[house865]

Our home values have depreciated 60% on average in my area. We put a sizable amount as a down payment, and still that has the balance owed greater than the market value of the home.

Countrywide has now countered at approximately 70K more and asked for updated docs. They asked for the docs late on a Thursday evening. I got them all together and faxed by the Tuesday and they closed out the file on Monday. The take months to reply, but are swift to close a file out. The counter that they offered is not realistic, so another counter would have been in play. Homes way larger than mine with pools have been sold for less than the Countrywide Counter offer.

We are now starting the process over and we are still making payments. Yes I am supplementing from my 401K to do this and have also recently stopped making contributions as well. No that is not wise, but I am going to hold on for a little longer and call every day to check on the status of my file. At a certain point, however, it will not be worth it for the home to take precedence over retirement.

Again the counter was 70K less than the contract. We would have countered back with proof of homes recently sold in the neighborhood. Even if we got a contract for the Countrywide Counter I can guarantee that the buyer's bank would have come back with an appraisal at least 50K less than the Countrywide price. They are in a dream world with the number they came up with. Totally unrealistic, not to mention there are a large number of bank owned homes in the area for buyers to choose from.