Just got my appraisal back for the re-fi, value of the property is 40% what it was 5 years ago [View all]
Far western Chicago suburbs. What's funny (in a not-so-ha-ha way) is that we did major work (with the savings from that first re-fi) and put in more than $100k worth of work on the house, painted all of the barns and transformed one of the storage spaces into a working student apartment just 4 years ago. In other words, we've put in a ton of work and $$ on improvements which hasn't helped it's value at all....
Down 25% from what we were appraised at 20 years ago when we bought it when it was a wreck (which meant we did even more work at that time, everywhere: all the barns needed re-roofing, re-wiring, re-plumbing PLUS we re-did all the water lines AND built a NEW 5 stall barn.... something like $250k worth of work right after we bought it).
We're not underwater and have no intention of selling this place, maybe never if my kids decide to hang onto the farm after we go, so I'm not too fussed. We qualified for the re-financing which is the important part to me but a 60% drop in value in 5 years is pretty hefty for just about anyone, especially in light of the massive amount of work we've put into this place over the past 20 years.
How are people hanging on, at all?
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