Your Home Is Not Your Nest Egg?

By
Real Estate Agent with Houlihan Lawrence, Associate Broker

 

 

     The baby boomers had an additional pension for their retirement, it was their home.  They paid their mortgage, as they paid the bank their equity increased. It was as if they had an additional stock market account.  The piece of the American Dream increased as the housing boom took hold.  The stockmarket has cycles and now comes the housing downturn so, the value of their homes is diminishing too.  There are definite differences between the value of your stock market account and your home.  First, the market fluctuates daily whiles homes are affected by the same economic conditions, values do not change drastically overnight.  And, you can sell a stock over the Internet in a matter of minutes you can't do that with your home today.  The premise of the article in today's Wall Street Journal defines the differences for us read, Why Your Nest Is Not Your Next Egg

Comments (6)

Charlie Ragonesi
AllMountainRealty.com - Big Canoe, GA
Homes - Big Canoe, Jasper, North Georgia Pros
Good [post and with reverse mortgages becoming more popular the nest egg has some liquidity to it as well
Feb 12, 2008 10:56 PM
Renee Stengel
Houlihan Lawrence, Associate Broker - Katonah, NY
Westchester County

Charles,

I totally agree, thanks for your feedback.

Feb 12, 2008 11:00 PM
Brian Schulman
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Lancaster PA - Lancaster, PA
Lancaster County PA RealEstate Expert 717-951-5552
Renee, as people lose confidence in the value of their homes, it affects how they spend on everything else, which is part of the psychology of the present economic slowdown.
Feb 12, 2008 11:11 PM
Renee Stengel
Houlihan Lawrence, Associate Broker - Katonah, NY
Westchester County
Brian, I totally agree with you.  But then throw into the mix historical real estate trends.  All parts of the country are different too.
Feb 13, 2008 12:00 AM
Cassie Hansley
Wilikinson and Associates - Lincolnton, NC

I spoke with a lady a few weeks ago that was looking at refinancing out of the arm rate she had. We looked at her situation, and she owed 135K and the house would only appraise for 118K now. Two years ago it appraised or 135K. Sadly she has owned the home for over 15 years and did a consolidation 2 years ago and now she is stuck. People must be careful with the equity in their homes.

Feb 13, 2008 12:42 AM
Renee Stengel
Houlihan Lawrence, Associate Broker - Katonah, NY
Westchester County

Hi Cassie,

The downturn will really effect many homeowners.  I believe in the real estate market but who knows who long it will take to come back.

Feb 13, 2008 10:27 AM

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