classification), input the range of parcel numbers, and, optionally, a date range. The County Website no longer lets us see the Deeds of Trust online, so we can't see who's digging themselves into debt, or refinancing with smaller amounts unless we use the County Administration building's terminals.
For #3, on these "pay-us-and-we'll-show-you" websites, for free I can see the zip code, street and a map showing nearby cross roads, so I then use #2 approach.
January 16th, 2012 at 05:28 pm 1326734931
But, I have just been watching them as they fall, over MANY years. If I see a house that looks abandoned or is up for sale, I Am curious what they story is. & in the end they have ALL been foreclosures or short sales. I don't know if we had any home sales otherwise, around here. Records available online vary widely by county/state. I personally haven't dug much deeper than the very public info - but could be interesting to use Paulette's method to dig a little deeper.
January 16th, 2012 at 05:32 pm 1326735173