According to Yogi Berra, "It's Deja Vu all over again".
Owning a house is a money pit. It is not Just the mortgage that cannot be paid but the town taxes and for those that buy into a co-op the monthly fees. This income tax that gives one the deductions for, I forget the capital or interest only lasts a few years.
Damn lenders, they are so tricky, yes one can afford the mortgage to them but people get so anxious to buy a home they are not encouraged to take anything else into consideration. I never heard of Donner towns until I bought my home, if I had looking back it would have been cheaper to buy in another town.
When I inquired about the taxes at the town hall, I WAS TOLD $800.00 a year as we rented the land. No one told us this would add another $500 twice a year as to repair schools somewhere up state.
This was in 1994, our lot rent was at $99.00 a month soon to go up to today at $400.00 -----When the interest rates on mortgages fell to 3.5% we got no break as we were locked into a 9% interest rate.
We were such babes in the woods back then as it seems most of the country is today. Once we lost our federal deduction we faced a choice, refinancing at huge savings and extending the pay off time another 15 years or selling and buying another home. Either way we would be obligated another 15 years or more.
We found we could not now at our age do this, so we worked all the overtime and doubled or at tax time put our return into the mortgage. We borrowed from our 401K paid off the house and all credit cards except Lowe's, had to have at least one line of credit open. To our horror we found when you pay off your bills, you no longer have credit. Few places want to lend anyone one nickel if they figure they will not get interest if someone is going to pay off their bills in 30 days.
Our homeowners insurance just went up $400.00 from what we had been paying, and this is a basic package.
It doesn't matter if one works 80 hour weeks or gets State Aid, someone , somewhere is going to reach down into your pocket and find a way to keep one in debt.