TreeFarm

The market value of the house, provided you are the owner, is an asset. What you owe on it is a liability, and "all" the financial experts don't say otherwise.

w.tx iceman

Your moving into Tops house

RAMRODD

No one stole $200,000 from you. Just like no one stole from me when I sold Wheat at $8.50 I should have waited 2 months and sold it for $20 but that is just marketing! You atleast have the potential of your house to go back up. My Wheat is gone, Was it good mabey you had some

Floridacracker

the market is really good for me right now the house i'm buying has droped from 350,000 to 164,900.
this maket is really good for first time home buyers <sry to say>
me and my gf are only 19 and 20 if it wern't for this market we would be pissing our money away on rent

chipmonk

you are welcome to think what you want, but if you were to walk into a bank on monday and apply for a business loan, and they asked you for a breakdown of your assets and debts, and you put down the value of your house as an asset, they would most likely tell you to remove it, as they consider assets to be something that makes you money, with no expenses or fees paid by you (i have several friends that were very surprised to find this out, as they went through the process of getting a business loan). they would tell you that, while your monthly mortgage payment is a debt, the value of that home is not considered an asset, but if you are collecting rent on that home, the monthly payment you are receiving would be an asset. i will say again, that financial experts and business advisors will tell you that it's one of the most common mistakes people make, when listing assets and debts, but just not important enough to argue about.

Dodgezilla

I did not say someone stole $200,000 from me. I used my statement as an example of how one may feel in my situation. The value was there and it was real. If I had sold the house 4 years ago I surely would have had that $200,000 in my pocket and then some. If I sell my house today I would have much, much less in my pocket. The good thing for me, I guess, is that I would still have some money in my pocket. For now that is.....
Yes this market is great for first time home buyers. And yes the wheat was great. I had several bowls of it........

Jeff in TD

On the flip side, if you had sold the house 4 years ago for that extra $200,000, you would have had to find a place to live.

If you had bought a bigger, nicer place, you could be upside down right now. If you would have used an adjustable rate mortgage to buy more than you could really afford, you could really be in a pinch right now...

I guess my point is although your house is worth less than it was, things could be a whole lot worse. Market prices were bound to become more realistic, and you ending up in not too bad a situation was a little luck, and a good dose of good judgement, IMHO anyway.

TreeFarm

You are mixing up business and personal assets. The poster was talking about personal assets. What banks consider business assets have no bearing on what someone's personal assets consist of.

Dave88LX

Where do you find out what it's actually worth w/o an appraisal?

Timmay2

Look for comparibles in the area that have already sold.. Take a few similar houses and divide the price by sq ft, average them all up about and then times that average by your sq ft. (assuming youre all in the same zip code, all same age houses, same style, same basic feautures, etc)

Fronty Owner

Just a though DZ, can you afford to hold on to the house until the market is better?
Like others have said, the market will come back.

Dodgezilla

Yahoo can give you what the comps in your area are going for. My appraisel actually came in much less than that. I'm not planning on moving and will keep the house for a few more years. Hopefully the market comes back up.

I actually was going to sell the house at the height of the housing boom but I was not staying in this area. I had already found some houses I liked out in the country which would have cost me half what my house was worth at the time. And no, I could not have afforded my house 4 years ago if I had to buy it at it's market value at that time...

rjm022

i live in wilson,ny-which is about 20 miles north of niagara falls, ny- ( i am in the country!) i bought my house in 1986 at the ripe old age of 18! (my dad taught me to save!) the house is 150 years old, 2600 sqaure feet, two story.( i updated it myself with the help of my dad) i have 6 acres of land,a small pond, a cottage i built and rent out for 500.00 a month and a three car garage/work shop i put up- i am also two blocks from lake ontario.. bought the house for 46,000 in 1986 and could easily sell it for 210,000 tomorrow. the house will be paid off in october!! i count my blessings every day!!

Patrick Campbell

Just out of curiosity - wheat @ $8.5 or $20 - what measurement or form is that? Just curious how the #'s you're talking about compare to the 50# bag of flour pizzeria's buy.

cowboy_trucker

[QUOTE=DieselDaze;2007472]See, this is where I have all you guys beat.
I simply move my house to a location where the housing market hasnt been hit as hard!

Looks like you beat me to it. Ive got a line on some old mowers and plows and the like, just need to find a couple Halflingers to pull it all to my hideaway in the hills