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 Southlake, TX

Latitude: 32.946678 -- Longitude: -97.14523

Other Area Cities: Southlake Bedford Colleyville North Richland Hills Euless Grapevine Hurst Watauga Flower Mound Keller Lewisville Roanoke Westlake Coppell Arlington

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Southlake is a city located primarily in the northeastern part of Tarrant County, Texas. A small northernly region of the city is in Denton County, United States. The population was 21,519 at the 2000 census. Southlake is well known for its Southlake Town Square project, a massive shopping center located on State Highway 114 and Southlake Boulevard. It is one of the most popular shopping centers in Tarrant County, especially when judged in proportion to the population of Southlake. A plan was approved in March 2005 that allowed the Town Square's area to be doubled. Sabre Holdings, an S&P 500 company and owner of Travelocity, is headquartered in Southlake. The Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas) were located in Southlake before and after moves to the Cotton Bowl. They moved again to Frisco, Texas in 2005. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Texas 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Southlake	Texas	United States
Population	21,519	20,851,820	281,421,906
Median age	36.7	32.3	35.3
Median age for Male	37.1	31.3	34
Median age for Female	36.4	33.4	36.5
Households	6,414	7,393,354	105,480,101
Household population	21,508	20,290,711	273,643,273
Average household size	3.35	2.74	2.59
Families	5,961	5,247,794	71,787,347
Average family size	3.48	3.28	3.14
Housing units	6,614	8,157,575	115,904,641
Occupied units	6,414	7,393,354	105,480,101
Vacant units	200	764,221	10,424,540

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