Hellobee Boards

Ours is up 15-20% since we purchased it. We've put a ton of money into it though, so I think we would ask for more than 20% if we were to eve go to sell it.

@Beebug: i read this post and was like hmmm sounds like the GTA. haha. where abouts in canada are you? and you're right, it's such a shame. we had to buy like 1+ hour outside the city in order to afford a home. luckily our area seems to be booooming some new build townhomes behind us are selling for $100k more than they were listed for... granted, i know new builds are different. but a house two doors down from ours that is the same model sold for $60k more than we paid 1 year and a bit ago. and it has zero upgrades. we just had the hardwood redone, we put in new steps/interlocking and driveway, we completely renoed the master bathroom and updated the counter/faucet/toilet in the powder room... as well as cosmetic changes, such as restaining the kitchen cupboards. we only want to be in this house for another 3 or so years and we're hoping it'll increase in value so we can move to the burlington/waterdown area... which is insanely expensive!

@Anagram: haha that's so funny. when we bought the house they already had an interlocking path but it was rouuuugh. so we just had it redone and used it to extend the driveway a bit so we could fit more cars. it looks so much nicer now, i think!

@2PeasinaPod: Where do you find the value on Zillow? I don't see anything there

We bought ours in Feb 2012 and got a great deal it's a 100 year old home that needed a ton of work. A home across the street that's very similar sold for 25% more than we paid this summer. We have invested about 15% of our purchase price to fully remodel 2 bathrooms, refinish 1200 sq feet of wood floors, paint, crown molding, new gutters, added a/c, upgraded furnace. I expect we could sell it for 25-40% more. As an added bonus a bypass is being built around town that will resolve some traffic issues, which makes our great town more desirable overall. I have my eye on one town over, population 330 where our LO would have 10 kids in their graduating class. It's a farming community with top ranked 1A schools. So hopefully we will move in the next 4-5 years so they can start kindergarten there.

Ours is flat. We bought 5 years ago before the market hit the bottom so it dropped immediately after we bought it (our neighbor paid 25% less than us a year after we bought). It has climbed back since then. Our other neighbor bought at the top and paid 25% more than us, so she is still down from when she bought.

@Beebug: i would love for our next house to be new build. we live right off the 400 so it's not bad but our commute is faaaar and it's insane what it costs to live soooo far outta the city and then pay $450 a month in commuting costs. blah.

@Beebug: you work at a university, right? And you have a 2min commute? Yeah, I can see why your area is constantly increasing in value. Good choice, girl!

eta: So, we used to have this area in Michigan where there were a bunch of old/classic homes. But, U-Michigan expanded their campus and added some graduate buildings in that area. Homes went from $120,000 to about $275 within the last 4 years. We know this because DH's buddy bought a home in that area about 7 years ago as an investment property. Its turning very Yuppie right now.

We're hoping to break even. We bought our home for a good price (it needed lots of work) but it was before the housing bubble burst. So factoring in the money we spent getting stuff done (even though we did a lot ourselves), we might break even. Though our town must have been hit hard because one house we looked at back in the day is now only selling for a third of what it sold for before (though it does look like the owners let it go quite a bit).

We live in an older house in a small town and even though it's walking distance to schools, restaurants, parks, people really want a master bedroom. I'm kinda kicking myself for not doing one - but we preferred having a guest room over our own bathroom so thought others would as well but it's by far the biggest reason people have given for not being interested.

20k in appraisal up since we bought it. Which is super annoying, since we'll have to pay more in taxes. Should have protested the appraisal.

@Beebug: I know! I kick myself that we didn't buy in investment home back when they were cheap. Now, our buddy charges insane prices for rental and he always has people in his rental property. Making bank, man...

I'm not sure. Zillow says our house is worth about $9k more than when we bought it 2.5 years ago, but our PVA is still evaluating our taxes at what we bought the house for. They don't take into account the new roof we put on last year or any improvements inside, so I need to have an appraisal done.

We were in our old house for 4 years and it increased 20% but we made some major improvements. Our new house I have no clue. Kind of don't want to know in case it is lower!

Increased 25-30%. We plan to refi to a 15-year mortgage soon. We've been paying about 150% of the mortgage payment each month for a long time now, in an effort to pay it down faster. We could make a killing if we sold it but we love it here so, so much. I think we are more likely to rent it out someday when we do move to a bigger home, rather than sell it, since we could get nearly double the mortgage payment from renters. Our rental market is insane right now. For now though, it's the perfect size for our growing family, and in a complete dream neighborhood.

According to Zillow, ours has gone up about 40% in value since we bought it 3 years ago. I'd guess that is probably a little lower since Zillow can't take into account the remodeled kitchen and bathroom and other upgrades we've done.

Ours has gone up roughly 40% since we bought it two years ago. At the start of this year we got our tax assessment in the mail and it was 37% higher than what we paid for it. I know that if we went to sell we could sell it for a good deal more than that because we've done upgrades and completely renovated most parts of it.

@2PeasinaPod: hmm...maybe they don't have it for my area, because I put in my address and it says not found. I also put in a few friends' addresses here and they say "not found". Weird!!

I bought when the market completely bottomed out and it was a short sale, so mine has increased by almost 50%

To buy a 3 bedroom (what we need next) though will be a significant price increase, so while it's making it a little more possible, it still won't be a piece of cake. But I'd like to buy before prices improve too much more.

We bought at the absolute bottom of the market, just over 2 years ago, we also bought a short-sale, so it's increased quite a bit in just a little time.

our condo dropped like crazy, but now it's back up!