[stephenNUTS]

The first issue in todays market is...you cannot just ASSUME you have $300K equity in a home anymore.The past few years home appreciation saw double-digit growth,and it was just taken for granted.

Well that has completley stopped or even reversed in most parts of the country.With the cap being $417K on a govt.backed FM jumbo loan.........mortgage money is EXTREMELY hard to come by ....esp. in higher markets,which puts even more pressure on prices as well

Now...for example if you own a home with a $250K mortgage and feel the house is "worth" or was appraised at $550k .....in theory you have $300k in equity.Selling that home and netting $300K is in no way a given anymore,and these assupmtions would be irresponsible on anyone thinking this way.

This is what fueled the "wealth affect" in this country.Homeowners just thought their homes would grow exponentially year over year...and if they ever had to sell or just tap into their homes equity,not only was it a given ...but monies were easily available

With the onset of the recent mortgage credit/home debacle...until your home is ACTUALLY SOLD...the same equity calculations are NO longer accurate in todays environment...at least for now IMO

So the idea of...."lets just sell and rent for awhile"...to save/earn/invest this extra money and park it in another investment vehicle....is not so easy or economically sensible anymore ...and to come up with a number that is convenient to YOU on paper is ludicrous and highly unlike as well

I am not trying to be the nay-sayer here(just trying to convey a realistic POV)....but that AVERAGE family/persons new "suddenly found" HIGH networth was squarely tied to their own homes equity in VERY LARGE percentage of households the last 5+ years

If your "$550k home" will only fetch $495k ...doesnt this whole scenerio/idea change drastically OP now?

Just my 2 cents

Stephen [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]