Interested in opinions.....

[Merylj]

We`re in a similar situation, we own our own home and when DD goes to college this year we have no ties.
We too are tempted to sell our home but I`m very afraid how insecure we will feel if we do so.
My favouite solution at the moment is too rent off our home and with that income buy somewhere smaller to live. I think it could work, granted I`m a Brit and I know the tax inplications here. Would that work for you?

merylj

 

[dvcgirl]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their replies. I should have mentioned at the beginning of this thread that we were going to be heading out of town for four days on a little cruise.

MerylJ, the problem with us renting out our current home and living off that income is that rental rates really haven't kept pace with the huge explosion in home prices (one of the reasons that renting is attractive to us). And honestly, I don't think that we're landlord material. We both have busy careers as it is and being a landlord is yet another part time job. I'd rather let the fine people at Vanguard handle our money...so far they've done a great job with what we've given them .

geetey...yes, we've seen the reports on the Orlando housing market. The big boom is over here....and yet I think we'll still do okay. Just saw our local housing report...a house in our neighborhood that is 20% smaller on a not-so-hot-lot....went for $490. I think our instincts are pretty good for getting out at 550K or so.

solgent...yet, home ownership is the American dream...for people who want to be settled. I guess I can't say if we'll eventually find a place where we'd like to settle permanently, but if we did...we could just buy there. For now it seems like we're always itching to move around.

Chicago...glad you made out so well with your condo! Someone else mentioned possibly selling our place and buying a condo here that we could eventually use as a rental property. Well, to be a vacation property, we'd have to move to another county, and well, we're not looking to do that. And this area is positively *crawling* with weekly vacation properties. I mean..it's amazing how many there are. The only folks who will make money there are the people who bought years ago. The people buying now will not cover their bottom line because so many other owners can charge far less. As for us losing money by selling....well, my gut says we'll do much better. It's just a matter of how we'll *feel* not owning at this point. More psychological than anything I guess.

 

[majimikate]

Good for you!! You have clearly thought out your plan, have realistic expectations and are in a position to do this, go for it!!! We live in NY and pay taxes through the nose, homes are tremendously overvalued and god help them all when the market levels, (which I think it will in the next couple of years). I don't think we'll see a major downturn, just a steady leveling off that will leave many people in this area of NY (about 90 miles north of the city) wondering how they paid $350K for a raised ranch on barely half an acre with no services (garbage pickup etc). And moreover wondering how to swallow the $6-7000 tax bill that goes with that property. I'm thinking we'll be seeing fewer home equity loans in the next few years as people realize that they have negative equity in their houses.

But DVCgirl, you've got it figured out. If we had no children (we have 4) I'd be right behind you. I think your plan is great, your logic is good and the market is behind you. Good luck!!!