How to Trade Up In Houses

We are slowly entering our summer in Costa Mesa, usually a time when the market tends to cool a bit as folks take holidays and vacations with family. As I have pounded into your heads in previous posts, there really isn’t much inventory out there to speak of. Why? Lots of folks don’t have reason to sell their Costa Mesa homes.

 

As many people are not selling, it gives me a reason to look at why you would sell your Costa Mesa real estate at this point – why? Are there good reasons? I know many of you might have refinanced to lower rates in the last year, and if you did, good for you. But let’s look at how some folks get rich in real estate: They move up.

 

One of my clients has a great story. They are on their fourth home in about 15 years time. They rented as a couple and saved for a down payment on a home. They started with a small 3-bedroom home, not unlike the one we are currently selling in the Mesa Verde neighborhood. They moved a neighborhood over, to a bigger four-bedroom home, moving about $100,000 in equity as the market advanced higher. After another 7 years, they moved again to a larger 4-bedroom home with all the features they wanted and moved this time with about $300,000 in equity with them. Now they will probably ride the market up again in the next handful of years until the kids are gone and they feel like downsizing. When do they do? That will be a savvy move too because they will be moving a chunk of change to a smaller home and hopefully cashing out, and buying without a mortgage.

 

This is a time when you can take advantage of the market – low, low interest rates can provide you with a very affordable mortgage, especially on a larger home. And How to Trade Up In Houses.

 

Here’s what mortgages look like at different tiers right now:

 

Mortgage Amount	Rate	Approx Monthly Payment
$200,000	3.50%	$898.09
$300,000	3.50%	$1,347.13
$400,000	3.50%	$1,796.18
$500,000	3.625%	$2,245.22
$600,000	3.625%	$2,736.31
$700,000	4.00%	$3,341.91

Money is cheap!!! Consider that if you were renting a million-dollar house, you would probably be spending about $4500/month in rent. A typical 3 bedroom in Costa Mesa now rents for almost $3,000, well over the $500,000 loan rate of $2245/month.

Costa Mesa real estate has finally tipped – it is cheaper to own a house in most circumstances than to rent one right now.

 

There are lots of other reasons to take advantage of mortgage trends in the Costa Mesa real estate market right now.

 

Need help? Call Colin Delaney at (714) 743-9882 or E-mail me.