We're wheeling and dealing in real estate, folks. When we bought our current home, we purchased it with an eye to resale value. See, it's zoned commercial/residential and it's right on the main north-south highway that runs through the state, and more importantly, up the road to the new (much-hated by me) ski resort slated to open this fall. Land values around here have gone through the roof.
We're looking at a new house. I ran up three different sets of numbers, starting with the best-case sale price of our current house and ranging to the bottom-dollar we'd accept. I then drew up a list of improvements that we'd want to make to the new place (add a carport and a wood shed, plus a woodstove and pay off the down payment loan I took out of my 401k). Then I ran all three options through a mortgage calculator. Even in the worst-case scenario, our house payment would go down by approximately $200/month.
I'm trying hard not to pee my pants right now from the sheer, heady thrill of it all. Will keep you posted.