Buying a different house...WWYD?

[disabledvetswife]

Okay, if you remember any of my posts, DH and I had a dilemma....move to PA or stay in FL. We've been back & forth on this decision FOREVER! At first, we decided to move to PA for the better school system. Then we decided to stay in FL because both our kids have full tuition & fees scholarships to college from the State (because DH is a disabled vets). Then we were back to moving to PA because that's where 99.9% of his family is (my family is EXTREMELY small & we don't see each other often, even though we all (5 of us, including Uncles & Aunts) live within 9 miles of each other).

Well, now we've decided to stay in FL, but move to another house because we've outgrown this one & we want a better neighborhood. We also cannot pass up the college scholarships - as that is just way too great of a benefit for 2 kids! Also, the house prices there for a "so-so" house are the same for a "wowza" house here. We want space ... and land. Numerous other reasons we decided to stay here.

We have way more than enough equity built up in this house, so that when we sell it (even in the down economy), we will have more than enough to put down 20% on the new house.

The debt we have now (not including the house):
Car payment $450 (17K remaining)
CC min payment $100 (7k remaining)

We have enough in savings to wipe out the CC.

Here's my question(s):

1. Would you wipe out your savings to pay off the CC?

2. Would you take the extra $$ from the sale of this house, put down the 20% on the new house & take the remaining proceeds to pay off the CC & pay down the car?

3. What to do with any extra $$ we have left over NOW (until the house sells): put in savings, towards, CC, etc?

Thanks!

[Dengineer]

Two questions--

Are houses selling in your neck of the woods?

Describe "outgrown" when it comes to your house.


Personally, I wouldn't move at all if I were you. I don't mean to be a big bummer, but it's a pretty bad time to sell a house. The Florida market is worse than most, so it's doubtful that you would be able to sell your house at any price. If you had to move because of a job relocation, you would have to try, but in your case it sounds like the move is optional right now.

In answer to some of your other questions--if your income is relatively stable, in your situation we would keep $1000 and use the rest of the savings to pay down the credit cards. When those are gone we would start paying down the car.

[disabledvetswife]

Houses are selling rather well in my neck of the woods. The house right next door sold within 3 weeks of being listed - for a decent enough price (not a foreclosure). The house directly behind me took awhile, but that was because it was a skip-town foreclosure and the neighborhood "rats" went at it with a baseball bat (major damage to plumbing, electrical, etc.).

Our neighborhood is no longer "ideal" for us. We have no yard for the kids to play in, the house itself is too small for us. Also, we are not in the school district we want to be in. There is no place to set up an office, which I must have. I will not make my kids share a room when there is no reason too. This house was purchased as a starter house & now that our family is set and salaries are stable, we want to purchase our dream home.

I started to completely pay off the credit card yesterday, but DH didn't want me to. We are not quite ready to put the house on the market & he wanted cash on hand for the little things that need to be done to get our house market ready. He also wants cash on hand to do little things to the new house before we move in (ie: clean floors, fresh paint, etc.)

He said if our house sells for what the next door house sells for (ours is a bit bigger, newer, more updated & has a pool), we will have more than enough to pay off the credit card, put 20% down on the new house & payoff most of the car.

We seem to be at the price point that is selling in our area. The houses we want to move to are not selling (I guess because they are in the $300k range).