Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Hi all, what a neat board you have and glad to have found it!
I am a 35 yr old newly engaged divorcee. 1st husband had terrible spending trouble which has me late out of the FI gates and seeking to play catchup now! Fiance is onboard with frugal and balanced living.
I earn a pretty good salary as an Engineer and continue to seek ways to move up and increase my compensation. To date, i fund a Roth 401k at 12% (gets me pretax 4% match), a Roth IRA, and a growing emergency fund. I have a company funded pension that I do not control and can collect it at age 55.
I do not like to shop, have no expensive hobbies (books from library & netflix), try to eat in, keep my cell/internet/tv rates low, drive a late model used car (til the wheels pop off), and have a house.
My biggest challenge is the house which i (foolishly) did not sell in the divorce. The taxes have raised by leaps and bounds and are nearly 10% of my gross pay! The market in my area has been severely hit and my equity has evaporated - i now owe about what the house is worth. I cannot rent it to cover my mortgage payment and am reluctant to take that monthly hit plus the wear and tear renters often inflict. House is in great condition. Other homes in the area where i need to live for work are not much different in property taxes.
Best as i can figure, i have 3 options since i am not willing to move out of my area:

1. try to negotiate lower property taxes with my town (unlikely to succeed as they just reassessed - taxes will go up more shortly)

2. suck it up for 2 years, the break even point of my recent refi, then hope the mkt is better to sell

3. give the house back to the bank (shortsale) and rent for about half of what i am paying now! Not sure if tax write-off on mortgage loan interest is enough money to wipe out those savings
I am anxious to hear any advice and learn from all of you.

Hey, welcome.
Is your fiance living / going to live with you in your house? If so, costs should be shared and thus should be lower per person.
Do you think the market will recover? Do you think your house (and those in your area) are currently undervalued? Are there / will there be enough jobs in your area so that people will want to live there?
Are you happy to live in this home? Is it a good and comfortable place to live? Not unimportant, in my opinion.
Can you become a landlady and rent one room in our house to someone? Is that something you would consider doing, anyway?

Hey DutchGirl, Thx for the post. I am happy in the house. Love the floorplan and the location is fairly optimal for me and fiance. Fiance has a home of his own (commutable for him but not for me) that is rentable for a modest yearly profit in a gentrifying area, so we plan to do that. He needs to hold it for another 2 years to recoup closing costs.
Market will recover in my area but it will be years and years I expect. Taxes in my town are slightly higher than surrounding areas so my town will likely be slower to bounce back in the way of home values. I am 10 minutes outside of a major city and 30-45 minutes outside of other job centers. Not many jobs around right now.
Not really comfortable renting out my home. I don't trust people not to steal from me or to have shady people over and around. With fiance and consolidating two homes, we'll need a minimum of 2 BRs and my house has an additional tiny closet room.