I’ve got two neighbors and a good friend out of state that have put their house on the market for no other reason than “they just want to move”.

All three couples have two kids, and all three live in good sized, three bedroom houses.  After pinging each of them that it’s really a great time to buy a house, so long as you can sell your existing one, they all followed with the same response: “we’re just bursting at the seems in our existing house, so it’s time for a change”.

Honestly, I can’t say that I agree that “we’re bursting at the seems” is a good enough reason to sell your house.  Two of the three couples will only get their money back from the initial purchase three years ago, and the third stands to make about $5,000.  And that’s if they get their asking price.

I can’t help but think that these three families are busting at the seems, not because if the increase in the number of kids they have, but because of the increase in “stuff” they have.  One has a basement that is packed so full of stuff you can’t even walk around in it; none of it is kids stuff.

I’ve gone to great lengths to get rid of the “stuff” my wife and I don’t use.  If there’s a box in the storage closet that hasn’t been opened in 5 years, there’s probably no good reason to keep it’s contents around.

What does every square foot of your house cost?

The way I look at storage is in mortgage payment per square foot.  Take the overall monthly house payment (add in taxes and insurance) and divide that number by the total square feet in your house.  Mine comes in at $0.65 per square foot.  So those Tupperware bins stacked up in the basement holding all my wife’s college t-shirts is costing me about $4 per month to store.

When you put it in those terms, those t-shirts sure would make good rags to wash the car with!

Frugal Living, Real Estate housing market, storage

I don’t usually lounge around on weekends and watch TV, but the four-day weekend has me unusually lazy. Or maybe it’s the left over tryptophan from Thanksgiving…

Anyway, one topic of discussion this morning on Fox’s Bulls and Bears show was finding the bottom of the housing market. A few of the talking heads were quick to point out that home builder stocks had dropped as much as 90% over the last year to 18 months, and that qualified them as a good buy, regardless of whether we’re at the bottom or not.

I disagree.

The stock market has the advantage of being able to predict where the housing market is going; one part statistics, one part speculation, if you will. All the housing market has is statistics; new home starts, mean housing values over the past 6-12 months, etc.

Personally I think there is still some bleeding to be had. In my opinion, the number of houses on the market and the mean housing value is the most significant parameter to look at in terms of finding a bottom. Right now, statistics show that the mean housing value has plateaued, but that statistic is skewed due to lack of movement of houses.

After people realize they’ll have to lower their asking price to sell their house, I suspect you’ll see the median housing prices fall.

At that point, it may be a good time to buy the housing market.

Investing, Market Trends, Real Estate housing market, housing stocks, Real Estate