It isn’t so much that being in debt helps your credit rating, but if
you are capable of paying your bills on time each month, that helps
your credit rating.
As for the house… well, if you feel it’s more than you need, and
yu want to downsize the house and the debt, it isn’t a bad idea to
at least look around at some houses, and see what the market in your
area is like.
In most ares right now, it’s a buyers market- which means that the
buyer gets the better deal, not the seller. Now, that’s great if you
are just buying a house, but in trying rely on selling your home
first, you may have problems.
However, some areas are no having the same problems, so you may have
an easy time selling.
Good luck!
— In
Budget101_@yahoogroups.com, “jillinole”
wrote:
>
> I don’t know if this is the place to do this, but mods will delete
if
> it isn’t. We have about 30% equity in our house. It’s a little
more
> house than we need, although it is nice and in a nice area. We
also
> have $30K in consumer debt, outside the remainder of our
mortgage. We
> live on one income ($45K). We could move to a less expensive
house in
> the area and pay off the debt, or refinance and ride this horrible
> house market out until it improves, not being able to save
anything
> and still have debt. The irony is that we have excellent credit
and
> fico score. It’s almost as if being in debt helps this? I guess
if
> you always pay your bills, it’s all good…at least that’s what my
DH
> says.
> Anyways, I realize this is just an opinion, not expert advice, but
> what would you all do?
> thanks!
> jill (newbie)
>