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 Jefferson, AL

Latitude: 33.524755 -- Longitude: -86.81274

Other Area Cities: Gardendale Bluff Park Center Point Fairfield Homewood Hoover Hueytown Leeds Mountain Brook Trussville Vestavia Hills Pleasant Grove Fultondale Alabaster Bessemer Birmingham Pelham Irondale Pinson Tarrant City McCalla

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Birmingham has a strong-mayor variant mayor-council form of government, lead by a mayor and a nine-member city council. The current system replaced the previous city commission government in 1962 (primarily as a way to remove Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene "Bull" Connor from power). By Alabama law, an issue before a city council must be approved by a two-thirds majority vote (Act No. 452, Ala. Acts 1955, as supplemented by Act No. 294, Ala. Acts 1965.). Executive powers are held entirely by the mayor's office. The current mayor of Birmingham is Bernard Kincaid, who was voted into office in 1999. The Birmingham area is home to some of America's best schools. In 2005, the Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School in Irondale, an eastern suburb of Birmingham, was rated as the #1 high school in America by Newsweek, a national publication. Mountain Brook High School placed 250 on the list. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Alabama 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Birmingham	Alabama	United States
Population	242,820	4,447,100	281,421,906
Median age	34.3	35.8	35.3
Median age for Male	31.8	34.4	34
Median age for Female	36.2	37.2	36.5
Households	98,782	1,737,080	105,480,101
Household population	233,968	4,332,380	273,643,273
Average household size	2.37	2.49	2.59
Families	59,287	1,215,968	71,787,347
Average family size	3.09	3.01	3.14
Housing units	111,927	1,963,711	115,904,641
Occupied units	98,782	1,737,080	105,480,101
Vacant units	13,145	226,631	10,424,540

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