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 Gulfport, MS

Latitude: 30.401641 -- Longitude: -89.076169

Other Area Cities: Gulfport Biloxi D'Iberville Long Beach Pass Christian

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Gulfport is the second largest city in Mississippi. It is the larger (population wise) of two principal cities of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Gulport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, Mississippi Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the city of Gulport had a total population of 71,127. Gulfport is co-county seat with Biloxi of Harrison County, Mississippi. Gulfport is the east coast home to the US Navy Seabees. On August 29, 2005, Gulfport was hit by the strong east side of Hurricane Katrina, and much of Gulfport was flooded or destroyed (see details below). Much of Gulfport was also severely damaged by Hurricane Camille on August 17, 1969. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Mississippi 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Gulfport	Mississippi	United States
Population	71,127	2,844,658	281,421,906
Median age	33.6	33.8	35.3
Median age for Male	32.2	32.2	34
Median age for Female	35.1	35.3	36.5
Households	26,943	1,046,434	105,480,101
Household population	67,703	2,749,244	273,643,273
Average household size	2.51	2.63	2.59
Families	17,653	747,159	71,787,347
Average family size	3.07	3.14	3.14
Housing units	29,559	1,161,953	115,904,641
Occupied units	26,943	1,046,434	105,480,101
Vacant units	2,616	115,519	10,424,540

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