Thursday, September 16, 2010

Sell home and upgrade or Stay Put?

My family currently lives in a 2350 sq ft 4/3/3car home in New Tampa, FL. The location is great as lots of retail development (malls, etc.) is forthcoming. The challenge is that we'd like to find a slightly larger home with more land to accommodate for our future family's growth. We're hearing that it's a buyer's market (good leverage for us looking to buy but not so good if we need to sell our home to buy a new one). Other complexity is the locations with more square footage and lot size in our price range are not near the modern retail conveniences we enjoy. Land/home prices have increased overall in Florida (as well as taxes and insurance). We expect that they will continue to do over time. We're wondering if we should take on a larger home (a small stretch) now vs. waiting five years and potentially find ourselves priced out of the market. Any perspectives from those in the real estate arena are welcome.