I've run into several sellers this year who really want to move, but their house isn't worth what it used to be and they'll lose money if they sell. They're not upside down and can afford to take the loss, but they can't bring themselves to accept the fact that they've lost the equity that they had with real dollars, not from appreciation.
In all cases, these sellers were very unhappy with their current situation and hated where they lived. Three of them wanted to move out of state to be with aging relatives. But all of them decided that they would wait until their house appreciated sufficiently to make up for the equity they had lost. Unfortunately, it looks like they will be waiting quite a few years.
There are also a surprising number of homes for sale (in Tallahassee) that have been sitting vacant for many months, are owned free and clear, and are way overpriced. The sellers "aren't in a hurry" and are stubborn about the price, so the homes sit without activity and lose value as time goes by. And yet, the owners stress over the fact that the house hasn't sold and they have to keep paying property taxes, keep the yard maintained, etc.
Many of these are estate homes, left by parents to their children, so they're like "found money" that the new owners got without any effort. After two years of an estate home being on the market, a neighbor remarked to one such new owner, "Honey, sometimes you just need to let go. It's not always about the money".
We sometimes forget that money helps us live a certain lifestyle and we make decisions that cause us unhappiness or stress for fear of losing some of it. Is money more important than a happy life?
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