To be fair, a lot of the recent US foreclosures were due to mortgage lenders lending to the sub-prime market at a rate that they could initially afford, then boosting the rate up by 20%, forcing repossession purely to get the property back cheap and sell it for a huge profit.

Well, according to the BBC anyway

Granted, but you know what you're doing, it's your business......

so of course we're ignorant to a degree.

so it stands to reason for the layperson whom knows naff all about mortgages to stick to a product that will not deviate in price.

"Just pay your mortgage" ... how nice.

We have just lost our home due to foreclosure, our initial payments were affordable but then mother in law died and we paid for her funeral ... and then we paid her debts (30K total) but not the mortgage because what savings we did have in reserve didnt cover everything and we'd be able to catch up right ?
So we missed a payment, had a hard time catching up so talked to the bank, thats what everyone tells you to do isnt it ? They said they could sort it out for us and they did ... they put our payment UP by $1,500 a month ... not up TO but up by thats when we decided to say 'fukitall' and gave up.

Nice you can be so understanding about those who are less 'lucky' than yourself. I just wish some people would think before opening their mouths.

Jan

Very sorry to hear your bad news - this must be really tough.

However, I do not understand why you paid your MIL's debts. Why would those be your responsibility?

I hope you get back on your feet soon!

I'm guessing Jan's husband felt the responsibilty to make sure his mother received a decent burial.

Seems pretty obvious to me

Paying for the funeral is one thing.......... what does that have to do with clearing debts incurred by someone else?

Poor estate planning is my guess or lack of a will.

Elvira is right. You don't have to pay someone's debts when they are dead - the debt dies with them. Unless they co-signed a loan with her - then obviously they are responsible. If there was a debt on a house/car, they could sell the property, and pay the debt off with the proceeds. Or they can let the car go back.

Not talking about the funeral.

sorry about your circumstances Jan.

but I stick by my position.

you made the decision to do what you did.......

When my mum died she had a little bit of debt it was all in her name non in my dads... I wrote letters, included a copy of her death cert and my dad heard nothing.

What amazes me are the people that take on more debt when they are in debt already, they refinance, combine their debt then add on extra for a car or a holiday or a new kitchen... whats the point?

I see a lot of people, literaly, fan through a pile of credit cards like it was a deck of cards!

Yes ,that's exactly what we've seen,over and over,my husband works for the State of IL,so it's pretty stable,luckily,I don't work.
When we went househunting,we went with a set idea of how much we wanted to pay per month for the mortgage,even though the Real Estate agent kept telling us we could get a much bigger/newer house,we stuck to our decision...it's a nice house,needed some tlc,but it's fast becoming what we want....Doing things the way we have has worked out really well for us,and our son has actually been learning from us....he just got his own mortgage last year,he'd just turned 21!!...if he needs help,we help him.
It's amazing how many of the people who work with my husband,both husband AND wife,who are just barely living from paycheck to paycheck....but they are the ones with the huge posh houses,both have brand new vehicles and the 'deck-of-cards' credit cards.....and they snigger at my husband because he drives a 1992 Plymouth Voyager back and forth to work....that's fine for them....we've paid off the mortgage,owe nothing on either of our vehicles and have no credit card debt............they can snigger as much as they like,as far as we're concerned!!!

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry


hamlet

Borrowing makes you impotent?

to be fair, the first ARM i got was 2 years before I started messing with real estate. I thought it seemed like a good idea after I did the maths

non changing mortgae does seem nice in the USA but how does eveyone in the UK cope (devils advocate)