In the beginning, God created Man, and it was good. And Man reached the age of Reason and bought a reasonably priced house, and it was good.
Then Woman bought a reasonably priced house, sold it on, lived the high life on the profit for a while, and THAT was good.
Then Man got married to Woman and they bought a house together, whilst re mortgaging original property and renting it out, and even THAT was good despite a 100% Northern Rock mortgage!
Then the man and woman had a few kids and relocated from 2 fairly good jobs in the UK to Ireland, buying an overpriced house on the proceeds of the sale of their UK residence and indeed on a bit more equity release on the original property and that seemed good.
But that was 2007
And that is where this story REALLY begins.
hi, I'm Mary Jane. I'm a middle aged, middle income Mum with kids in an under resourced rural irish primary school, I live in a village full of houses and stories like mine-people mortgaged to the hilt in negative equity to the tune of at least 50%, with cars, all registered in 2007 or before, with a spouse unemployed or as good as, but putting on the brave face cos we wouldn't be Irish if we didn't now, would we?
We pretend that the school is good-but it isn't-its ceart-go-leor.
We thank god we're healthy because the local hospital IS that bad that it is regularly on the news.
Needless to mention, the roads are a series of potholes slung together by some pebble-dashing.
And recently, people have taken to dumping their domestic waste in the hedgerows of what is probably one of the most picturesque places to live if not in Ireland, in the world!
But sure, tis Grand isn't it?
Sure couldn't it be worser, couldn't it?
So 2009 seemed like the rock bottom-I was working in the third of a series of short term public sector contracts and my husband had managed to get a low paid job in a local factory despite being overqualified for that and a myriad of other jobs in the area.
But we were struggling.
But I didn't know it was going to get worse.
You see, I was brought up to believe that owning your home is very important. In fact, its up there with marriage, having kids and having a pension to retire on.
We clung on to this belief in spite of mounting evidence that we were stuck in a property trap that we had no hope of escaping unless one of us won the lottery.
Nobody really wants to admit how awful negative equity is-but truly it is awful. It deprives you of hope for the future.
In our case, it has also deprived us of our saving and pension.
Every penny we have we can now see we have gambled away on property.
And we are not alone.
There is a silent group of people in Ireland who weep into their pillows or their pints if they can afford them in modern Ireland.
They are like me, men and women lumbered with debts that will never realise any value.
SHackled to poorly built, inadequate houses in places where jobs are now scarcer than hen's teeth.
Yet we say NOTHING. Because we have mothers and fathers, who are proud of us.
We have relations working in financial institutions-respectable, middle class, decent people.
And most of all we are raising the Hope of the Future-who must never know our woes or that their future is also in jeopardy.
Hello I'm Mary Jane. I read the other day about the long awaited personal insolvency legislation.
I won't be allowed to have private medical insurance.
This is kind of the final straw for me, basically.
Cos we all know you don't want to be hospitalised in rural Ireland without it-as you'll be dead.
Life sucks kinda.
G'nite.
Friday, May 3, 2013
Time for Change is now
Hi I'm Mother Goosed. An update is 2 years down the road, no improvement in mortgage situation - in fact quite the opposite. So hubby, kids and moi are looking at bankruptcy.. Tough I know but sure tis tough for lots of us. So I'm goosed....
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
How does it feel to be in Negative Equity?
My home is in negative equity to the tune of about 50%. To be honest, this is really what prompted me to start this blog.
It's not that it happened recently-it was obvious when we bought the house in 2007 that this was the case-almost immediately I had that sick feeling in my stomach.
But it has taken me 4 years to acknowlege and accept the fact that this may be my home for the rest of my life-and not to feel terribly sad about that fact.
I mean, it's not like its a box but its hardly a dream home. Like many people, it was bought as a stepping stone to something better-the dream house. It was also, like many people, bought in a hurry with cheap money and easy credit. I look around and get annoyed at the obvious short cuts the builder took-the cheap and nasty finish-clearly the estate was built in a hurry with little regard for longevity. There are many bugbears that I used to fret about, but now I just don't-it's time for me to move on from being bitter and angry.
I do thank my lucky stars that our lender is not terrible and also that although we are strapped for money as a family, we have never defaulted on our mortgage.
The worst thing about Negative equity really is the sense of being trapped-with no way out.
We can't sell as its not worth selling-we certainly won't get a mortgage of a similar amount or more now that austerity has bitten in deep.
Moving and renting elsewhere will likely cost us more for less. So it's just a bit depressing.
As I approach the mid point of my life, I must admit that I never imagined that we'd be trapped. It affects everything-your sense of position in society, your dreams of the future-just really ripped apart.
And there's more...
Instead of selling our starter home we chose to hold onto it as our pension. Of course it has been remortgaged so much that it is barely worth owning. It is rented out thank Goodness but worthless. We hang onto it in the vain hope that someday we'll be able to afford to pay off that mortgage.
Negative equity has affected a lot of households and all of my neighbours-all middle class, middle income, aspirational families-all of whom behind the hall door are going through the same struggle as me. Some of whom are unemployed and probably in poor relationships. I am thankful to my family and for my healthy happy children. I am happy that my kids are growing up with some freedom and lots of friends owing to the estate and community we live in.
What we've lost in financial terms, we have gained in our sense of place and that can only be good.
But I still sometimes catch myself looking at beautiful homes, highly aspirational glimpses of what might have been and wonder-will my lottery numbers come in tonight? If they do, then I've decided already that I'm not giving a penny to this mortgage! I'll Spend Spend Spend.
MJ
It's not that it happened recently-it was obvious when we bought the house in 2007 that this was the case-almost immediately I had that sick feeling in my stomach.
But it has taken me 4 years to acknowlege and accept the fact that this may be my home for the rest of my life-and not to feel terribly sad about that fact.
I mean, it's not like its a box but its hardly a dream home. Like many people, it was bought as a stepping stone to something better-the dream house. It was also, like many people, bought in a hurry with cheap money and easy credit. I look around and get annoyed at the obvious short cuts the builder took-the cheap and nasty finish-clearly the estate was built in a hurry with little regard for longevity. There are many bugbears that I used to fret about, but now I just don't-it's time for me to move on from being bitter and angry.
I do thank my lucky stars that our lender is not terrible and also that although we are strapped for money as a family, we have never defaulted on our mortgage.
The worst thing about Negative equity really is the sense of being trapped-with no way out.
We can't sell as its not worth selling-we certainly won't get a mortgage of a similar amount or more now that austerity has bitten in deep.
Moving and renting elsewhere will likely cost us more for less. So it's just a bit depressing.
As I approach the mid point of my life, I must admit that I never imagined that we'd be trapped. It affects everything-your sense of position in society, your dreams of the future-just really ripped apart.
And there's more...
Instead of selling our starter home we chose to hold onto it as our pension. Of course it has been remortgaged so much that it is barely worth owning. It is rented out thank Goodness but worthless. We hang onto it in the vain hope that someday we'll be able to afford to pay off that mortgage.
Negative equity has affected a lot of households and all of my neighbours-all middle class, middle income, aspirational families-all of whom behind the hall door are going through the same struggle as me. Some of whom are unemployed and probably in poor relationships. I am thankful to my family and for my healthy happy children. I am happy that my kids are growing up with some freedom and lots of friends owing to the estate and community we live in.
What we've lost in financial terms, we have gained in our sense of place and that can only be good.
But I still sometimes catch myself looking at beautiful homes, highly aspirational glimpses of what might have been and wonder-will my lottery numbers come in tonight? If they do, then I've decided already that I'm not giving a penny to this mortgage! I'll Spend Spend Spend.
MJ
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