There was an infographic about Waterloo Region circulating last week stating amongst other things that Waterloo Region had the second best performing economy in Canada. (I wonder who is first?) So, it’s probably not the place for this kind of question, but in the interest of science…
Would you sell your home to lock in profits before a real estate price drop?
If you knew that there was going to be a price drop then the answer would probably be “yes”. But you don’t know. You can never know.
For most of us, our home is our largest investment. But most of us don’t see our homes as a pile of cash in the bank. Most of us, if we think of the equity at all, think about it in terms of downsizing when we are old and grey, moving into a condo and taking the extra cash and finally traveling. Some of us that have thought of our house as more than a home have also leveraged the equity and bought an investment property or two.
There has been a lot of noise in the media that home prices have hit their peak. Personally, I don’t agree and I don’t trust the media, or statistics or the government for that matter.
Home prices are at record levels, it’s true and some markets like Vancouver and Toronto may be over heated (don’t say bubble) but now is not the best time to sell. House prices have been at record levels since the mid ‘90‘s. Never is the best time to sell if you’re basing that decision on getting the highest price. Besides, where would you live? Would you rent? And there are far too many variables to determine if this (or ever) is as high as house prices will ever go. After all, house prices always go up (in the long run). At least they always have.
Finally, if you took your money out of real estate, where would you put it, into stocks and bonds? Actually now might be a great time to buy RIM stock. It’s at an all time low.
