To move or not to move...

I’ve previously mentioned my thoughts on wanting a new house.

In a nutshell, A and I are ready for a little more space.  We love our townhouse and have owned it for 7 years, but we’re ready for an actual yard and a little more room.  The problem?  Our house is valued at nearly half of what we paid for it.  Ouch.  At the time we purchased it, we thought we were doing everything right… investing in a home, putting down the 20% necessary to obtain a conventional mortgage.  Ha.  We would have been better off renting.

So we either rent our current home and try to gain a bit more equity, or we short sell it, or we just stay put.

Also, we aren’t in a position to fund another 20% down payment.  So I’m not sure we can even get financing considering we already have one mortgage.  Yikes.  We’d also have to pay PMI.  Yuck.

Ideally, we’d like to rent our current house and purchase a new house, putting down about 10% - maybe a little more.  Easier said than done.  I’m not sure it’s a possibility.

Today, A and I meet with a good friend who works in real estate.  I’m hoping he’ll have some answers for us.  I realize we also need to meet with a mortgage broker, but this is a start.  Hopefully he will provide some direction.

So where would we like to move???  Haha.  In typical fashion, I think I’ve changed my mind about ten times.  At first, I really wanted to move to a nearby city.  It’s about 15-20 minutes west of our current town.  The schools are decent, but most importantly you get a lot more property for what you pay.  A was on board and on a whim one day, we went to check out neighborhoods.  I liked them enough and so did A.  And then it hit me.  Sure these neighborhoods were nice enough, but if we moved, it meant finding a new preschool for W, a new doggy day care, new favorite restaurants, a new church, etc.  And I didn’t want to find new places.  I love our current places.  I also love being near my mom.  The only downfall is I’m not completely happy with the school system.  Maybe private school will be an option.  We’ll cross that bridge when the time comes.

Obviously, I do not handle change well.  I hate being out of my comfort zone.  So I asked A what he thought about looking for a house near our current home.  Again he was on board (that husband of mine is so easy going).

So we started looking in our current neighborhood.  That’s right.  We looked just down the street.  Yes, we’re a little crazy.  BUT we already know we love our neighborhood.  And lo and behold, there are 2 houses in our price range that have a lot of potential (there were 3 as of Monday, but it looks like an offer was put in… darn).

I’m not sure what will happen or if we’ll even be able to move.  I’m hopeful, but also realistic.