home sweet home

Because sometimes I spend my time mindlessly in an effort to pass time, I often go to www.realtor.com and look at the houses that are for sale. I enjoy this passtime because I used to look with the intent to dream.  Then I spent three months looking with the intent to find something in my price range. Now with the onslaught of foreclosures, I look because I am amazed at what I see.  Houses that were going for upwards of $150,000 and $200,000 are now selling (or trying to sell rather) around $65,000 to $95,000.  It’s sad how many homes that are for sale that have had all the appliances ripped out and in some cases even the in tile toilet paper holder has been damaged.  It takes a lot to damage those things.   The more I look the more I realize that we are living not only in economic crisis but in a time of much anger and hopelessness.

When I think about my timing in purchasing a house I am often left in disbelief.  Two months after I secured an FHA loan, they changed the terms on them.  The change in terms would have meant I could not purchase my house.  In the past if one party had good credit in a marriage then that one party could purchase a house, they have changed that now and both parties better have outstanding credit no matter what or you’re not buying a house…any house. 

Now some of the pricing is lower than when I purchased in April (8 months ago) but the credit crisis means that most people can’t obtain the loan or credit that they need, so it’s not really a good deal. I see a lot of really great houses that have more of the features I was shopping for back in April but I cannot see how I could have made it work now.  There is so much chaos surrounding home purchasing now that did not exist back in April.  I knew the prices had dropped in April but at that time I did not know how much lower they would go.  I can’t look at the bargain prices now and see them as a bargain.  I also notice that many of the houses that seem to be bargains come with an “as is” aside.  They also don’t come with an owner willing to pay closing costs or make repairs.  The owners of these so called bargains are angry and depressed and trying to save their own asses before the house gets foreclosed on.  Many of the propertys I looked at in April are now advertised for short sale and or as “bank owned”. 

Looking at the real estate listings is akin to poking yourself in the eye these days.  Painful. It’s like looking at people’s lives falling apart. I always wonder who lived in these houses, how long they lived there, how much money they spent on that property. It’s like an exercise in futility to own a home that you eventually lose.  I think about the lives that are affected.  It happened to me once, I can relate and I feel sad.

There are a handful of houses that I looked at seriously back in April that I really loved and yet they were out of my price range.  Those houses are rock bottom dirt cheap now.  In some cases a bit cheaper than the house I bought.  In other cases, quite a bit cheaper.  I suppose I look at the listings because I want to know when the bleeding and loss of value will end.  Will my house still be worth what it is now in another year?  Will homeless people be arguing over street corners soon?  The house beside me is for rent. It has been for rent since November 1^st.  A lot of people stop by, they did some work to it and it appears to be a decent house. I have no idea how much the rent is but it’s still sitting there beside us, empty.

Three years ago Rick and I looked at a house for sale right beside his brother’s house.  They wanted about $40,000 more than we paid for our house this year.  It was 1/3 the size.  In fact it was so small we discussed selling half of what we owned and living in that teensy house long enough to save money for a bigger house.  Thank b’jeezus we didn’t do that.  That house might sell today for $25,000.

There are a few things that hold true today, 9 months after purchsaing our house.  I still love the house.  The price was right and we got a deal. Our house was remodeled and all the finishes were brand new.  I love that because when you purchase a house with intent to fix it up, somehow that doesn’t always happen and then you put up with or live with things you don’t like for far too long.

Our house is not perfect, we have a new leak in one of the ceilings (small tiny leak only when it rains hard and steady for a while…we’ll fix it tho’), we don’t care for the job they did on the tile floor and the bathroom medicine cabinet/light fixture combo makes me insane.  Those are so minor it’s insane.  Overall I’m grateful that we bought when we did, and that 9 months later I am still happy with the deal we got.  Now please let us both keep our jobs and stay afloat during these sad times.  Every single day I get up and have a moment of thankfulness and hope…hope for things to improve for everyone.  I think we’re all living with a certain level of insecurity.