Will you owe anything if house forecloses?

[liz417]

Hi,

We are planning on filing ch 13 in Aug. in order to keep our house, but we've begun to second-guess that option. We live in So. California and home prices are dropping like crazy! We are current on our mortgage, but the value is appox. $20,000 less than we paid for the home originally. We thought we would stick it out and "hope" the home values go back up, but I don't know if we should just let it foreclose and move closer to my husband's work (we would save over $500 in gasoline/toll road fees alone!) not to mention the $2,000 per month mortgage.
Maybe we should just let it go and file for ch 7 (if we qualify). My husband said that even if we foreclosed, that we would end up oweing the difference when the bank sells the home. Is that true?

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Thank You,
Liz

[Flamingo]

Everyone's home has depreciated in value (home values for all, except certain areas of the country, are down 25% to 30% than this time last year). You have to figure out for yourself if you want to stick it out as the housing market will eventually get better but not quickly or if it would be more beneficial for you to consider other options and move closer to wherever you work. There are things that only you two can decide to do as to your present home. Rising costs and gasoline are a nightmare for everyone.

I suggest you educate yourself on the foreclosure process before making any further decisions. There are lots of "stickys" on here for that purpose and another thing is to see if there are any free seminars in your area (quite popular now) put on by your state or county to educate those either in or considering foreclosure and how to avoid being scammed in the process. Our local paper has them at least every week and they are open to the public and sponsored by the state. Also pull out your paperwork that you signed for your house mortgage and investigate all the fine print as to what can occur when you stop making mortgage payments. The more educated you are, the better choices you can make.