Last Summer my wife and I moved out of state for a new job. Our house has been for sale in Texas since last May, but very few people are looking at it. I'd say someone looks at it about once every two months…and it's not just us. The whole town's housing market is really slow. Additionally, my mortgage company screwed up on our escrow causing our house payment to jump $300 a month.
We've yet to miss a payment. In fact, while money is tight, we haven't missed any bills.
That said, my car has 170,000 miles on it and has been having issues. I've spent more than $1,500 in the past 4 months keeping it running. We can't afford a new car or even a decent used one.
Additionally, we've racked up some debt in the last 9 months.
I really don't know what to do. I'm hoping that with summer coming up, things will pick up. But we thought that last summer as well. We've literally cut out everything we can…meaning we don't eat out, we don't have cable, we don't rent movies or take the kids anywhere that costs money. We basically spend our time at the library and home.
At some point, we have to consider the option of giving the home back. We aren;t able to save any money for our retirement, kids college, emergency funds, etc. We don't have a lot of equity in the home, so we won't be losing much. But, as a person with a credit score of 800, it kills me to even think about it.
Any advice?
Read more: When to give your house back?
