When did you buy your home and do you think it's gone up or down in value?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have lived in Laurel, MD for 19 years.

Good news: Bought 1st house in 1995 for $139K and sold in 2008 for $315K (and only owed about $45K on it when sold).

Bad news: We built our dream house here in 2006. We spent $719K in order to get all the features we wanted. We put $180K down. Now worth about $450K.

Good news: It's still our dream house. We intend to stay here for a while (we're having twins in September) so we don't care. At the rate I pay, we should have the mortgage paid off in 2024 (18 years total), then the value will be positive again. Plus, there is good construction/infrastructure going on nearby that will raise the property values again that is currently in progress.

$719k in Laurel just sounds like a really bad idea in general. At least you are going anywhere, but even in 2024 I doubt the values will be so positive that houses in Laurel regularly go for above $700k.

[Anonymous]

Bought in 1998 in downtown Bethesda for $400,000. Spent about $150,000 in upgrades. Can probably sell for $1.2 million and someone would tear it down and build a McMansion.

[Anonymous]

Bought in 2002 in Vienna, close to the metro, for 590k. Now worth about 750k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
$719k in Laurel just sounds like a really bad idea in general. At least you are going anywhere, but even in 2024 I doubt the values will be so positive that houses in Laurel regularly go for above $700k.

I don't know...while the market is depressed, there are several developments that will make a big difference. PG County, the new owner of the Laurel Mall and the owner of the nearby Konterra major development have all start recommitting money to these projects (and work has already started) which will bring significant improvements to the area and infrastructure. There are several areas that are still in the 600K-1M range right now in this bad market.

I've lived here in Laurel for 20 years and I think you're wrong about this market.

[Anonymous]

Bought in 2010 in Bethesda for 1.3m. A short-sale from a developer. Banks lost $700k on that one ($2m in loans). It's worth at least as much as our purchase price.

Then bought the house behind us a few months ago for 600k, since we had no back yard (will rent it out a few years, then make it a backyard). Also a short-sale, and banks lost 130k on that one.

It's all a matter of timing. We were really lucky to be entering the market at exactly the right times.

[Anonymous]

Bought in chevy chase in 2007 for 1.25m. It's now worth about the same or a little less. The problem is we really stretched to buy because we assumed it would greatly appreciate like housing had in the last 10+ years. We took an interest only 5 yr arm. Next fall it will be adjustable and I worry about not being able to make the payments. We would like to refinane, but they won't refinance if you don't have at least 20 percent equity, which we don't. Because it's interest only we won't get equity until the market improves. Also, we have a second loan (recommended by mortgage person) which is at 9 percent that we want to refinance but no one is doing 2nd loans anymore. I know we are fortunate in so many ways, but our mortgage is about half our take home and it's constant struggle and worry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$719k in Laurel just sounds like a really bad idea in general. At least you are going anywhere, but even in 2024 I doubt the values will be so positive that houses in Laurel regularly go for above $700k.

Another thing is that I have a friend who bought in MoCo the same time we did. He spent about $30K more than I did. I got a brand new house that we customized to fit our needs (including a full bedroom and bath on the first floor since my MIL and father cannot handle steps). He got a 20 year old house that was much smaller. I personally think that even if the price is lower than we bought it at, by the time my mortgage will be paid off that we will have more than made up the difference by enjoying this larger house for those 18 years. I know that I personally would not have paid what he paid to get the house than he got. Of course, it helps that both my wife and I are feds and we both work in PG County less than 30 minutes from here. I also would never pay that much to live in MoCo and deal with a 45 min commute each way to work. The money that we save by buying in Laurel vs buying in MoCo to get the same size house will more than make up if we have to send out kids to private school.

[Anonymous]

We're in Arlington - bought for 290K in 2000 and now assessed close to 600K.