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Condo value: inconclusive

October 14th, 2009 at 08:48 pm

A recent SA post about home values got me looking for what my condo would sell for. It's in one of two high-rise buildings with many similar units, so it's probably easier for me to determine my home's value than for homeowners with a unique house. (On the other hand, depending on the condition, the age of the appliances, and so on, values within our association can vary pretty widely.)

I found a handy site (trulia.com) that lists recently sold homes in a particular ZIP code. They listed six 2BR condos in my complex that had sold between January and late August of this year.

The three that had sold between January and April had been bought for $134K, $143K and $140K, for an average of $139K. Those are scary numbers because I have the condo valued at $160K!

But the three that sold from June to August went for $169K, $165K and $154K. That averages out to $162,500. Even though the most recent sale is significantly lower than the other two, that doesn't worry me too much because there are other factors. But to play it safe, I'm not going to move my own estimate of my home's worth up to $162.5. I'll keep it at $160K, especially since the market has not stopped roiling yet. (Plus, if we were to sell, I'm sure we'd have to do at least $2500 worth of repairs and upgrades to get it sellworthy.)

Kinda glad I missed that bottoming out of the values January-April. I didn't realize it had gotten that bad! (For comparison's sake, we bought for $207K; the home was originally for sale at $200K but we rolled closing costs in and it actually did get appraised at $207K.)

6 Responses to “Condo value: inconclusive”

  1. homebody Says:
    1255562874

    You are not selling are you? Enough room for the addition to the family?

  2. bromoney Says:
    1255567608

    I love that Trulia tool to determine home values.

  3. ceejay74 Says:
    1255573835

    Nope homebody, but I like to have an idea how much it's worth since I track our net worth, and it's one of my few assets. Smile
    bromoney: I just found it by accident Googling my address and "for sale"!

  4. Petunia Says:
    1255575533

    I like to keep track of our home's value too. We have at least one home for sale per year in our neighborhood; some of the houses are the same floor plan as ours. We have a ball park idea of what our house is worth - more than we paid for it, less than what it was at the height of the market. That Trulia thing sounds pretty handy. . . we just look at the "take mes" on the for sale signs.

  5. whitestripe Says:
    1255589404

    i also like to keep track of how much our house is worth - but i REALLY do not understand why people get upset about their house values plummeting if they are not planning on selling their house. (or borrowing against it etc)

    our intention is to hopefully make some money from the sale of our house in 10 years or so - but currently it's worth exactly what we paid for it (or less even). am i supposed to be bothered? i have just heard too many people upset over something that shouldn't really upset them. of course prices will go up eventually! Big Grin

  6. ceejay74 Says:
    1255616622

    You're right, of course, whitestripe, but net worth is one of the things I try to make progress on, so it bothers me when I lose huge chunks of net worth through no fault of my own. I know it's just on paper and our home will probably be worth a little more by the time we want to sell (5+ years), but I put too much significance into my net worth not to be bothered by home prices plummeting. For instance, right now I'm worth about $500. If our condo were suddenly worth $20K less, I'd be back to negative net worth.

    Silly, I admit it. If I do go back to negative net worth you'll have to help me snap out of it. Smile

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