My Story (part 4): House poor

At the beginning of 2009 our income took a hit. We had been renting out two rooms in our house to supplement our income. We asked one renter to leave due to personal conflicts. The second renter purchased a house and also moved out. At the same time my personal income declined in January and got progressively worse in February and March with no signs of recovery.

Ironically, aside from our mortgage we were in pretty good shape financially. Both cars were paid off, we had no credit card debt and my credit scores had just hit 800. Even with the foreclosure my husband’s credit scores had bottomed at 600 and climbed back into the 700’s. But we were house poor. Our mortgage alone accounted for over 60% of our monthly expenses. If we didn’t do something quickly we’d be facing foreclosure again.

We began to look at ways to save our house. I was looking for another job to supplement our income but at the beginning of 2009, a time some would call the Great Recession, the jobs were just not there. We thought about renting out rooms again but we were very hesitant to bring strangers back into the house due to the issues we had with the past renter. And at this point the rental income would not be enough to cover the deficit between our income and expenses.

We consulted with a lawyer about the possibility of a Loan Modification. He wasn’t very optimistic because our finances looked too good. Aside from the mortgage our only debt was that money-sucking awesome boat I had purchased in 2005.

We weren’t on the verge of bankruptcy, but the money had run out and if we started to charge up our credit cards in order to make our house payment, we soon would be.

“I’m living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.”

~ EE Cummings

My Story (part 5): Financial strain = Marital discord

Or start from the beginning here.

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