If you own a product in high demand, like a house in today's market, sometimes it's best to sell, and sometimes it isn't.
For the first time ever, homeowners who make the median income, about $50,000 before taxes, made more money in house appreciation than they did at their jobs. The median price of a home in America in 2021 was $321,634, which represents an increase of $52,667 from a year ago, according to Zillow.
Some people read that statement and decide now must be the time to sell their house and cash in, so to speak, while others come to the opposite conclusion -- namely that owning property is one of the best ways to gain wealth in America. Let's further unpack this.
Scenario No. 1: Selling your home
In most areas of the country, you'll probably make a substantial profit on your house if you sell today because of its increased value. You can thank high housing demand, low supply, and low mortgage rates for the gift you received. Now would be a great time to sell if you're planning to move to a less expensive area, are ready to downsize, or both.
Otherwise, selling your house during an extreme sellers' market, which is what we have today, might not put you ahead financially. Unless you plan to couch surf or take up the van life, you'll need to buy a house (or become a renter).
Assuming you want to buy a house, you'd no longer be in the driver's seat as you were when you were selling. You're now in a pool, competing with many other buyers. If you live in a city experiencing population growth, such as Atlanta, Dallas, Salt Lake City, or Boise, you might find yourself competing with buyers from more expensive cities or states who might have more money than you to put down.
California homeowners, for instance, gained $160,000 on their home value, significantly more than the median. If your house increase was closer to the median, you might be competing with Californians who are leaving that state flush with cash. Investors are also on the homebuying scene, both mom-and-pop types and corporations. As you can see, selling your home during these inflated times can work, but only in certain situations.
Scenario No 2: Holding onto your home
If you're sitting on (or in this case in) a product people want and are clamoring to have, that product might be worth holding onto. And with a home, you don't have to say goodbye to all those dollars you're missing out on by not selling. If you want to see some of that cash, you could tap the equity you've gained from the increased house value and use it for a number of things, such as paying off credit cards, to consolidate debt, improve or renovate your home, or as a down payment to get a second home to use as investment or vacation property.
Even if you don't want to tap into your home's equity, you might want to just sit back and ride this house appreciation out for a while. Experts are predicting homes to rise for the whole of 2022. No one has yet been predicting an end to the price increases, which usually means the event is too far out in the future to make an accurate prediction.
Although you could make significant money selling your home today, you might be better off keeping it -- at least for a while longer.
