Recently I saw a video about a family who bought a house in Yanjiao. Yanjiao is in Langfang, Hebei, a surrounding area of Beijing. There was a period of time when Beijing restricted purchases, and many people flocked to Yanjiao to buy and speculate in real estate. This couple also bought a 100-square-meter house in Yanjiao in 2018, with a total price of 3 million yuan.
At that time, their careers were developing well. The husband worked in IT and had a monthly salary of more than 20,000 yuan, and the wife had more than 8,000 yuan. With the year-end bonus and other things, the family's annual income was 400,000 yuan. In addition, they had been drifting in Beijing for many years, and their child had just been born. They were very eager to have their own house, and at that time, everyone around them was rushing to buy a house, so they bought it in the end. The monthly payment is about 100,000 yuan a year. Even now, looking back in the rearview mirror, their leverage is not high.
But what I didn't expect was that the housing prices in Yanjiao were cut in half in the past few years, and both of them were unemployed, which dealt a critical blow to this family. The husband was laid off in 2022 and the wife was laid off in 2023. Soon, the monthly payment could not be paid, and part of their down payment was borrowed. The two men recognized the facts and decided to sell the house. At that time, the house price had fallen to about 60% of the purchase price, but they listed it at 2.5 million, which was a bit more expensive than the market price because they spent 300,000 on decoration.
As a result, everyone can guess that if the price is high, no one will buy it, especially when the house price falls. Not only did it not sell, but it became cheaper and cheaper. Later, no one wanted it even when it was listed at 1.5 million. They simply let it go, thinking that at worst, they would just give up the house and return it to the bank. Is that the end of the matter? One day is one day. The calls from the court and lawyers were drowned in countless collection calls and were missed.
Soon, the house entered the judicial auction process. The original price was 3 million, plus the decoration of 3.3 million, and the final auction price was 1.2 million. Not only did they lose the 1.5 million down payment, but it was not enough to repay the bank's 1.3 million loan, and they owed the bank 100,000 yuan. They paid 600,000 yuan in monthly payments for 6 years, but only 200,000 yuan was the principal, and the rest was interest. In addition, they had to pay various litigation fees, lawyer fees, and liquidated damages of 150,000 yuan.
In total, they not only lost the 1.5 million yuan down payment, but also owed 250,000 yuan in debt. In addition, both the husband and wife became deadbeats, unable to take high-speed trains or planes, and their children's future schooling may also be affected. This process is very sad to watch. From a middle-class person with a good life to a debtor, it only takes one house to go from being a middle-class person to being heavily in debt.