Counting On The Equity In Your Home For Retirement?
Published 10-18-11 by Tony HunthausenHuntington Beach, CA: Are You Counting On The Equity In Your Home For Retirement?
If So You Definitely Need To Read On…
While cooling off recently after an unusually tough hot yoga session I was chatting with Steve, one of the other “older” class participants. My 26 y.o. lifeguard son took me to my first class a couple months ago, and before any of you “real men” joke about this sissy stretching activity you need to give it a try. You will find there is definitely nothing sissy about it.
Anyway, we started out talking about how the yoga had improved our fitness in ways we hadn’t thought about. For me it is a better score and less back pain on the golf course, and for my classmate it meant a stronger back and the ability to keep up with the younger guys on a recent surfing trip.
The conversation moved into a discussion about the economy and housing market once he found out I was a real estate broker. As it turns out Steve is 66 yrs old and still working. He wants to retire but was hit real hard in his retirement accounts by the 2001 and 2008 stock market down turns.
He knows that he has not put away enough to see he and his wife comfortably through their retirement years and so has continued to work a little longer than they had hoped. Fortunately he says he has about $600,000 of equity in his home.
If he works another 3 or 4 yrs he figures he will be in a position to retire when he adds his home equity into the mix. That statement took us off into an important discussion about where many economists believe the real estate market may be going…
At the end of this discussion I will give you some resources to check out that support the recommendations/suggestions about what it is you should consider doing if you have significant home equity and are counting on it to help fund your golden years.
Be looking for my next post or call me if you want to discuss.
1 in 8 Orange County Mortgage Holders are Underwater
Published 08-12-10 by Tony HunthausenHuntington Beach real estate/ Orange County real estate statistics compiled by Zillow.com for the quarter ending June 30th indicate that 1 in 8 Orange County single family homeowners are currently underwater. The good news is that this number has improved from 1 in 7 at the end of the first quarter of 2010.
To really put these numbers in perspective, there are more than 470,000 homes in the county that have a mortgage. That translates to almost 57,000 homeowners owing more on their homes then they are worth.
If we look at homes bought during the housing boom nationally at one point 4 of every 10 were underwater. At the end of the second quarter of 2010 21.5 percent of homeowners nationwide were underwater. When we combine LA and Orange Counties, the comparable number is 16.9%.
Overall the numbers both nationally and in the local Huntington Beach Real Estate market have been moving in the right direction, but we have a long way to go.
Happy Thanksgiving to All!
Published 12-17-09 by Tony HunthausenTony Hunthausen talks about a couple of the needs Homes For a Better World will be focusing on within the local community this holiday season and wishes everyone a happy Thanksgiving!
Hunthausen Group is the premier Real Estate Team for Huntington Beach and surrounding areas. SellingHuntingtonBeach.com is a comprehensive website with up-to-date local real estate information and breaking news. Consider the experts at Hunthausen Group for all your Real Estate needs. A portion of the proceeds of each transaction go to supporting the needs within the local community.
