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Well one thing is for sure. You are in a great housing market. Depends exactly where you are though. We sold from the McLean area about 5 years ago and did very well.
A friend just sold a 55 YO property in a nice neighborhood McLean 22101 for over $800,000. It sold as a tear down.
Thank you. Once I had written everything down, the answer became clear to me. It's time to sell.
Funny..that's what I was going to post as I read my way down the list of other posts.
Sometimes "getting it out there" clears it all up.
When it's still all in your head it's a jumble of random thoughts.
Putting it on paper, talking about it, forces you to organize and verbalize.
And sometimes that's all you need to get your answer.
If retiring, will be relocating (not in that area), and the house keeps appreciating (desirable location) I say wait for retirement. Do it all at once.
perhaps you should find out what your house is worth today, what each year's appreciation of the last 4-5 have been, and what happened in your area (zip if applicable, probably your subdivision) in 2007-2009.
but generally, yes - glad that typing it out made it clear what the right choice for YOU is.
Thank you. Once I had written everything down, the answer became clear to me. It's time to sell.
fwiw, I happen to agree with this.
Because if you don't, then you have the stress of watching to see if the housing market in your area crashes between now and 2 years from now, when you already plan to move anyway.
Is there any chance of escalating that 2 year time frame? Maybe you sell now, rent for now, but look for portable telecommuting jobs you can take with you to a lower priced area? Or even lower paid jobs where the money would be manageable if the cost of living is lower enough to make it all work.
One really big plus to selling now is that you have a lot more flexibility to move sooner and on shorter notice if some great opportunity came up - even in a seller's market, the selling process still takes a certain amount of time no matter what. Just make sure that either do a month-to-month lease or have a clause in it so you can break the lease if you need/want to.
My "kids" are adults. They live with me and contribute to housing costs.
That $1300 a month mortgage is to start. Adding in maintenance and hoa, I'm paying at least $20,000/year in housing. That is excluding the big ticket items that are coming in the next 3-5 years and includes a roof/HVAC/hot water heater/etc.
So, if I keep this house for 5 years, I risk having to outlay an additional $20,000 (and that's a conservative estimate and assuming no surprises) in cash for a new roof and new HVAC system. To keep pace with the neighborhood, I also need to do redo the kitchen and bathrooms.
Renting would total about $25,000 year in my target area (less commute, bigger house). Again, if the kids live with me, they pay a share of the cost of the housing.
I could choose a less expensive area. As the kids move out (they talk about this all the time); I could get a smaller house and/or apartment.
If it's only my husband and me, we could be very happy in a small apartment for about $1600/month even if something happened and we decided to stay in this area.
I don't know if the area will keep appreciating. I have no idea how buyers are affording housing as it is.
If you weighed out the pros and cons and decided to sell and rent I wish you luck, no need to panic if you and your husband have reasoned everything out.
I think I'm the contrarian that you should sell. You know you will retire elsewhere and you will have time to do some exploring of other areas. If your home is sold, you could potentially purchase your retirement home in another city while continuing to work in the DC area until retirement. I've had people rent out their future retirement home for a couple of years while they finish up work and then they fix it up and move in. Selling now gives you flexibility in case we go into a recession. You might find a good deal on your retirement home and be in a position to buy it if your home is sold.
I think I'm the contrarian that you should sell. You know you will retire elsewhere and you will have time to do some exploring of other areas. If your home is sold, you could potentially purchase your retirement home in another city while continuing to work in the DC area until retirement. I've had people rent out their future retirement home for a couple of years while they finish up work and then they fix it up and move in. Selling now gives you flexibility in case we go into a recession. You might find a good deal on your retirement home and be in a position to buy it if your home is sold.
Thought I would just add those thoughts in.
It's not really a contrarian position when several others including the OP have already posted the same conclusion. Welcome to the club!
Renting can give you a lot of flexibility and peace of mind when you know you don't want to stay in an area for the long term. Selling a house and moving will be stressful regardless of whether it's the "right" decision.
I suspect the Northern Virginia area is at peak pricing now (which is how I feel about my own suburban community of Nassau County, Long Island, or my hometown of Los Angeles), but that doesn't mean it will crash - just that prices may hold steady or slowly decrease. Probably better to cash out at the peak since you don't have a huge amount of equity in the house, and you're thinking of retiring and leaving the area sooner rather than later.
Good luck on this adventure.
And there are no right or wrong answers, you'll find your way somehow. There are clear benefits both to staying put and selling/renting in preparation for a move to a cheaper locale.
BTW, I really like the idea of seriously exploring the towns you might want to live in during retirement and exploring the feasibility of continuing to work there, remotely if possible.
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