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 Knoxville, TN

Latitude: 35.972882 -- Longitude: -83.942161

Other Area Cities: Oak Ridge Knoxville Alcoa Farragut Powells Crossroads Maryville Clinton

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Knoxville is the third-largest city in the state of Tennessee behind Memphis and Nashville and is the county seat location of Knox County, Tennessee. It is the principal city of and is included in the "Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area." Of all of Tennessee's four major cities, Knoxville is the oldest. Knoxville was once also known as the Underwear Capital of the World.Knoxville hosted the 1982 World's Fair, from which the Sunsphere remains. Knoxville is also the home of the University of Tennessee's primary campus (UTK). The university's sports teams, called the "Volunteers" or "Vols," are extremely popular in the surrounding area.Knoxville is also the home of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. Knoxville's economy is largely fuelled by the regional location of the main campus of the University of Tennessee, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the National Transportation Research Center, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Tennessee 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Knoxville	Tennessee	United States
Population	173,890	5,689,283	281,421,906
Median age	33.4	35.9	35.3
Median age for Male	31.3	34.5	34
Median age for Female	35.6	37.2	36.5
Households	76,650	2,232,905	105,480,101
Household population	162,856	5,541,337	273,643,273
Average household size	2.12	2.48	2.59
Families	40,193	1,547,835	71,787,347
Average family size	2.84	2.99	3.14
Housing units	84,981	2,439,443	115,904,641
Occupied units	76,650	2,232,905	105,480,101
Vacant units	8,331	206,538	10,424,540

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