From the Seattle Times:
From July 1, 2012 to July 1, 2013, Seattle grew by 2.8 percent — the highest rate among the 50 most-populous U.S. cities.
From the Seattle PI:
The wealthy in Seattle are getting wealthier at a faster pace than any other U.S. city, while those in the lowest income bracket are not keeping pace, according to a new analysis of America’s largest cities by the Brookings Institution.
From Me:
LET’S SELL OUR FREAKING HOUSE!!!
Girl Ninja and I weren’t fortunate enough to buy at the bottom (circa 2011-2012), but in the two years since we’ve bought our house, the local real estate market has been nothing but bonkers.
If you live in a major metropolitan area it’s probably the same story for you.
Our buddy just tried to buy a house a few miles from us. He lost out to one of the 17 other offers the sellers received.
With the housing supply at its lowest levels in history, prospective buyers just don’t have a lot of options.
Which means they are all competing on few properties available.
Which means bidding wars, cash buyers, and waived contingencies are the norm.
Girl Ninja and I love our house. It’s hella old (85 years and counting), hella charming, hella affordable, and has a hella big backyard for the area.
That said, I also kinda like making money. Especially when it requires very little effort on my part. If we could sell our house for $50k or $100k above what we paid for it, it would be hard to pass that up.
What’s more, Girl Ninja and I didn’t mind renting. We loved the flexibility of the renting lifestyle. No hidden expenses. No maintenance. No changing light fixtures just for the sake of changing light fixtures. We are some of the few people that own a home, that won’t make you feel like you’re dumb for choosing to rent.
We wouldn’t sell if we couldn’t net at least $50,000 in appreciation off the sale. Couple that with our $70,000 down payment that we would get back, and we’re looking at a $120,000 pay day.
But Girl Ninja hates change. She cried the day we put an offer on our house (because she feared it might be a mistake). And I bet ya $50 she’ll cry the day we put this house on the market (fearing it might be a mistake).
And to be honest, I don’t really know what I would do with $120,000 cash. Well besides this…
This…
and this…
Ah fudge.
It’s hard to know Seattle is experiencing one of the best seller’s markets in history, but have no desire to capitalize on that momentum.
Oh well, I guess I’ll just watch other people get rich when they sell their homes.
It is just money. There will always be people making money. Sounds like you have a nice place to raise a family.
After all you’ve put into this house, you’re thinking of selling after – what, two years? And if you rent, it’s not an ideal situation for the kid. Or kids, as the case may be.
Console yourself with the reminder of the taxes you WON’T be paying on the $50k. If you don’t sink it right back into another house (because you decide to rent), that’s a capital gain. Boo
No, you are allowed to make 250k (500k MFJ) profit on the sale of your primary residence, so long as you have lived in it at least 2 of the last 5 years.
The number 1 thing I hate doing is moving… so the chances of me selling a house I just purchased are very slim, barring some sort of job relocation scenario.
I debate selling my place sometimes since it’s also gone up in value, but the problem is it’s way more affordable to own this place than to rent. My mortgage + property taxes + condo fees are ~$1,700/month for my two bedroom condo. A two bedroom apartment in our neighborhood starts at $3,200/month and isn’t nearly as nice as this place. So, sure, I could walk away with a profit, but that would significantly increase our monthly housing costs and I don’t think that would be worth it. It does mean though that if we were to outgrow this place, I would not be afraid to sell, but without another place to move to, I don’t think I would.
Aren’t you in the middle of a refinance? My guess is you don’t know about the job market and the companies relocating to Seattle. Seattle is supposedly going to be the new San Francisco so prices will continue to climb. Rent is also climbing too so you will probably get a smaller place for more money. Expect to pay $2000 for a 2 bedroom. I would stay put if I were you and let your home appreciate.
We finished the refinance a few weeks ago.
And I definitely know about the job market and tech. Expedia, tableua, and potentially alibaba. That said, our prices will never reach San Francisco because most people would prefer the SF climate over the Seattle climate. Our real estate will always be worth less than California real Estate. That’s my opinion at least.
But you are right that our house could definitely go up even further!
Bathe in Canadian Tire Money!!! Now that sounds like fun.
If the population is growing, the housing supply is short, and people are competing to buy, then what is the rental market like? Unless you want to leave the area, just sit tight. 🙂
Agree
+1
We moved to Seattle in May 2011 and had a year of relocation benefits. When we did paperwork for our old house at the bank we asked some random dude how long he thought we had until the market turned and he said “I think you’re fine until May 2012”. He was so confident in that statement and we needed time to acclimate our finances to expensive coastal living that we waited until May 15, 2012 to buy our condo. It’s about as close to timing the markets we’ll ever get.
Similar to you I’ve been salivating watching neighbors cash in. I’ve done the math over and over and over again and we’ve even gone so far as to call our agent and have looksee at a short sale a few streets away. It’s a smaller condo that we could buy mortgage-free with the sale of our current place and subsequently knock up our savings rate to MrMoustachian levels.
I’m in!
But short sales need a special level of patience and persistence and my husband doesn’t have it in him. He’s change adverse like your wife. Also I’ve had conversations on personal finance blogs and as people pointed out from an investment point of view there is no difference between owing $200k on a $500k property or $0 on a $300k property. Still a few MrMoustache type folk thinks it’s a most excellent idea… but the boglehead in me silently repeats “buy and hold, buy and hold, buy and hold”..
We didn’t have to pay any real estate fees to get into our home, but we’d have to pay to get out. Do I really want to pay tens of thousands of dollars in fees?? Do you???
On the other hand you’ve made it clear that you don’t think your current home is a “forever” home. You’re still growing your family… maybe you ought to entertain “sizing up” now… but just make sure to put it back into a house or you’ll pay the taxes on it!
As for us… we’re going to ride it out on the sidelines and hopefully pay off the condo in 2 years… building wealth and financial security the slow and boring way…
“Also I’ve had conversations on personal finance blogs and as people pointed out from an investment point of view there is no difference between owing $200k on a $500k property or $0 on a $300k property. ”
Sure there is. You’re forgetting about property taxes, higher insurance, higher utility bills, etc. on the 500k property.
Buy and hold is the way to go, especially for those who bought in the low housing market.
And the risk that comes with owing $200k versus owing nothing. What if you lose your job? Become disabled? etc? It’s a lot easier to manage monthly expenses without that mortgage payment.
The only problem with selling and renting is that rents have also gone up. When you rent, you have no control over what your rent will be two years from now.
This would only make sense if you move to an area that has a lower cost of living. For example, you can buy the exact same house(or bigger) in Texas for 100k. The question is- is Texas for you?
California has also been appreciating like crazy, so it would be out of the question, unless you move to Fresno, Bakersfield, etc.
Oooh, I’m gonna try that website. I wanted to comment on your post about getting electrical work done. Do you have home warranty? We got one when we bought our house and just keep renewing each year. Anyway, we recently had our circuit breaker changed out through our home warranty. Total cost: $1000 but we only paid $60 + city permit $190. We relied on our home warranty for unplugging our bath drain too, also for $60. The work on that could’ve easily cost us upwards of $300.
Don’t you just love a win win scenario?
Totally bought a townhouse pretty close to your place in late 2012, sold it in early 2014 for $100k more than I bought it for when I moved out of state. Seattle is definitely booming!
Same in Houston bro, we could sell our house right now and walk away with $50,000 in cash… The real estate market just keeps going up and up, even the drop in oil prices didn’t slow it down. What I don’t understand is the million dollars homes selling like crazy as well, it’s like who can afford this stuff! who can pay $100,000 a year in property tax?!
HS
I feel ya! My house value shot up a good chunk of change since I bought it in the summer of 2012 (I’m in the Northern Bay Area). But I’m not the only one living there. I think moving my entire family (mom, auntie, and brother) would just be too much. Plus, I actually really like where I’m at!
You have to live somewhere. If you own the house for 20-30 years, the “value” will go up and down. It has no real value until the moment you actually sell.
I do not include the so-called value of our house in our net-worth. We realize nothing on it until we sell, and right now it’s just the roof over our heads.