I F, 40, mortgaged a 1b/1b condo. The mortgage is 9.5 years, 4% fixed rate. My mortgage is $1600 usd. I barely have a retirement and was diagnosed with a chronic health condition that may shorten my working years and is exacerbated by stress. I have lived here for 1.5 year

I over paid and because the mortgage is short, I put a huge down payment. I live in an area were rentals for a 1b/1b are around $700 usd or less, so I can't rent it out to break even with the mortgage.

I originally purchased it for some legitimate and some foolish reasons

I thought it would bring a sense of stability and security, but now I feel anchored

At the time I was willing to wait 9.5 years and have some income source by renting it out, but now that feels overwhelming

I like the location and the area and still do

Oddly, I thought buying a condo would help me feel more adult in the eyes of my family. They do not care and I wish at that time i didn't care what they thought, but I did.

With the health issues, I am unsure how long I can continue working full time, and thinking to sell, to start putting more towards saving and retirement

If I sold, it would be at a loss. My dp was $35k and with the realtor fees, capital gains tax, etc it's estimated I might be able to walk away with $10k.

Lastly, from the very start I regretted it. I just kept telling myself to hold on, it will get better. There are also times, I love the area.

For those that have sold, are you better off for it? How do you move on past making a poor decision?

PS i live in mexico, if the mortage rates sound off

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  • My answer is without fully understanding the market for where you are in Mexico, so take it with that grain of salt;

    Without considering how much equity you have now and what the costs would be to sell, the first thing you'd want to figure out is how much equity are you building every month compared to renting? If you can rent a comparable place for $700 a month, and your mortgage is $1600, is at least $900 of your monthly payment going towards equity? If so, as long as you can still afford to make the monthly payment on your condo, you're better off keeping the condo as long as you can as you're going to be net positive on the return if/when you do eventually sell. This assumes your property value remains the same as it is today. If your property value goes up over time, you could still be net ahead even if you're only paying $700-$800 towards equity each month. If you live in an area where property may go down, then you'd have to be paying more than that $900 towards equity to cover that.

    Yes it becomes a little more complicated if your value goes up because you'll pay a slightly higher amount more in commission (assuming it's % based like most real estate agents are in the US), and you'll pay slightly more in capital gains tax, but those amounts are minimal in their increase compared to the break even equation overall on monthly living expenses.

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