Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - FEB 2015

If you have viewed our family's Net Worth Page, you probably already know that it does not include the equity in our home.  Although, we do realize that it is technically part of our overall net worth, we decided that since our home equity is not an asset that we can count on for income (unless we sell and buy something cheaper) we would exclude it from our net worth calculation.

For the purpose of this blog, we are more interested in documenting our loan balance rather than our home equity.  With that said, we will use the current Zillow value as our estimated home value and use it to figure out the percentage we owe on our home. For those interested, we will include the amount of our home equity, but know that we are less concerned with the equity since we have no plans to cash out or otherwise sell our home. Our main goal is to pay off our home on or before my retirement date. 


HOME VALUE:
According to Zillow, our home is currently worth: $765,401 (up $285 in the last 30-days). If you follow us, the reality is that whether our home prices rise or fall, it really doesn't mean much to our family as we have no intentions to sell or otherwise move.  We are very lucky to be able to say that we love were we are and couldn't see ourselves living and/or raising our family any other place. :)
Mortgage Balance (As of February 6th):
$311,744 (down $1,879 from our last post)

Percentage Owed:
40.7% (down from .2% from our last post)

Home Equity:
$453,657 (up $2,250 from our last post)

At this point, I'm not too sure what to make of the housing market and the direction is it headed.  With the recent rate hike by the Feds this past month, future mortgage rates will surely be impacted.  With that said, I am certainly glad we have a fixed rate mortgage.  I can sleep much easier at night knowing that regardless of what the Feds do, whether they decide to keep it the same or continue raising rates, my mortgage payment will not be affected.    

Mortgage Background:
For those that have not read the Preface on our home equity, we currently hold a 15-year fixed rate mortgage at the incredibly low rate of 2.875%.  My goal is to retire within 11 years and 4 months so we are setting out to pay off our mortgage on or before my retirement date. Right now we are a few months behind the target retirement date. Currently, we have approximately 12  years  - 5 months (149 months) left on our mortgage.  Nevertheless, I would like to have it paid off in another 10 years (or less). If we accomplish that, I plan to use the last few years to aggressively build our passive income to help supplement our retirement and defer tapping into the 457K as long as we can so it can continue to grow. 

Right now we are not putting any extra money towards the principal given our low 2.875% interest rate. We feel that we could make our money grow faster by investing it and while keeping the money more liquid. At a certain point, maybe in 8-10 years, we may consider using money from our investment accounts to wipe out the remaining mortgage balance.  Until then, we will continue to grow that money outside, rather than have it locked into our home.
  
Click on the link below to view our mortgage balance history:

2 comments:

  1. 2.9% of mortgage rate is really amazing. I am jealous of US housing market as still so many values can be found. Toronto's house price is getting really outrageous lately and I can't even begin to attempt to buy it.

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    1. BSR - There are definitely still some areas that one can go bargain basement hunting (like where the job market is slow), but I would say for the most part, the housing market has somewhat stabilized for us here in the US. Certainly welcomed after the bubble we experienced in 2008-2009. :)

      Sorry to hear that Toronto's prices are getting out of reach. Hope there is a cool down eventually to allow you to be a homeowner one day (should that be your goal). If not, I know many people who rent and are perfectly happy doing so. I also know people who own, who bought when prices where too high, and are miserable. Whenever you buy, try your best to make homeowner a blessing and not a curse. :)

      Best wishes my friend. AFFJ

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