Are you kidding? In this market? Of course not. We sold our house for roughly $5,000 more than we paid during the 2006 bubble, but that figure doesn’t tell the whole story. We estimate we invested about $35,000 in improvements: new bathrooms, a new kitchen, updated flooring, replacement windows, a new roof, a patio, a paved driveway, and upgrades like crown molding and wider doorways. Yes, the arithmetic looks messy—womp-womp—but there’s more to the picture than the raw numbers.
Still, we’re sleeping like babies and genuinely excited about selling our old house and buying a new one. We believe the timing was right and that everything unfolded as it should. Maybe we’re a little crazy, but here’s how we thought it through:
- Our monthly payment on the new house is $200 less than what we were paying for the older, smaller place. Historically low mortgage rates and a good purchase price on the new home made that possible. More space in a better neighborhood for less per month? That’s an easy yes.
- Unimproved houses in our former neighborhood—those resembling how our house looked when we bought it—are selling for $30K, $40K, even $50K less than our sale price. Our renovation work helped the house retain and slightly grow in value despite buying in a hot market and selling in a cooler one.
- We received an offer within days of listing on the MLS. In this market, that was a big relief and something to be thankful for.
Want more details? Of course. We like to share the full story.
We never intended to be house flippers—our blog’s name says it plainly: we’re house lovers. Every update we made was to create a home we’d enjoy while living there, not to flip for a profit. Still, those improvements protected the house from sinking into a lower price tier that would have been heartbreaking. There are tangible benefits beyond the sale price: our backyard upgrades allowed us to host an inexpensive backyard wedding, and our kitchen renovation helped kickstart the blog that eventually supported a business, enabling us to work from home with our kids nearby.
We also benefited as buyers, not just sellers. We bought a larger house in a nicer neighborhood for significantly less than it was valued five years ago—over $40K under that past valuation. With low interest rates, we likely saved tens of thousands in interest over the life of the loan. We rolled equity from the sale of our old house into the purchase, and that combination produced the lower monthly mortgage payment I mentioned earlier.
There’s also the upside if the market recovers down the line. Waiting to sell our old house might have netted a higher sale price in a few years, but by then the type of house we just bought could be far out of reach—just as it was five years ago. Beyond finances, this new house satisfies our love for DIY, provides more room for our growing family, and supports our business—practical reasons that matter more in day-to-day life and help us sleep at night.
Back to that $35K in improvements, of which only about $5K appeared in the sale price: those upgrades still delivered value. Similar houses in our old neighborhood lacking updates are selling for far less. A bigger ranch three houses down sold this summer for $50K less than our place did. That comparison reassures us that our enhancements kept the home from falling into a much lower bracket and even nudged its value up slightly since the bubble. On paper it might look like a $30K loss after purchase price, improvements, and sale price, but viewed another way, our investment prevented a far steeper decline and preserved long-term value. Framing it positively helps keep perspective.
Our lender shared an insightful point: homeowners often recoup their improvements not strictly in higher sale prices, but in faster sales. Buyers may not pay a large premium for granite counters, for example, but those finishes can attract offers quickly compared to homes with laminate. That matched our experience—we were on the MLS for two days before getting an offer, while a larger, similar house down the road has been listed for months with no bites, even though it’s priced about $30K lower.
Do we wish the market were stronger? Sure. But we have no regrets. Some may call us optimistic or say they wouldn’t have sold now, and that’s fair. For us, moving into the new house in time for Clara’s first Christmas feels right. It checks the boxes we care about: a comfortable home, room to grow, and a place that supports both our family life and creative work. Now we’ve got some boxes to unpack—and a lot to look forward to.