Why Would You Want To Sell When The Sky Is Falling?

November 20, 2008

Are you crazy? Are you so flush with money that you don’t mind giving away $20,000 or $30,000 of your equity? I almost said “hard-earned” equity – but for most of us who’ve bought in the last 10 years, we didn’t have to do much other than sit back and watch our home appreciate. But however we’ve earned the equity, it doesn’t seem on the surface to be a good idea to sell right now.

But what if I told you that by giving away $20,000 I’ll give you back $30,000? You’ve now netted $10,000. Sounds a bit better now, doesn’t it? You’re continuing to earn equity the “easy” way – even in this different market.

Let’s say that you own a house that a few years ago was valued at $200,000 – up 30% from when you bought in 1999. Unfortunately prices have dropped in your area so now your home is only worth $180,000 – down $20,000 from 3 years ago. Ouch! It’s no good wishing you’d sold then – that window of opportunity has already passed. But if you have a stable job in an industry that appears to be weathering the economic downturn fairly well, then you might want to consider taking advantage of lower prices on larger homes. If you’ve had to drop your price 10%, then larger, more expensive homes will have to drop their price also. A home that would have cost $300,000 two years ago may now be listed for $270,000.

Then add in the monthly savings of an incredibly low interest rate (I just spoke to a Mortgage rep and he told me as of December 30, 30 year mortgage rates are holding at between the high 4% and mid 5% range. Fifteen year rates are slightly lower at 4.75%.) So what does this mean to your bottom line? For many, the cost is only a couple of hundred dollars more a month for a much bigger comfortable home. Only you can do your calculate what the cost of moving into a more spacious home would be. If I were looking to move up, and my long-term employment seemed secure, I’d definitely be looking now!

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Local Information for Hesperia, CA

Latitude: 34.412903 -- Longitude: -117.306189

Other Area Cities: Apple Valley Phelan Victorville Hesperia

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The City of Hesperia is part of San Bernardino County, California located in the Mojave Desert 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The locals refer to the surrounding area as the High Desert. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 62,582. In 2006, the Hesperia municipal government estimated the population at 80,000. The median income for a household in the city was $40,201, and the median income for a family was $43,004. Males had a median income of $39,776 versus $25,665 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,487. About 11.1% of families and 14.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.2% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

California 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Hesperia	California	United States
Population	62,582	33,871,648	281,421,906
Median age	32	33.3	35.3
Median age for Male	30.8	32.2	34
Median age for Female	33.2	34.4	36.5
Households	19,966	11,502,870	105,480,101
Household population	62,251	33,051,894	273,643,273
Average household size	3.12	2.87	2.59
Families	15,775	7,920,049	71,787,347
Average family size	3.47	3.43	3.14
Housing units	21,348	12,214,549	115,904,641
Occupied units	19,966	11,502,870	105,480,101
Vacant units	1,382	711,679	10,424,540

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