I thought seriously about selling earlier this year. Did some serious due diligence and spreadsheets and concluded it was foolish even if the value of my property depreciated over $100,000. Here's why:
-Paid $650,000 with $150K down.
-House was brand new when we bought it.
-Love living 1/2 mile from some of the best surf breaks San Diego has to offer.
-Should we have sold, likely could have got $740K on a good day.
-Still today worth $725K all day long even on days where the sky is falling in real estate.
-Should we have sold, we could rent the neighbors house for around $3,000 in the same development. Our monthly nut including taxes is approx $3200.
Anything less than $3000/mo closer to the beach is a shithole or an "attached" property with neighbors burping on your head.
-The tax benefits of owning are absolutely critical in this situation.
-If the wife and I had no income it might make sense to rent. She makes a great income as do I. This year has been suprisingly good and I sell residential real estate and have since 1990. Add that to my first decently profitable year trading and the tax benefits are very necessary.
We are having our first child in 2 months and I am glad I will still be able to drive down to the beach in two minutes and have a dawn patrol surf sesh after getting no sleep and still "own" a place by the ocean with a hot shower.
Merry Christmas to you all and remember, while many have had their asses handed to them in real estate, most of these are people that should have never stopped renting. And for the ones that bought long ago and got sucked up into the refinancing for cash pyramid scheme, shame on them.
