Upside down in my mortgage, want out!?

Refinanced the house a year ago, appraised value was 319K. Took out a 5/1 I/O Arm at 5.75% and now the home is only worth 210K, (florida market coming off from hyperinflation). I now need to move into a larger home due to our family getting larger. My credit is strong, and have never missed a payment.
Realtors talk about short sales, not applicable to me since I only have one loan. Bankruptcy is not an option, I make to much money, no-one wants to trade up for an overpriced condo. Thought about seller held second side deal and use the funds to offset the hit on the condo. Any suggestions?

Payment is 1300.00 I/O. Cannot get a renter in here for more than $1200. Condo fee's are 300/month and taxes are 300/month. That is a 1900.00/month payment.

I did not put myself into this situation purposly Mrs. Apple. I moved here for work and had to buy high, refinanced to get rid of second loan.

What do you think of this idea? Buy a lot, build a house and have the builder inflate the price by 50,000. He then gives me back the money so I can afford to pay down the difference in my selling and owing price.

Who told you that you can't do a short sale because you only have one loan? A short sale is simply where your lender allows you to sell for less than you owe, and you must get approval from the lender once a short bid has been submitted by a buyer.

Talk to your lender, see what they might offer.

Depending on where you are in FL you may have a very difficult time selling. Here in Manatee County there are 5,000+ homes on the market and 5 or 6 that foreclose on a daily basis. You are not the only one upside down on your property and looking to escape.

Is it possible for you to do some renovations, rather than relocate?

If the property is only worth $210K and you owe more than that, you will be responsible for paying the difference. There is no way around that.

Would you be able to keep it and rent it out to cover the monthly payment until the value of it goes back up?

You can try leasing the condo to someone else. The tenant will help pay for your mortgage. When the cost of your house goes up, you can sell it.

Since you said you make too much money, you can pay for this debt of yours. You were the one that put yourself in this mess.

Because of the soft housing market (at least in Georgia) homes are not appraising as high as they once were. When I was house hunting the end of last year for a townhome, my real estate agent showed me the majority of people in my community were upside down and just wanted to get out. I partly blame ARM loans as these folk's mortgage payments just kept going up. There are at least 5 townhomes for sale on my street and one person just added "reduced" to her sign.

Your best bet right now is to try and stay put until the housing market improves for the seller. $100K obviously would be a HUGE lose. It's the buyers market right now. Talk to your mortgage specialist and see what they suggest. I wish you luck.

Interesting. How do you feel about being a landlord? What is the rental market like? Can you qualify for mortgages on two properties with your income? The crux of the situation is that there is no easy out while maintaining your credit.

sound like you need to lease out.
did you do a cash out? If you have any of that cash still put it back.
Next time dont do IO. Screws with you everytime.
Good luck to you and your family

I t appears that you have gotten yourself in a bad spot, I trade futures and options and keep ontop of world events following the money is what I do. Now I see only two options one you rent out the property and hope the market rebounds or you sell and take a loss but save your credit.

I personally would sell immediatly and take the loss as I expect the market to get alot worse before it ever gets better. At this point in time everyone should be in cash no debt and foreign currency euros british pounds instead of dollars. If you have great credit are out of debt you will be able to pick up property 20-30 cents on the dollar as the wipe out in realestate continues.

Remember we create liquidity in this world by lending money and liquidity gets wiped out when loans are not paid back. That means that there are alot of peaple in your situation which are about to lose their property, by my research there are more than 50% of realestate holders in this country which will eventually just walk away from there properties as time goes on only making matters much much worse.

Intrest rates will continue to rise and lending standards will tighten that means that the same buyers that could have qualified to buy your home are now out of the maket. I dont ever remember in history when you did not put down money to buy a home the credit was loose as the government was desperate to keep this economy afloat after the crash in 2000. But now its payback time and the consumer will take the hit along with the economy and there is no way out this wipe is coming and it will bad.

So there you have it I hope this will help you make a decision there is nothing wrong with renting until you can see clearly stay in cash cash is king in times like these. Good Luck.