re: hedging SF Bay townhouse prices.
OK.... I'll bite with an opinion/comment/questions to ask yourself in making a decision.
Where I come from (an expensive zip code on the East Coast), some townhouses have been priced and sold for more than $1 million for years.
The oldest townhomes are about 1/4-mile from my house and are still selling for $1 million-plus or more, if any of them even come available for sale.
The newest ones-- about a mile away in the middle of town (still selling as the subdivision isn't built out yet)-- are selling for $1 million or more to some very wealthy people. According to a recent local news story, these new owners are people in their retirement years who want to spend more time at their country clubs than they want to spend working on lawns, and they love the elevator feature which is optional from the builder.
Why do you feel a need to hedge anything, if you plan to live in your townhouse a long time? Last I heard, the SF Bay area was fairly sought-after as a place to live. Do you have a reason to suspect this will change?
If you plan to live there a long time, do you care more about what happens to prices, or do you care about living in a good place?
If the apparent market price of your home declines for a while or stays stagnant, would you care? If so, why? As long as it meets your needs and you've financed it at low interest rates and are getting a tax write-off at the same time, why should you worry about the market?
If the market price of your home should fall by 20-25 percent, but the next buyer has to pay higher interest to own it, that buyer won't come out much or any better than you, financially. So.......
Maybe you should just live there and be happy. |
