Home Ownership History

[Time2]

Was just reviewing, and thought I'd share the summary of our home ownership. We've owned 4 homes in our lifetimes, from an investment standpoint they weren't great returns...

• Bought our first home OH in 1981 for $58K , lived there for 8.5 years, it has appreciated from 1981 to 2023 3.1% per year.
• Second home bought FL in 1990, lived there 3 years, it has appreciated 3.6% per year.
• Third home bought IN 1993, lived there 26.5 years, it has appreciated 2.8% per year.
• Current home bought NC 2019, lived here 3.5 years so far, appreciation 11.4% per year so far. Good times so far...

I am sure some of you have had far greater appreciation, but my career took me to flyover country mostly...

We've been in our home 28 years, we have about a 4.5% growth rate.
If we has sold at the peak in 2007, it would have been a little over 8%. We have been through some ups and downs.

 

[Out of Steam]

I just looked at the townhouse I should have kept.

We've also had a house we should have kept, our first in the DC area. The choice was between an addition turning the smallest bedroom into a large bedroom with bath, or moving to a larger house.

We chose moving. Hindsight says that the addition would have been a better financial choice.

 

[RetireEarly50s]

We have owned 5 so far and have done pretty well especially on the last 2:

San Antonio, 1998 for 70k, sold for 90k in 2003
Tucson, 2003 for 160k, sold for 177k in 2010
Colorado Springs, 2012 for 250k, sold for 270k in 2014
Scottsdale, 2015 for 280k, sold in 2019 for 429k
Scottsdale, 2019 for 470k, currently valued at 720k

 

[Alan]

You need to be careful as $250K exclusion rule applies if you owned the house and actually lived in it during two years out of the last five years.

Good point, plus I think the exclusion only applies to your primary home, so the person you sell to to buy back from should not already own a house.

 

[RetireBy90]

First house in 85. Paid $40K, rented it out in 87 and sold in 92 I think for $75K. Some 60%

Second in 91. Paid $145K, sold in 2007 for $372K, Some 150%
Current in 2007, $530K, worth about $750K some 40%.



All these times we paid no rent, so I figure we made tons as mortgage was normally slightly more (10-15%) than renting and we ended up with a house. Not sure how to figure that return but it worked for us. I look at it like a stock, you get dividends and appreciation. Gotta figure both to get return.



The posts so far are very interesting. I have no expertise and must have just been blessed with our returns on homes. I know people that always seemed to have bad timing and lost on homes if you only compare what was paid vs what it was sold for. We managed to buy in pullbacks somehow. First 2 times the timing was when the Army moved us so not our genius skills that provided good returns.

 

[Out of Steam]

Good point, plus I think the exclusion only applies to your primary home, so the person you sell to to buy back from should not already own a house.

The idea of selling and staying in the house seems to work only if the buyer was willing to lease it back to you to live in, probably an adult child or other relative.

 

[athena53]

The idea of selling and staying in the house seems to work only if the buyer was willing to lease it back to you to live in, probably an adult child or other relative.

That could work- as I noted, my brother would have the funds to do this and would be trustworthy. Something to consider. In the meantime, I continue to upgrade and typically the upgrades don't add as much to the market value as they cost, so that helps. Just did more window replacements (likely nota capital improvement) and next year I'll replace/upgrade the shower and Jacuzzi (Jacuzzis are not a thing anymore) in the master bath.

 

[wrigley]

Tangentially related. My Dad bought his last home in 1963 for $23K. Sold 2019 for $475K. Zillow says it’s worth $544K today.

Funny. My dad bought his first and only home in Chicago in 1959 for $19,000 when my mother was pregnant with me. My mother still lives in that home today.

Mike

 

[4legsgood]

I bought my first house in 1991 for $95k and sold it in 1999 for $185k.

I bought second house in 2001 for $270k, now valued by tax assessor at $1.2m.

I bought a cabin in 2012 for $220k, now valued at $640k.

This is in the greater Seattle area.