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Move Somewhere Cheaper

February 9th, 2007 at 06:00 pm

Text is http://biz.yahoo.com/brn/070208/21029.html?.v=1&.pf=real-estate and Link is
http://biz.yahoo.com/brn/070208/21029.html?.v=1&.pf=real-est...

Interesting article and applies to a lot of what is going on in California.

I guess we already made the move with no equity and that was a pretty sweet move. I can imagine with our equity it would be even sweeter. Wink Where where where is the neverending question.

Brings up a good point of salaries not always being parallel to housing costs.

Also brings up the point that home equity is mostly tax-free money. I am well aware in a state where if I won $1 mil I would only get to keep half of it, that that equity money is extra lucrative from a tax standpoint.

I would do it again - move somewhere cheaper. Odds are we will sometime again. Now is just not the time for us. Today we stand that we are happy with our home, our job, our friends, our locale, our proximity to family. So even with $400k tax-free equity, it just isn't that lucrative, and having seen the equity rise and fall I am not too attached. But I wouldn't be surprised is we reach a point in our life where we are ready to move. We kind of left it as something to discuss when my boss retires. See what my options are, where we stand, how well we could be if we moved, where our family is as they all are itching to spread out anwyay, etc. But in the meantime the talks are off the table, we are happy and staying. But I know it will come up again down the road.

6 Responses to “Move Somewhere Cheaper”

  1. scfr Says:
    1171047468

    See you in Texas someday!Smile When my husband went to Austin, a real estate agent told him that about half of the buyers of new homes were former Californians, and many paid cash.

  2. Erica Says:
    1171050885

    Monkey mama, would you be interested in doing an interview with me? You can contact me at ericarountree@bellsouth.net. Thanks!

  3. zetta Says:
    1171056424

    I've missed some of your backstory -- where did you move from and to? How much did your housing costs change? Was the move primarily to enable your DH to become a SAHD?

  4. Amber Says:
    1171080414

    You know when I am ready to buy, I will be definately moving to a location much cheaper than Palm beach county...maybe even commute (for work )if need be

  5. monkeymama Says:
    1171127441

    We moved from San Jose to Sacramento. We were looking at fixxer upper houses in San Jose in the $500k+ range or we could have stayed in our 3-bedroom condo to have children. Buying a house we could not do any way shape or form on 1-income, not even sure on 2 if we could have. So yes we moved because we knew we wanted to have kids and a parent who stayed home. For the single life, we really enjoyed the condo - I could see retiring in a condo...

    So we moved to Sacramento in 2001 and paid around $280k for our dream house, sold our little condo (1/2 the size anyway - no garage - no laundry - no yard - only 1 parking space actually!!!) - we sold it for $300k. We had saved the down payment on the new home and owned both for a while so when we finally sold the condo we got our original payment back out. We didn't really make any equity though - enough to cover realtor fees. So I know everyone assumes we have a lot of cash from equity - no we actually saved a ton back then. We put our condo on the market like the day before 9/11 and we lost $100k equity. We were originally planning to only take a $100k mortgage here but we have $200k instead.

    We decided to go through with it - still eons ahead. We bought a new home for about $280k with upgrades and by the time it was ready they were selling for $350k. We got in the first phase of the entire development (about 5 home builders) and before they were all built our house was worth $500k. It is insane. PEaked around $650k and seems to have settled around $600k.

    We really lucked out in timing though I just saw our condo was worth $450k - it would still be worth the move if we had waited. Today a fixer upper in san jose is about $700k minimum. We have talked about moving back home with all this equity (funny how when we left we figured it was permanent - we would never be able to break in - but instead we have come out ahead). But anyway, we could buy maybe 1/2 the house and double our property taxes - LOL - not gonna happen...

    We LOVE it here.

  6. monkeymama Says:
    1171127680

    We had talked seriously about moving to ORegon but we are on wait and see for now. We could keep a 200k mortgage, find our dream house again (which is now more fancy now that we are used to this one) and keep 200k-400k in the bank. We had talked seriously about it but we are happy where we are at. So waiting it out. I think I am scared of the weather up there anyway. Places we are considering are also Nevada and Colorado. (my family is from CO, NV is close...) Kind of waiting to see where family settles. SIL wants to take my niece to Arizona - Frown I do not want to move there - but NV may be closer and we could live a lot cheaper there too. My parents want to retire in COlorado. We are wait and see for now.

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