@maporsche,
maporsche wrote:
I can't begin to tell you how much I just wish the bank said "I'm sorry maporsche, without more of a down payment, we cannot give you a mortgage."
I wish I were 24 again.
Our kids took advantage of the easy mortgage money and easy credit at the height of the housing bubble too, and are below water now on the value of their house which means they are pretty well stuck until things settle out and they pull even. If he was transferred, they would take an enormous hit, and that's not a comfortable situation to be in.
Back when we were much younger and less savvy about this stuff, we bought VA repos for $100 down or some such and were able to live in a nice house pretty cheap. When we got ready to move, nobody else had any money either, so we just had somebody else take up the payments and forfeited what little equity we might have accrued. We were living paycheck to paycheck, though, and had there been a serious economic downturn that put us under water, we could have been saddled with a debt we could not have paid.
The rule that you have to pay at least 10% down on a mortgage, preferably 20% or more to get the best rate, is one of the most humane rules there is, and even then financial security requires an economy that is stable and growing.
But hang in there Maporsche. We weathered our 'younger years' dubious decisions and so will you. You got smart a lot quicker than we did.