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 Muncie, IN

Latitude: 40.193243 -- Longitude: -85.388194

Other Area Cities: Muncie New Castle Anderson

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The area was first settled in the 1770s by the Delaware Indians, who had been transported from their tribal lands near the east coast to Ohio and eastern Indiana. They founded several towns along the White River including Muncietown, near the site of present-day Muncie. The tribes were forced to cede their land to the federal government and move further west in 1818, and in 1820 the area was opened to white settlers. The city of Muncie was incorporated in 1865. Contrary to popular legend, the city is not named after a mythological Chief Munsee, rather it was named after Munsee Town, the white settlers' name for the Indian village on the site. Muncie was dubbed Middletown after a team of sociologists, led by Robert and Helen Lynd, initiated a series of sociological studies in Muncie funded by the Rockefellers' Institute of Social and Religious Research. "The aim... was to study synchronously the interwoven trends that are the life of a small American city." -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Indiana 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Muncie	Indiana	United States
Population	67,430	6,080,485	281,421,906
Median age	28.9	35.2	35.3
Median age for Male	27.6	33.9	34
Median age for Female	30.3	36.5	36.5
Households	27,322	2,336,306	105,480,101
Household population	61,229	5,902,331	273,643,273
Average household size	2.24	2.53	2.59
Families	14,597	1,602,501	71,787,347
Average family size	2.86	3.05	3.14
Housing units	30,205	2,532,319	115,904,641
Occupied units	27,322	2,336,306	105,480,101
Vacant units	2,883	196,013	10,424,540

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