Lexington, KY - My friend, who doesn't live here in Lexington but shall remain nameless nonetheless (this stuff does go online, too), bought his first house a few years ago. A small house -
quaint was the word he liked to throw around -
with two bedrooms, but he had a small family, so room to move about and store all the things a new family begins to accumulate wasn't really an issue. They had daunting plans and schemes envisioned for the deep backyard and, most importantly, there was a separate garage where my friend could keep all the loud, ugly things -
like a drum set and power tools.
Financially speaking, they were far from set. But they negotiated an attractive mortgage rate after they skimped and saved so they could fork over a hefty down payment. Meeting their monthly financial obligations wasn't difficult, but it could be challenging since they were a tad spendthrift at the onset of making over their new house -
really, who doesn't want to quickly and completely gut a bathroom that's been soiled by strangers for decades?
Then, as so many plot lines have adhered to these last couple of years, the bottom fell out. Safe at first, though weathering a few haircuts and furloughs, my friend retained his job through his company's first bout of layoffs and kept a steady, but revised, income. The family made a few amendments to their budget and started being a little more diligent about nurturing their rainy day account. Just in case. But inevitably the axe came down.
It's a sob story, one we're so accustomed to these days we're all practically numb to it: a family goes through a period of unemployment, quickly burns through their meager savings, and soon finds themselves struggling to make ends meet, especially that mortgage payment.
My friend's family was creative in generating some spare income, the drum set and power tools in the garage were sold on eBay, but eventually the calls from the bank increased and talk of a foreclosure loomed throughout the house.
"You spend so much time and money making your house a home," my friend told me, "but when somebody starts threatening to take it away, you really wish it were more like a fortress."
In the end, my friend didn't have to dig a moat or lose his home, but there were definitely some harrowing moments. For a lot of families, however, even those in Fayette County, where the rate of foreclosures is on the rise, deliverance can't come soon enough. Fortunately, Fayette County is faring better than many other areas in the country.
In this issue, our annual Real Estate Guide, we take a look at how some of our readers' neighborhoods are doing and list some of the superlative sales in certain areas of town. It's not all gloom and doom for everybody, but as Fayette County Property Value Administrator David O'Neill writes, for the second year in a row, roughly 25 percent fewer homes were sold in Fayette County. However, the average sale price of single-family homes is up, though only a slight 2.5 percent, and the amount of time a home is spending on the market is down, from 78 days in 2009 to 67 days thus far in 2010.
These numbers might not mean a recovery is right around the corner, but the data is good news. And good news is like a good roof over your head -
everybody needs one.