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A comment on Private sector lost 33k jobs, badly missing expectations of 100k increase. Parent comment

Re:Private sector lost 33k jobs, badly missing expectations ... by hx8 on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @02:05PM (#44446921)
The amount of equity you have in your home matters. Most recessions do not take 20% off home values, so people with conventional loans are pretty safe. Even the Great Depression just cut valuations about 35%.

If you lose your job in a depression there will be plenty of people willing to buy assets at a discount. If you have equity in your home then your position will be net positive. About half of all mortgages have an outstanding balance less than 50% of the home's value.

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Re:Private sector lost 33k jobs, badly missing expectations ... by dmoy on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @09:07PM (#44450578)
That kinda works in the abstract, but it's pretty risky for any individual house. If your house was somehow a representative slice of all US housing, sure maybe it won't drop 35%.

But if you owned a house in Detroit from 2003-2010 it might have dropped 70-80%. Or, more on point for many on HN, if you own a house in the Bay Area worth $2-$3M with 25% equity, and the tech job market collapses, then you might get completely wiped out.

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