I’ve got a longstanding situation on my hands that’s liable to blow me up financially if I don’t do something about it soon, but I’d like to have some imput as to whether or not I’m being rational about it…or if I’m letting my anxiety get the better of me.
I own my childhood home as my inheritance – I “bought” it from my mother for $1 back in 2006, the year before she went into a nursing home. She passed in 2007. The house itself had been free and clear in her name for the past, oh, 20 years when the mortgage was finally paid off, I think? I don’t remember the exact year, but memory tells me it was around that time period.
My mother was house poor. She couldn’t afford to upgrade/update things. There hasn’t been any major kind of work on the house since the late 1980s, where she had the roof redone. She had repair work done here and there, mostly the slap-something-on-it type (you should see the plumbing :eek:) Most of my dad’s estate and her earnings that she’d socked away when she worked was spent on the property tax. Before she became ill, I begged her to consider selling for fear she’d be rendered homeless because at some point she just wouldn’t have any cash reserves left. She refused.
I now find myself in a very similar situation. The difference is that I’m still working, but my monthly salary is simply not enough to pay the household bills plus the property tax plus the water bill plus who-knows-what-else. The house is beginning to fall apart, too. I know we’re going to need a new roof. The plumbing needs to be redone. I could take out a home equity loan, but I’m deathly afraid I won’t be able to pay it back.
My husband is one of the many long-term unemployed who hasn’t been able to get back on his feet, professionally speaking, since he was laid off a couple of years ago. He has a PT minimum-wage job that gets him out of the house and his own bills to pay. We have no joint accounts and his name is not on the deed for reasons I’m not willing to disclose publicly. He’ll give me extra $ when he’s able to put toward a bill, but that’s the extent of his contribution. If he were working FT at his old salary, it’d be a much different situation, trust me.
I’ve wanted to sell this house since Day One. I’ve been told that I’m crazy to want to, given that I don’t have to worry about a mortgage. Our property tax has risen nearly 12-15% in the past 3-4 years, equaling to the average mortgage or rent payment in this area. I have trouble making this payment every single time, no matter how much $ I sock away from my paycheck. Right now I owe back taxes from last year on top of what’s currently owed.
In short, I’m petrified beyond belief.
Some factors to consider in my situation:
I’m frugal to a fault. We have no frills, no excessive spending. We live in a very expensive area, however, and everybody who lives here complains about the same exact things I just did. However, they have well-paying jobs. Mine is well-paying for my industry, but it’s just barely above a living wage.
My husband moved back here from the Midwest before we married, and I know he’s loathe about moving in general, although he keeps talking about it. He doesn’t want me to take a loss on the house. At this point I know I would, and I don’t really care.
I have no qualms about renting IF I could afford to do so. And that’s the issue, really – we can’t afford to keep living here, but neither can we afford to move somewhere else in this area., and we both would rather stay here.
I can’t take a PT job because of my work schedule. My husband has a small side business that’s been dead in the water for awhile now, and he can’t see it improving anytime soon, given the current economy,
So…if you were in my shoes, what would you do?