Owning a home is still the American dream, but for many of us, that dream is slowly turning into a nightmare. We are all feeling the pinch of this economy. When I bought my home the payment was completely affordable but in the past several years as I’ve had to take pay cuts in order to keep my job, it’s becoming more and more difficult to make that payment every month.
It seems that everyone is struggling right now. I know there are people who over extended themselves, bought more house than they could afford and now a majority of those homes are in foreclosure, which affects us all. But there are also many of us, who have lost their jobs or taken pay cuts who are simply not able to afford our homes.
In my neighborhood the bank owned homes are going for a little more than half of what I paid for my home just four years ago. I’m kind of over a barrel, if I am no longer able to make the payment I certainly can’t sell it for what I owe on it.
I’m recently started looking at the new programs that are being put in place to help homeowners. I was feeling a little stressed out because everything I heard was that you had to be behind in your mortgage payments to qualify, and I’m not behind, and I don’t want to be. I just want to find some relief before it becomes a bigger problems.
Many of the new programs are for people who are current on their payments but are struggling. The biggest qualifier is that your home is worth significantly less than you owe on it. If you need some help the place to start is www.makinghomeaffordable.gov. The site lists all the programs and explains the qualifications. It also lists all the scams that are out there so make sure if you are trying to get some relief from your mortgage that you are dealing with someone reputable. Call your mortgage company, with all the programs available right now it’s in their best interest to help you.