Suddenly my coffee tastes bitter.

The state of the Orlando housing market.

I do like the way those of us with houses to sell are described as "trapped" in Orlando, and the guy who described his house as "a noose around his neck." I describe mine as an anchor. Yay for the Sentinel for telling it as it is, instead of doing the usual happy talk that they pass off as news on the local economy. Despite losing my job, I am not in as bad a situation as I could be, I still have money in the bank to carry me for a few more months and I've been offered freelance work that will stretch it, and that's if I don't get the job I interviewed for on Thursday or any other prospects. At this point, if they offer me that job I will say yes, but I will still sell the house. I've bookmarked a couple of apartments to check out if I get the job, they would cut my commute time considerably. I have concluded that the key to surviving in this state in this economy is to be mobile - I will not think about buying a house, townhouse, condo, dog house or outhouse for a long time.

I am resigned to walking away with far less money than I would have had if I'd bailed out in 2005. Oh well, 20/20 hindsight, blah blah blah. At this point my goal is to do a little better than break even - to walk away from this house completely debt-free would be a win after all I've been through in the last five years PLUS this ugly market. I think this neighborhood is starting to stabilize - I'm seeing "sold" signs, and houses aren't sitting for six or eight months anymore. The people who are really hurting are the ones who purchased at the peak of the boom, and in new communities - that's where the foreclosures are hitting hardest. I've been in my house almost 12 years and it's in an established neighborhood - not that this makes us immune to the foreclosures, in fact, we bought this house from Freddie Mac 12 years ago - but it's not as bad as those poor families stuck in a new subdivision surrounded by foreclosure properties. So I'm not losing much sleep over this yet - that day may come.

I'm still working on putting my bedroom back together post-carpet installation. That was a little reminder of what moving is like, for someone who is way out of practice. I am NOT looking forward to the next few months of labor, and it will be so nice when it's over.