We owe more on our house than we could sell the house for?

If you can afford the payments stay with the house and wait out the market. Also under Obama there is a plan where people go to Court for a Judge to reorder the principal amount owed. There might be stipulations, such as being behind in the payments, and of course I'm talking in the US not knowing where you live.It could also be possible to refi to a lower rate and get a 15 yr mortgage which would get you out in your early sixties and possibly close to the same payment.

If you plan on staying in the house and retire there why walk? If the house is in major disrepair you could consider walking as you would not want to put major money into a pineapple mortgage. You need to know your short term financial goals as you will not be getting outside financing any time soon on a walk or a bankruptcy.

In addition if you walk you are still responsible for the unpaid balance of the mortgage after a Sherriff's sale, which includes bank fees. I would also read your mortgage papers, after the high-flying 70's most banks have in their lending documents that this loan cannot be included in a bankruptcy. But the most important thing you need to do is waste a couple of hundred on a lawyers opinion, trust me, it won't be a waste and you can also consider it as a sort of insurance policy.

As a disclaimer, the following is for informational purposes. You should seek professional financial and legal advice before making a decision such as defaulting on a mortgage. Your situation is often referred to as being "underwater on your mortgage."

The answer to your question depends on your financial situation. If you can afford to continue making your mortgage payments, you should ignore the current value of the house, as that does not affect you. Whether the house is worth $50,000 or $500,000, or even $5,000,000, unless you need to (or want to) sell it, the market value makes little difference to you.It's the same house, with the same square footage, the same kitchen, the same everything, no matter how much people would be willing to buy it for (the only difference is how much, if at all, you could borrow via a home equity loan or line of credit against the equity you have in the house, which is currently negative).

If you cannot afford the mortgage payments you may indeed need to refinance, but that would only make sense if your current rate is much higher than a new rate you could get such that the new payments would be lower. In addition, it may be better in that case to negotiate with your current lender and try to get the rate reduced to the current market rate. Knowing you're considering walking away from the house may make the lender more motivated to help than they'd normally be.

To the best of my knowledge, reducing the principal of a mortgage can only be done by paying it down (duh ;) ), by agreement of the lender (unlikely in the extreme), or through a bankruptcy proceeding. If you cannot refinance with acceptable terms, cannot get the current lender to reduce your rate, and cannot continue to make payments, you may get the bank to agree to a short sale (in which you sell the house and the bank accepts the sale price as payment in full of the mortgage), or you may have to declare bankruptcy. Walking away from the house may seem to some to be the only rational response to being underwater on the mortgage.

In fact, I recently heard a "talking head" on TV say just that. However consider the following drawbacks (in no particular order).1. You gave your word you'd pay a certain amount to the lender in return for the loan.

Walking away from it is unethical.2. You will lose your house.3. You will likely drastically reduce your credit score making any other loans, insurance policies, etc. Much more expensive than your current score will get you.4.

You may not be able to get a new mortgage and buy a new home with a reasonable interest rate for as long as 10 years (until the default is taken off your credit report). Similarly, you may not be able to get a car loan, a signature loan, a credit card, etc.5. You may not enjoy living in someone else's property (i.e.

Renting) after having been a homeowner.6. Over time, your rent is likely to increase and may become higher than your current mortgage payment. In short, lacking very strong reasons to do so, I'd avoid walking away from my house and mortgage.

Good luck!

I personally wouldn't be concerned with starting the 30 years over again. A longer term mortgage will lower your payment, and you can simply let your extra cash accumulate and then pay it off early. Even if the pre-payment terms aren't great, you'll probably have a five year renewal so you can clear it out at one of those five year intervals (hopefully that makes sense).

However, I'm not really sure that's the sticking point here. As for lowering principal, talking to your bank is the only non-government option that I know of. People have been successful in the past by demonstrating financial distress.

Walking away will send your credit score plummeting and would only really be worthwhile if you don't mind renting and are 100% sure that the value of the house is going nowhere in the next several years. I think if you can afford the payments, riding it out might be the best option. Hope that helps.

Oprah has some shows about Money debt loans and mortgages credit cards.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.