Is it time to sell your home? Will the market in your area keep going up? If that is going to be the case, should you wait? And what if you wait too long and the market crashes again like in 2008 and 2009? The question is, can you really time the housing market? If you cannot time it accurately, does your real estate agent have a clearer idea of whether prices will go up or down?
It is really easy when the real estate market is hot, to expect it to keep going up. And, likewise, when it is in freefall everyone expects it to keep going down. There are two issues here, real estate investing and home ownership. Here we look at home-ownership and whether or not timing the housing market is really an issue.
What Will You Do With The Money From The Sale Of Your Home?
You live in your home and want to sell it and move into a nicer home, a home that is closer to schools and church, or a home closer to work. In this case, your will take the equity from the sale of your current home and apply it to the mortgage for the new home. If the housing market is weak you will get less for your current home but you will also pay less for your new home. This will not be the case if you are moving to a different city. If you have the good fortune to be offered a job in a state or city where real estate is cheap and are moving out of a home in San Francisco, San Diego or somewhere else where prices are high you will possibly use the equity from the current home and pay cash in your new location. If you are making the reverse move let us hope that the increase in salary you expect in your new location helps ease the pain of the difference in housing costs. But in not of these cases is it really about timing the real estate market because you are selling one home and buying another. But, are the different scenarios?
Getting Out Of the Housing Market At Least In The USA
If you and your wife own a grand old home in a grand old neighborhood it may be a valuable property. And in a strong market, it may be much more valuable. But, the kids are raised and gone and they have kids. And the two of you want to travel, perhaps have a small condo downtown, or even move offshore and rent something on the beach in the tropics. In this case, you are not plowing your equity back into another home and it may pay you to find a real estate agent with lots of experience and wait for the best time and circumstances to sell your grand old home. Otherwise, for most folks market timing is not all that important. It is more about making your home attractive to get the best price under current market conditions.
