Meghan and I bought our house at the very peak of the market - APR 2006. I think interest rates and housing values have only fallen since. And because of that we are refinancing to a lower interest rate (from 6.5% to 5.125% though you can get 4.875% but it would take too long to explain the challenges of refinancing a non-conforming 80/20 loan - which is why we haven't refinanced until now). In order to do so we had to have an appraisal on our house. So we know that officially our house value has dropped 3.36% since then. I actually feel like that isn't too bad (which is a sad commentary on the state of the economy). Also for what it's worth Zillow's Zestimate was spot on.
While the housing market (and interest rates) may be bottoming - the stock market has had a pleasant rally. Had we panicked and changed our investment strategy we would be sorry today as the S&P 500 is up over 60% from the bottom - which amazingly enough was only 9 months ago in MAR 2009. While we are still ~17% below our 2007 highs - I feel much better about our savings balances.
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