My husband wants to put our house on the market while values are better, and I want to wait until our youngest graduates in May, 2016 - or at least wait until we know where he will go to college (most likely outside our immediate area though we do live close to a Florida university).
It took a long time for south Florida to come back after the '07-'08 crash.
I do realize that other markets are very different from SoFlo. Just thought I’d check the CC “hivemind” (love that term) anyway. Homes are not purely financial decisions. We’ve been here a long time; it’s hard to think of selling. Though I see H’s point, it feels like the natural transition would be when youngest heads to college (or a couple of months before). Just can’t decide if we’ll see another crash, or at least a dramatic slow-down.
Anybody else thought about this, or have a crystal ball I can borrow?
Unfortunately, in this case I don’t think that the CC hivemind can help you very much. IMHO, real estate is just too local for anyone who doesn’t live near you to offer truly useful advice applicable to your specific market.
There are some factors that can have widespread impact, but those seem to be more noticeable on the downside than on the rebound. Interest rates won’t remain this low forever. It’s mostly old folks, such as dh and I, who remember double digit mortgage rates, so I think that even a 1.5% increase could have a devastating effect.
Do you and your dh agree about where you’ll move should you sell your current home? If you’ll remain in the same area, would any savings from downsizing be offset by the costs associated with selling your current home, moving and setting up a new home? Would you lose any property tax benefits? (I’m very vague on FL property taxes these days, but remember something about limits on increases for existing homeowners.) Is your dh counting on the sale proceeds to fund other expenses beyond paying cash for the next house? Would remaining in your current home prevent either of you from doing anything you’d like to do during retirement?
If you downsize, will you have enough room to host your adult children and their families for visits? Or would you prefer to vacation together instead of gathering at your home? Will the new home provide enough space for hobbies, inside and outside? How do you feel about changing medical care providers and various service providers if the new home is too far from the current one for an easy drive? If you plan to move out of state, is the new location one with which you’re very familiar? Do you both look forward to that change?
Sorry to carry on so. This is a topic my dh and I have discussed ad nauseam for the past year. We came to a decision that I’m not happy about, but I realize that my preference is based more on wishful thinking than reality. I hope that your resolution will be one that makes you both happy.
We just pulled the plug in the last two weeks and decided to put our house on the market - we did so knowing the market is better for buyers now with low interest rates, which as silpat mentions above, are not going to stay this low for much longer. Despite it being the time of year it is, we’ve had about six showings in a little more than a week, so I know there’s interest out there… more than I thought there would be this time of year. We even got a request to show it on Thanksgiving! Which worked for us because we were gone most of the day/night.
Our housing prices have not recovered fully since the crash, and it will take at least a couple of years or so to even get close to where they were, and I was not willing to wait another couple of years. This is in a Chicagoland collar county.
^^thank you both. It’s nice to see I’m not the only one with angst on this issue.
To answer some of the questions, I’m pretty sure we will move out of our county. I want to go a little further north at least, if not much further. Real estate is expensive down here. My New Jersey husband does not get the sticker shock that I do. @Silpat - regarding property tax portability, I’m not sure if it applies outside our county. It would be nice if it did! We have been in our house a long time and portability passed while we were living here so we haven’t used it yet.
I would like to be completely debt free by the time my husband retires. Luckily he can work almost anywhere, as long as we are near a major airport. That’s why I was hoping to have a better handle on where youngest was going to college. I’d love to be closer to my son in Nashville, though he could move anytime if he gets an opportunity somewhere else.
We don’t mind changing medical providers because we don’t use them that frequently yet (knock on wood).
I’m not far enough along to know what our adult kids will do as far as visiting. I would like to have room for them though.
Career and tax-wise we’d like to stay in Florida as far as permanent residence goes.
@teriwtt - I think we are going to have to make the same leap. It’s too good a market (finally). Ugh I dread it.
If we ever move again, we plan to build a nice one story home with a separate guest wing for the kids that can be shut off (or at least turned down to a minimum) with respect to utilities when they are not visiting. Not looking to ever be disabled, but we will build it with wide doorways that can accommodate a wheelchair. I have a huge ideabook going at Houzz.com, lol.
@SouthFloridaMom, be prepared for the possibility that you get lost for hours at Houzz.com. You could easily forget an appointment, look up to see family members who are wondering where dinner is, or realize that “five more minutes” at 10 pm has turned into 2 am. Enter that web site at your peril.
@Nrdsb4 - My parents who are 80 did exactly what you plan on doing. About 10 years ago, they built a new house where all their living space is on the first floor with wider doors and a walk in shower. It very tasteful and doesn’t look wheelchair accessible but is ready to go if needed. They do have an upstairs with guest rooms and a guest bath but its zoned differently from the rest of the house and the heating can be adjusted to that area.
I appreciate their forward thinking and I know their planning will allow them to stay in their home as long as possible.
As far as real estate, I agree it is local. Our area has strengthened but is still not at pre-2008 levels so I’m not worried that it is overheated here.
Interest rates will surely rise but even if they go up a percent or two, they will still be low historically.
LOL… D1 got me hooked on that site when she was home for Thanksgiving and we started contemplating all the projects we want to do before we move in. It is VERY addicting!
What are your options? Are you willing to sell your house right now? If the house sold quickly, would you close in January or February when your son is graduating from HS in May? Where will your son live? We were in a similar situation; put our house on the market in January and had a signed contract very quickly, but insisted on a late May close, after our younger son graduated from HS. May 2016 isn’t all that far away.
Well, I am in shock with how many potential buyers we’ve had come through our house in such a short amount of time. We had our 13th & 14th showings today, with #15-17 scheduled through this weekend. We also have two respectable offers, and two others where their realtors told our realtor they’d like to make an offer, but haven’t come through.
As I’m busy cleaning out my basement and selling stuff, I had a guy over last night who said the market is just hopping right now because everyone firmly believes rates will go up by the end of the month. If the professionals are feeling more certain about that now than they did two weeks ago, then I expect we will accept an offer by the end of the month.
Guy that bought our garage refrigerator last night said he’s closing on a house tomorrow and they had to really squeeze in their closing amongst a lot of them because they are scheduled back-to-back from 8AM-7PM on some days at the title companies.
Edited to add: Last Monday we were trying to have a phone conference with our attorney for the place we’re purchasing, and that was also difficult to schedule as she had eight closings just on Monday.
We have been trying to buy a house on the water for months. Just yesterday the seller signed a release. We’re well qualified buyers, but the appraisals are coming in lower than what they wanted and I’m not paying above the appraisal. This is the second house we lost over this issue. Sellers don’t seem to understand banks don’t give loans above appraised values and we’re not in such a hot market that people pay cash.
As an update, a realtor called us this week with legit clients interested in our neighborhood where nothing is for sale.
Ugh. Scrambling to clean my house this week when I should be getting out the Christmas stuff.
We told this person we were not interested in listing and will not list (we already have an agent that we’d go with if we did list). I.e., don’t come in trying to nab a listing. Think this person got that, and I know of this agent. We will show the house (grudgingly on my part).
^^^ there are definitely challenges to having a house on the market this time of year, much less if your whole family is around most of the day. At least at this point, I only have to worry about a dog. So far, I’ve only asked to tweak a couple of showings 30-60 minutes so I could be home to retrieve the dog and take him with me. Pooch and I are having a lot of quality time in our car, sitting idle a block away! But I know it could be a lot worse. We could not be having all the showings we are. First world problems, and all.
Thought I’d circle back to this thread with an update . . . our house did sell, and closes in a few weeks.
It seemed like it was meant to be, seeing that it’s right after our youngest graduates from high school. I am very thankful for all the years that we have had here, but wow - it is tough to leave! Makes me regret all the times I have complained about the little quirks with our home. I’m trying to figure out how to take the tick marks from the door frames with me - where our sons marked their growth through the years.
It’s weird how you can want to move on, yet want to stay.
