Real Estate

The market here remains hot, so the local daily fishwrap says...

So I think to myself: Sell! Sell! Get the equity out while you can!

But... who the heck wants to move anyway? I don't. Emotionally, I'm still stalling. :(

And until I know where we're going - what's the rush?

This real estate bubble thing is too much like the darn stock market, sensitive to both fundamentals (like interest rates... Why can't loans be free? Whatever happened to the biblical concept of usury?) and investor perception (ooh, this is a hot neighborhood! Let me in!).

And, just like when I had money in the stock market and watched it constantly - it drives me nuts. That's why I got out of stocks - I couldn't handle the daily flopping around they did. Now I want to get out of real estate for the same reason.

When I was in Schaumburg, I picked up the little real estate books at the supermarket, and found the market kind of all over the map as to price. Currently, since I haven't been to St. Paul for an interview yet, the internet is the only way to look around. We've been getting some listings from a realtor in St. Paul, focusing on:

-- neighborhoods, like Highland Park (?), Macalester/Groveland, etc which are close in, and no more than a 20 minute commute to downtown

-- 3/2 ranches between 1800-2000 s.f., or other styles as long as the master and one other bedroom are on the main floor (deteriorating knees dictate certain things...)

But the prices... ugh. Not as reasonable as we might have thought. Let's hope the bubble bursts in St. Paul and Schaumburg before we buy, but waits to burst here until after we sell. :)