Give your house away? What the heck are you talking about? The value of your home is not determined by how much you owe, how much you need to buy another home, or how much it was worth last year. Your home's value is determined only by how much somebody with the ability to buy it is willing to pay. If you're happy enough where you live today, stay there. If you insist on getting on with your life and improving your family's living conditions, step through the reality threshold and sell your house.
Here are some trends for your consideration: Home prices over the next several years are going somewhere between no place and a little lower, and mortgage interest rates are going somewhere between no place and higher. If you insist on getting your home's 2005 value, you need a time machine, because you'll have to sell it in 2005. Likewise for 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. You already missed those trains, and another is about to leave the station.
If you're trading up or down, your house's value will move in tandem with the value of whatever you want to buy. Waiting will not change the equation. It will only make you older, and it will delay your lifestyle upgrade for a while, maybe forever. Now is the time to get realistic about the market, position your home competitively, and to start packing for your trip into that new lifestyle you and your family deserve. Call me for help before that next train leaves without you.
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