Downsizing in an up market

Downsizing and selling a home and buying a lower priced home that meets your current needs can be to your advantage in an "Up" market like the current one with low inventory. The advantage is that you can maximize the price for the home you're selling and not have to reinvest it all in your replacement.

Just to illustrate the point, let's say there is a 10% premium in the sales price of a home currently. If you're selling a home for $750,000, it would be $75,000. If you replaced the home with a $500,000 home, the premium would be $50,000 which means you're $25,000 ahead.

Let's further assume that your home is debt free so that when you sell it, you have a large cash equity. Instead of paying cash for the replacement home, get an 80% loan at today's low interest rates and reinvest the proceeds to supplement your retirement.

You may be able to get as low as a 2.5% mortgage and earn significantly more on the proceeds in other investments.

Home prices are up significantly over last year and they're selling on average in three weeks. Inventory is down and there is less competition for your home than normal which can lead to a higher price. Closed sales increased 9% from August to September according to a Zillow report.

Moving down in an "up" market may be to your advantage. It could lower your cost of housing by saving on property taxes, insurance, utilities and maintenance while being able to take cash out of your home to reinvest in your retirement.

You'll be using "other people's money" to free up your equity that you can reinvest at a rate higher than you'll be paying on your mortgage. The difference would be profit.

To explore the prospect of buying or selling a home, give me a call at 239.287.2576 and we can look at your scenarios together.