{"id":43278,"date":"2016-09-28T23:41:59","date_gmt":"2016-09-29T03:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=43278"},"modified":"2020-07-24T23:42:14","modified_gmt":"2020-07-25T03:42:14","slug":"getting-penalized-for-being-competent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=43278","title":{"rendered":"Getting penalized for being competent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Well that\u2019s bullshit<\/a>: program funded by $110 million federal dollars will provide up to $50,000 of relief to homeowners stuck in underwater mortgages; under specific conditions, none of which demonstrate the ability to be financially responsible much less competent at all<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no sugar-coating it, my home\u2019s been underwater for the better part of, since I\u2019ve lived in it.\u00a0 The house was purchased in 2004, the value of the home rose a little bit for each of the first three years, and then the housing bubble popped, and the values of homes sunk faster than Yahoo stock.\u00a0 My life was in a way different place back in the day, but I remember getting the first letter that stated that my home no longer had any equity that could be borrowed from, and as far as I know, that hasn\u2019t recovered, even to this very day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Needless to say, I\u2019ve become very attuned to the concept of underwater mortgages throughout the years, and I should feel fortunate that my household has been in the minority of most underwater homeowners, and that we\u2019ve always been able to pay the bills every month, and have been able to maintain good standing with all home expenditures throughout the years.\u00a0 We\u2019re actually getting to the point where the mortgage is practically whittled down to where we might be able to even hit a break-even point, with the underwater estimates.<\/span><\/p>\n

At this point, a push is a win, and Jen and I can brush ourselves off from this failed gamble and figure out the next steps in our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Anyway, when I read this article about this program, I couldn\u2019t help but feel that this sure as shit would\u2019ve been something great to have come, back like 5-6 years ago, when the housing market was practically in crisis mode, and the sheer number of defaulted mortgages and abandoned homes pretty much made parts of the city feel like the second coming of Detroit.\u00a0 Sure, I\u2019ve always been able to pay the bills, but back in the time when I was still a freelancing graphic design nomad, who had bouts of not knowing when the next paycheck was coming in, it certainly would have been nice to have had even just the littlest bit of relief from the financial woes.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I saw that there was a link that had a questionnaire to whether or not one might qualify for the program, I couldn\u2019t help but feel in the back of my mind that this was a futile test that I, or my household, had little chance of getting approval for some relief monies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Especially when the questions are:<\/span><\/p>\n