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 Menifee, CA

Latitude: 33.708291 -- Longitude: -117.199152

Other Area Cities: Canyon Lake Hemet Lakeland Village Lake Elsinore Sun City Murrieta

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Sun City is a census-designated place (CDP) in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 17,773 at the 2000 census. Recently, there has been an effort to incorporate Sun City and some or all of the nearby areas of Menifee and Romoland as Menifee Valley. Riverside County is currently investigating the viability of the proposed new city. The median income for a household in the CDP was $29,814, and the median income for a family was $38,131. Males had a median income of $41,174 versus $29,036 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $19,859. About 6.0% of families and 8.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.4% of those under age 18 and 6.5% of those age 65 or over. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

California 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Sun City	California	United States
Population	17,773	33,871,648	281,421,906
Median age	66.1	33.3	35.3
Median age for Male	64.3	32.2	34
Median age for Female	67.3	34.4	36.5
Households	8,750	11,502,870	105,480,101
Household population	17,396	33,051,894	273,643,273
Average household size	1.99	2.87	2.59
Families	5,199	7,920,049	71,787,347
Average family size	2.57	3.43	3.14
Housing units	9,440	12,214,549	115,904,641
Occupied units	8,750	11,502,870	105,480,101
Vacant units	690	711,679	10,424,540

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