chasesfish
Recycles dryer sheets
Here's my situation – I'm debating a home move.
We are 31 and currently have $540,000 in retirement accounts and savings. Net worth is about the same, have about the same in home equity as we have in student loans @ 3%. I currently work for a megacorp with a pension I'm 10 years into. My wife also works and we make a really good income for our age (~ $200k combined). I also have a nice little pay bump (25-30k) built into my comp structure that starts hitting in just under 3 years. I think we saved around $75,000 last year.
I'm debating moving moving from the suburbs to “in-town”. We bought a nice, reasonable house in the suburbs because it was affordable and in a good area. It also is in a good school district, but little ones are probably not in our plans. This would be a lifestyle choice for me to regain 10 hours of my life a week I spend commuting. It would also allow my wife to more easily change jobs for similar income (currently works right next to the house, but has a geographic non-compete).
The equity in my current house would fund my down payment, even if I had to shuffle money around short-term
My current house in worth around $230,000 and the new house price range would be between $400,000 and $500,000. This would run my mortgage debt from $125k to $300-$400k.
I'm estimating it would be a one time hit of$25,000-$30,000 in transaction costs, then I would be increasing the interest cost on my home by $12,000/year and have increased property taxes of $2,500/year annually. The savings would be gas, lower maintenance, and regaining the 10 hours a week of my life I currently spend in a car getting angry at Atlanta traffic. We also would spend less time commuting on weekend activities that's starting to drive us nuts.
Has anyone else had to go through this decision process? How did the end result turn out? Any advice would be appreciated.
We are 31 and currently have $540,000 in retirement accounts and savings. Net worth is about the same, have about the same in home equity as we have in student loans @ 3%. I currently work for a megacorp with a pension I'm 10 years into. My wife also works and we make a really good income for our age (~ $200k combined). I also have a nice little pay bump (25-30k) built into my comp structure that starts hitting in just under 3 years. I think we saved around $75,000 last year.
I'm debating moving moving from the suburbs to “in-town”. We bought a nice, reasonable house in the suburbs because it was affordable and in a good area. It also is in a good school district, but little ones are probably not in our plans. This would be a lifestyle choice for me to regain 10 hours of my life a week I spend commuting. It would also allow my wife to more easily change jobs for similar income (currently works right next to the house, but has a geographic non-compete).
The equity in my current house would fund my down payment, even if I had to shuffle money around short-term
My current house in worth around $230,000 and the new house price range would be between $400,000 and $500,000. This would run my mortgage debt from $125k to $300-$400k.
I'm estimating it would be a one time hit of$25,000-$30,000 in transaction costs, then I would be increasing the interest cost on my home by $12,000/year and have increased property taxes of $2,500/year annually. The savings would be gas, lower maintenance, and regaining the 10 hours a week of my life I currently spend in a car getting angry at Atlanta traffic. We also would spend less time commuting on weekend activities that's starting to drive us nuts.
Has anyone else had to go through this decision process? How did the end result turn out? Any advice would be appreciated.