How do you view your home?

[docstudent]

I think it depends mainly on where you home is located. I have members that have lived in their homes for over 20 yrs and have gained minimal in equity. On the flip side, in Southern California, I know people to have personally made $500,000 to $750,000 in the timespan of a decade. In most instances, they moved to LCOLA and purchased a property outright. Since I live in a high market state, my condo is part of my retirement plan. If I lived in some regions of the Midwest or South, it would not be my approach. In a decade, my unit has almost appreciated by $200,000, and I expect it to continue to grow by retirement.

[disneysteve]

I think it depends mainly on where you home is located. I have members that have lived in their homes for over 20 yrs and have gained minimal in equity. On the flip side, in Southern California, I know people to have personally made $500,000 to $750,000 in the timespan of a decade.

I'm sure that colors one's outlook. We're in an area where there is very little appreciation. We bought our home in 1994 for $142,000 and today, if we're really lucky, we might be able to get $250,000 for it and probably less. So maybe a $100,000 gain in 25+ years which is hardly anything. But that's just fine because it wasn't purchased as an investment. I really don't care what it sells for.

[msomnipotent]

Today while doing a coffee run with my neighbor it came up that he views his house as part of his retirement plan. He has another 15 years until his youngest is done with high school (he's 4)! So he feels he'll get $2M out of the sale of his home at that time. That money will go to their retirement accounts and make them true up. They just bought some cheap land and are planning on building a house to "retire" in 15 years.

I told him I came to realization I have 10 more years until my DK2 graduates high school so 2030. But my DH has already said he's working until 2034 (hoping DK2 is done in 4 years !) Anyway at that time he'll be 55. I want to sell our home and start traveling and maybe move somewhere warmer for 6 months. I think our number of $5M will be feasible if not ridiculously too much. But that being said in 15 years our house is on a 30 year note and won't be paid off mostly because I wasn't planning on staying on it.

But at the same time he asked my why wasn't i considering cashing in on the house and using it for retirement $$. I don't know. I guess I never viewed my house as savings. It's just a place to live. I do view any investment properties as investments. But our house? That's the problem with living HCOLA. The home takes up such a large part of your net worth usually. It also is expensive and lots of times it turns into a little bank.

What do people do when they retire? Cash in the house? Have you viewed it as extra money? Is it extra money because you do need a place to live, but perhaps not so big. Not so much property taxes, maintenance, etc. I hadn't considered this in detail yet. My $5M number was solely based on our investments. But I am starting to wonder should I count home equity? Should I instead say our number is hit sooner if we can cash out?

I'm curious to know how your neighbor is coming up with the $2m number, especially considering that it is 15 years into the future. Tell him I want some lotto numbers from him. We have been in our house 12 years now and are looking at a $60,000 loss, up from a $90,000 deficit a few years ago. According to Zillow, our cottage has gained $100,000 in value in the 7 years we have owned it. We expected a small loss or break even at this point. There is no way to tell what your house will be worth 15 years from now.

For retirement, I was hoping/expecting a wash. Our daughter graduates HS in 3 years (!!!!). Up until very recently, I had expected to be able to sell this house and buy a townhome/small home with the proceeds. Now I know that my husband will want another McMansion and we will have our nephew, so a 2 bedroom townhome is out of the question. At this point, I'm counting the expenses as expenses but not counting any equity or have any plans for it until we either sell it or retire. Our needs change too much with too little warning.