Wednesday, January 7, 2009

An Update on My Underwater Ex-Girlfrend

Long time followers may recall a comment I wrote sometime back, April 2004 to be precise, which included a few words about an ex-girlfriend and her condo buying venture.

It's nearly five years later and she called the other day. She's married now. To a Ford exec. It sounds like they live from layoff announcement to layoff announcement. There's another announcement coming next week, she told me. It would be difficult for them to move anywhere else, since they own a house outside Dearborn that is way underwater.

Her condo that she bought when she was single is also way underwater in terms of value. She tells me that she owes roughly $80,000 more for the place than it is now worth. Back in '04, I thought she would declare bankruptcy once the real estate crash came. She hasn't. It sounds like it is painful for her, but she continues to make the monthly payments to maintain her solid credit rating.

I told her to continue to only make the minimum payments (she has a fixed rate) and that in time inflation is going to bail her out, and then the payments won't seem so painful.

In '04, I told her to dump the condo and buy some gold coins. She did listen to me about the coins and bought a few. I think she paid around $400 for them. She told me that she had to sell them because she needed the cash. She kept only one, a Chinese panda, because she liked the panda art work on the coin.

She also now has two kids, because they are young, she has stopped working. Their sole income is from that of the Ford exec. Hmm.

I'll update you again in another five years.

3 comments:

  1. Your post title was way more interesting than the post. I thought you were Eminem for a minute.

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  2. Oh come on, you're an economist. You should be excited about a story about underwater mortgages.

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  3. iv'e been reading your site daily for a little over a month, occasionally for about a year. i saw this thread of "real estate crisis" posts. pretty impressive. but where are "wenzel was right" youtubes.

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