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 Altus, OK

Latitude: 34.643754 -- Longitude: -99.326603

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censusGR2 of 2000, there were 21,447 people, 7,896 households, and 5,629 families residing in the city. The population density was 492.0/km² (1,274.1/mi²). There were 9,264 housing units at an average density of 212.5/km² (550.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 72.62% White, 10.41% African American, 1.48% Native American, 1.38% Asian, 0.20% Pacific Islander, 10.32% from other races, and 3.59% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 17.25% of the population. There were 7,896 households out of which 38.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.6% were married couples living together, 11.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.7% were non-families. 25.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 3.14. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Oklahoma 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Altus	Oklahoma	United States
Population	21,447	3,450,654	281,421,906
Median age	31.6	35.5	35.3
Median age for Male	29.9	33.9	34
Median age for Female	33.4	36.9	36.5
Households	7,896	1,342,293	105,480,101
Household population	20,677	3,338,279	273,643,273
Average household size	2.62	2.49	2.59
Families	5,627	921,750	71,787,347
Average family size	3.14	3.02	3.14
Housing units	9,264	1,514,400	115,904,641
Occupied units	7,896	1,342,293	105,480,101
Vacant units	1,368	172,107	10,424,540

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