Sorry Olive, you'll have to start bobbing your own hair

[bobemm]

I know it's tacky to talk about money, but - some people down the street who have been trying to sell their house for a long time just dropped the asking price to $75k. The house is bigger and nicer than mine, so IMHO this effectively makes my house worth less than $75k. And I owe waaaay more than that on it, so at least on paper this puts me in an ugly spot.

This makes me sort of bitter since I was always told that real estate was a particularly safe investment. I've also been a real good boy wrt retirement savings and such, which have also been shrinking as I continue to pour money into them. So I feel like I've been doing what I'm supposed to do to be responsible, but I'd have been better off paying rent and stuffing the remaining cash under the mattress.

I know the Great Depression started with a bang, but would it be possible for the next one to start with a slow, quiet "ohhhhhhh dammmitttttt"?

Here is the most disturbing part of it - in the midst of thinking about all of this, I still find myself relatively calm and content. Crazy!

Comments

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It costs them a lot more to have to try and sell it on the open market, and they'd get less for it, since they don't want to just sit on it, so you could definitely make the argument that you should be paying 20% less. Also, you could refinance which should get you a lower interest rate and significantly lower payments.