Should I sell my house in a depressed market to buy another, or wait until mine appreciates?

Your logic is flawless, but you are assuming all parties play by the rules.

If you agree your purchase and then the buyer of your property drops their bid? It's a flat market, so speculators are going to be hunting for bargains.

If you don't have to move follow the market and see how sales develop before putting your toe in the water.

You are exactly right. There is no degree of correctness here. You are 100% correct and this balance always exists.

Most people miss this basic understanding. The concept of whether the market is best for buyers or sellers only has real significance when you are in the special circumstance when you only have to do one of those things.

The large group of people like you who have to both sell and buy are in a neutral position as far as those issues go. Any advantage you get on one side of the market is canceled by your participation on the other side. Only buyers who don't need to sell can benefit from the buyers' market. If you don't do as well as you had hoped on the sale of your home, it will be made up by the bargain you can get when you buy. In a different market, the opposite is true.

Of course, there are some other considerations such as the timing of both deals. The current buyers' market means that selling may take more time so it can be problematic if you have to buy contingent upon the sale of your home. Since there are more homes for sale than buyers, you almost are required to get your home sold first before you buy. Then if your buyers are solid in their qualifications, it is quite reasonable to buy contingent upon closing your sale.

Good luck.

I am in a similar situation in No. Calif. and made a huge fatal error in January 2007 and bought in cash when everyone thought the market had bottomed out. They economy is so bad, and there are no jobs and my savings is running out.

I think the question is "will someone buy your house??" People seem to only be buying repos etc. It's hard work dealing with a home sale - very stressful and people will probably make you offers that will infuriate you. And then you will have seller's fees of 6%.

Go to the best realtor in your local area and ask for a list of homes sold and what the asking price was and what they ACTUALLY sold for and how long on the market.

Things are always only worse in the winter and over holidays.

I am going to wait until Feb or March and hope that there is something positive that happens with the election and the economy. The feds are supposed to be taking over all these repos to hold and get them off the market (for better or worse). Will they hold them? or list them for low prices?

The whole answer is getting all the repos off the market so people will have to buy just regular homes - not from desparate people. Also people need to get financing - and right now they can't.

Good luck! We all need it right now.

Yes you're correct ... any advantaged gained by waiting for your house to appreciate ... will be lost on any house you purchase also appreciating ... if you buy and sell in the same market sphere ... whether high or low ... the nett affect is the same.

Ideally ... the thing to do is buy now and hold off selling until the market recovers a little ... but that's not always a financially viable option ... it also depends on how much equity you have in your existing home

That is correct if you are buying a similarly priced home. If you are upgrading to a more expensive home then you will probably save more money buying the new house then you will lose selling your old house. If you are downgrading to a less expensive house then you will probably lose more money selling your house then you will save buying the new house. This is because the prices generally declined the same percentage. So if your house was valued at $300,000 and it lost 10% it is now worth $270,000 and you are losing $30,000. If you are buying a house that was worth $500,000 and it lost 10% you are paying $450,000 and saving $50,000 which is more than the $30,000 you lost by selling your house.

if you can get a mortgage right now and you can meet the payments i would sell and up grade now to a bigger house in a smarter area

Now is the time if you are in the position to do so.

i'd sell. truth be told, we dont know and have no idea when the market will actually turn around