What happened to those "Green Shoots" everyone was talking about?

Remember all that talk about the green shoots of a healthy, new economy that were sprouting this spring.




They turned out to be weeds.

I am now officially underwater!

So, I finally decided to give in and sell my house for what I owe.

For those who have not been reading this blog since the start I purchased a 1 bed/ 1 bath 890 sqaure foot condo with a detached garage for $89,000 dollars in January of 2006.

I put 20% down on a 6.5% 30 year fixed mortgage.

After the down payment and 3.5 years of mortage payments I owe about $66,500 on my home.

I figure even though it would be devestating to lose $22,500 dollars in life savings basically giving the house away for what I owe on it, my credit would be intact, and I would be able to get a much larger house at a steal from someone who was taking a much bigger loss.

The problem is when I went to realtor.com I am seeing 1200 sqaure foot 2 bed/2 bath condos selling for $67,000.

Even after putting 20% down and living in the house for 3.5 years of solid payments I am underwater!!!

There is no way I can possibly sell this place without damaging my credit, and damaging my credit would defeat the whole purpose of selling it because we want a bigger house.

It is a really sad situation because while this is a fine condo for a single person, I am married now and my wife would like a real house. We are trapped here and can't move on with the next stage of our lives.

The house crash has claimed another victim.