post off: are you worried about the price of your home?
We usually don’t do “ripped from the headlines” types of posts here, but it’s hard to not think about how this week’s economic news is affecting the value of our homes. Personally, I have been dreaming about moving into a larger space to accommodate our growing (and recently crawling!) family. But that would mean putting our one-bedroom place on the market. Suddenly an idea that was simmering in our heads for a springtime “perhaps” has become a “better sooner than later” boil. Are you having similar debates in your home? Or are you thinking of hunkering down and doing a little remodeling? I don’t know what we’re going to do, but we probably need to make a decision in the next few weeks to either stay the course or act fast. I’d love to hear your thoughts, and perhaps enjoy a little company during the crisis. Please share! — Angela M.
September 26th, 2008 at 6:41 am
It seems to me that it isn’t a sellers market right now. Our family is in the middle of renovations with hopes to list in the spring. I’ve noticed a lot of the homes in my area that have been on the market for a while have just dropped prices, too. Even if the house was ready to sell right now I’d wait until spring - I’m thinking that after the election is over people might feel more positive about the future and spur the economy to recover just in time for me to list in April or May…
September 26th, 2008 at 7:08 am
A few months ago we were comtemplating selling, but not to get a bigger place, we wanted to downsize. (mostly to simplify our lives). The only thing that has changed is the fact that now we feel like we need to improve our exisiting home to get the most money from it when we sell. I agree with the other poster, we will also wait until after the elections and after the holidays.
Everynight I watch the show Designed to Sell on HGTV and get fantastic ideas on how to get top dollar from your home.
September 26th, 2008 at 9:04 am
We are hunkering, but that’s fine for now… we won’t really be serious about wanting to downsize and move for at least three more years, so it’s a wait and see game now.
But we aren’t remodeling either… we’ve put enough money into the home for now, and only essential repairs are happening at this time. And minor, relatively inexpensive improvements such as painting.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:17 am
We bought our house pretty recently, and all of our money has been going into things like putting in a fence, redoing bad plumbing, you know, sexy stuff like that. (And battling termites of course.) We are nervous, just hoping that our jobs hang in there and we can keep up with our mortgage. We’re cutting back on things like eating out. We’ve never been happier that our money is in a credit union rather than a bank like WAMU.
We bought our house right when Seattle prices started to slip, so we got a good deal, but now there are tremendous deals to be had. Houses are staying on the market for months here now, and that’s new for this area. People are also bringing the price down by thousands; that’s fairly new as well. Definitely a good prospect if you’re a renter looking to buy a house right now; not so great if you’re trying to sell.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:24 am
The people in the know say if you can stay, stay. We have a 3 bedroom apartment which cost us £275,000 which has decreased to at least £250,000. When we bought it, its potential value (not given to us by the people selling the flat) was at £350,000 once the renovations were complete. We are still renovating because for now it is our home but we will be looking to let it (lettings are up since people cant afford to buy a house to maintain their mortgage). This would suit us since we have a tiny mortgage and would be able to get a buy to let mortgage to cover any shortfall or increase in a new mortgage.
Hope this makes sense? Basicly stay put if you can, and save pennies for when things look brighter.
September 26th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
I don’t know about big cities, but where I live (small-ish midwest college town) the housing market has been crap for over a year. We recently sold our 1915 craftsman (we had lived there 5 years). Sold it for less than we paid, and after the $10 K we had put into repairs/improvements we lost about $15K total. ouch. I am relieved we were able to sell at all, tons of stuff in our neighborhood has been on the market for over a year…going on two.
On the plus side, we traded up (within our same town) to a MCM ranch that we bought for $50K below the first asking price. This place needs a ton of fixing up too though…sigh.
September 26th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Well, as a homeowner, I’m feeling really lucky. We were one of those couples that was offered an outrageous mortgage, but we turned it down because we knew we couldn’t afford it. No lie — it was tempting! We’re very lucky to currently have equity in the house, and we’re hoping that as the economy keeps tumbling we will at least end up right-side-up.
But as a business-owner, I am not optimistic. This is putting an enormous strain on small businesses, especially on innovative small businesses that depend on a healthy flow of both ideas and money. I am definitely nervous about how this will affect our business and, more importantly, our employees whom we consider family.
And since we make products for remodeling, and lots of people are avoiding remodeling right now to save their pennies, that makes me nervous too! Then again, it forces our little design squad to be VERY innovative
That’s a good thing.
September 26th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
I realize this may not be a popular post, but my husband and I are in the market for our first house and we’re hoping prices tumble. With a baby coming any day, and my teen stepson with us a few times a month, our two-bedroom apartment just ain’t cutting it. So I hope prices go down. A lot. We live on Long Island, where prices are high, taxes are high, and the market hasn’t really dropped much yet. A three-bedroom two bath colonial starter house costs about $400K in our nabe, and you’re lucky if the taxes are $7K (that’s for an older house of 70+ years old.)
That said, the prices of houses around here went through the roof in the last ten years, many doubling in value. I think what’s happening is that the market is going to correct itself. And then people like us will actually be able to afford a reasonably nice house. I’m not asking for anything palatial, and I’m not even asking to stay home on one income. I just want a house, period.
September 27th, 2008 at 7:20 am
I’m really tired of having my home evaluated by a dollar amount. Yes, it is an investment. Yes, I want to get my money’s worth. But we didn’t buy our house with either of those thoughts primarily in our mind. It was a home, first and foremost. A place to live, get to know each other better, raise a family, have family and friends over for dinners and vacations and whenever they’re in need.
You can try and put a price tag on those walls but I know better. I could put a price on the great food and parks you can walk to. When I stand up on a chair in the attic and see the very tip top of the Golden Gate Bridge, I could see dollar signs in my eyes. Neighbors who walk by with their kids or bring you flowers for no good reason could be added to the total. But to do any of that would obfuscate the real value, something you can’t calculate with currency, something more deep and rich.
I appreciate that it’s difficult to avoid the fact that many good things cost money. It would be nice if we spent a little more time looking past the price tag. The “market” may dip and flourish, but the “market” doesn’t always know what’s best.
October 9th, 2008 at 7:00 am
[...] couple of weeks ago we asked if you were worried about the price of your home. Most said no, that you were hunkering down to ride out these scary financial times. But for those [...]
October 10th, 2008 at 5:30 am
[...] I have hinted, we are having a soul-searching, crystal-ball-needing debate in our home: Whether to stay in our [...]
October 28th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Nope, not worried at all about our home price. Much much more worried about fixing the windows that are rotting out of the frames, replacing the sewer stack before it blows and insulating insulating insulating because my biggest worry is the cost of energy to heat it. That will soon cost us more than the mortgage payment.
Thankfully it’s in a “good” location which means I walk downtown to work and the other half has a home business so we’re down to one car which saves a lot of money. The only other problem is that the lot is tiny with just enough room for two raised garden beds so I’m not getting the tomato output I’d like (much less the carrots, squash etc. etc.)