Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

Disclosure

  • Home
  • Your Survival
    • EMP Threat
    • Tucker Explains
    • Newport Gas Outage
    • Water
      • Emergency Water Storage
      • Let There Be Water
    • Get Your Gun and Your Training Now
    • Satellite Phones
    • Navy SEAL Survival Kit
  • Your Money
    • Coronavirus Infects Stock Market
    • Looking for a Better America
    • You Invest, They Win
    • Where to Keep Your Cash
    • Paris
    • How to Buy a Boat
    • Dead or Alive? The Future of Long-Term Investing
    • Is Vanguard too Big?
    • Cryptocosm and Life After Google
    • The Last Intelligence Report
    • The Truth Behind the S&P 500
    • RAGE Gauge
    • How Many “Retirees” Will Keep Working?
    • Your Retirement Life
    • You’ll Love This if You’re Dreaming of an Active Retirement Life
  • Weapons
    • Self Defense
    • Every Family Should Own at Least One Shotgun: Here Are Three
  • About Me
    • Preparing for Times Like These
    • My Videos/Pics
    • Music
      • RIP Neil Peart: You Will Always Be Remembered as a “Modern-Day Warrior”
  • You
    • Our Cabin on Kodiak, Alaska
    • If You Are in Pain, this May Help. It Helped Me.
    • How to Save for a Grandchild
    • FIRE! Financial Independence, Retire Early
    • Compound Interest
    • Arithmetic of Portfolio Losses
    • Maximum Portfolio Withdrawal Rate
    • An Efficient Frontier
    • Retirement Compounders
    • Counterbalanced Total Returns
  • Survive & Thrive
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • Welcome

It’s Never a Bad Time to Downsize Your Home

September 18, 2020 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

By Aleutie @ Shutterstock.com

Now, more than ever may be a good reminder that it’s never a bad time to downsize your home. Americans are house rich and cash poor, not a great mix in times of economic turmoil.

Wealth in cash is very liquid, you can spend it on what you need when you need it. Even stocks and bonds are relatively easy to sell to generate funds. But houses, they’re a lot harder to sell quickly if you want to get all the value from them you deserve.

In the Wall Street Journal, Ryan Dezember explains how many house-rich but cash-poor Americans are faring today, writing:

Americans with mortgages have accumulated nearly $10 trillion in home equity thanks to a decade of rising home prices. Yet millions of them have fallen behind on mortgage payments and risk losing their houses.

It is a potential bonanza for rental-home investors. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, big single-family landlords have raised billions of dollars for homebuying sprees.

Even if there isn’t a surge in repossessed homes to buy cheaply off the courthouse steps—which led to the emergence of Wall Street’s landlords during the foreclosure crisis a decade ago—there is likely to be a lot of forced sales and new renters.

“A lot of people are house-rich but cash-poor,” said Ivy Zelman, chief executive of real-estate consultant Zelman & Associates. “If they bought in the last two or three years, even if they bought five months ago, they have equity.”

Having plenty of home equity but reduced means to keep making payments could prompt many to sell while prices are high and exit homeownership with a cash cushion, Ms. Zelman said.

People behind on their payments aren’t being kicked out of their houses yet because of federal and local restrictions on foreclosure enacted during the pandemic. Many with federally guaranteed mortgages have entered forbearance, which allows them to skip payments for up to a year without penalty and make them up later.

Some 3.5 million home loans—a 7.01% share—were in forbearance as of Sept. 6, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Many more borrowers are behind on their payments but not in forbearance programs with their lenders.

Downsizing your home to a smaller house and pocketing the proceeds from your larger house can give you added liquidity in times like these.

Action Line: Be careful not to tie too much of your wealth up in illiquid assets like a big house, an expensive vehicle, or a piece of modern art. If you need cash quickly, these may be hard to sell, and if you can sell them, it may be at a steep loss. Start looking for a better America today.

The following two tabs change content below.
  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Instagram profile

E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Instagram profile

Latest posts by E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy (see all)

  • Are $2,000 Checks Going to Rebuild NYC? - January 15, 2021
  • The Fed is Sacrificing Retirees to Save the Banks - January 15, 2021
  • How Are You Doing on a Local Level? - January 14, 2021
  • February RAGE Gauge: Americans Focusing on What’s In Front of Them - January 14, 2021
  • There’s Always a Way Forward for Americans Like YOU - January 13, 2021

If you enjoyed this post, email it to a friend:

  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp

Related Posts

Trending

  • H2O, Skiing, Hiding A$$ET$, Bitcoin, Ammo & More
  • What Living in Two Americas Looks Like Today
  • America 2022: Time to Take Back What's Ours
  • There's Always a Way Forward for Americans Like YOU
  • Why Buying Bonds Matters in Times Like These
  • Great Reset, Swiss Way, and Living YOUR WAY
  • Be Prepared for Another Great Lockdown, Recession, or Reset
  • Stocks: Are You Sticking Your Neck Out Too Far?
  • How Are You Doing on a Local Level?
  • February RAGE Gauge: Americans Focusing on What's In Front of Them

YOUR SURVIVAL GUY MUST READS

  • Merry Christmas from Your Survival Guy
  • Are You OK with Election Fraud? I’m Not. Here’s Why
  • Vanguard Proving Why It’s Too Big, Yet Again
  • It’s Never a Bad Time to Downsize Your Home
  • Where Have You Been? Now You’re Flying the American Flag?
  • Tucker Explains: Experts Enforcing Eugenics with COVID-19 Vaccine
  • The French Plan: Schools Open, Bars Closed
  • When Isn’t Money Tight? Read More to Find Out
  • People Under 20 Have Basically Zero Risk of Dying from COVID-19
  • Sidney Powell: We’re Fighting the Entire Globalist Elite Power Structure
Only if You’re Serious
Only if You’re Serious
Only if You’re Serious
Escape the City
Only if You’re Serious
Why Vanguard is Too Big for YOU
See Who's Missing the Boat
You Invest, They Win
Emergency Water Storage
Emergency Water Storage
Emergency Water Storage
Why Fidelity is Number One

Copyright © 2021 | Terms & Conditions

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.