This is going to sound completely irrational and immature, and right now I frankly do not care. I am so mad and had better get myself calmed down before I meet with these people and end up with an assault charge for bopping one of them in the jaw.
When I moved to Hamilton county in 2003, I did so mostly because of the employment stipulation that employees at Juvenile court were required to live in Hamilton county. When we bought our house in 2005, we were still required to live in Ohio since we both worked for the county, and since that was the case buying property an hour away in Warren, Butler, or Clermont counties just didn't make sense so we ended up buying in Hamilton county. Since we bought our house that employment requirement has been ruled unconstitutional...too bad we were screwed by it first.
So in 2008 we decided to put our house on the market to move. We were already starting to outgrow it with Brandon in the house and wanted to see if we got any interest. That was the year of the infamous economic crash, so needless to say we weren't able to sell it. We gave up when I found out I was pregnant because we had too much going on. Instead, we decided to try to refinance and add on to the house to increase the market value. Our bank appraisal put us right at the amount we owed on the house in value, which since the bank will only loan out 80%, sometimes 90% of the home value that would not have worked. So we said, fine, after the baby comes we will try to sell again.
Fast forward to yesterday. We had been waiting in nervous anticipation for the Hamilton county auditor's appraisal of the property. While it is not necessarily the same as the bank appraisal, they are usually not far off one another. I almost cried immediately when I saw the letter. Our home value dropped over 18%, making us owe more than the house is even worth. There is a meeting on July 13 to go over the numbers and request it be changed, but there has to be documentation of another recent appraisal (2009 is too long ago), or a contractor's statement certifying the improvements on the home. While we have made a lot of improvements, Trevor has done them all and he is not a licensed contractor, so from my understanding right now we are screwed.
This whole situation has me so upset. I feel like we are basically held hostage by Hamilton county because there is no way we can sell our house without taking a massive financial hit, making it impossible to buy another house any time soon. So we are stuck there. And we can't even refinance because the house is worth less than we owe. Yes, yes, I know the bank appraisals are different, but I don't think it will be 20% different, so we are stuck with this mortgage and no way to change it. We have never been behind on our mortgage, we have kept our credit strong through all of the economic downturns, and now it feels like we are being punished for trying to make it.
One thing I vow...I will NOT vote yes on another levy for Hamilton county. They want my tax money for anything, they can see my worthless door hit them in the face. They lost a resident who cares about the state of Hamilton county. Because at this point as soon as we can find an escape we are getting the hell out of here. Let all the residents of northern Kentucky, and the surrounding counties in Ohio take care of the zoo and museum if they care so much about it. My tax dollars pay for it yet we don't get any kind of discount or benefit from it. I pay the same to go to the zoo as someone who lives in Independence, KY. I pay the same to park at the museum as someone in Warren county.
So our only option at that I can think of at this point is to wait in this worthless, too small for our family house another couple of years and hope the values go back up. We have until 15 years to move or refinance before our rates go from flat to adjustable. We have been there 6 years now so I am willing to give it another 3 years to see. If it hasn't improved, we will have to revisit the possible financial damage then of either selling or refinancing and taking the hit.
Either way, it looks like we are stuck for a while. Talk about a depressing feeling of helplessness!! UGH!
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