Bought a 2/1 750 square foot craftsman in late 1986 for $76K. Sold that in mid 1990 for $120K and bought a bigger (for us at least) 3/2 for $185K. Looking back, I’d say this was roughly at the peak, although I had no clue at the time. I was just stoked to get that much for my little house.

I keep this in mind when I see people buying today and think to myself, how can they buy right now, when it seems very likely that properties will depreciate for a number of years to come. I remember how. You’ve got a growing family (heck one’s maybe even on the way), your career is moving along nicely, and you just have no idea the train’s about to stop.

Anyway, the poor folks that bought our little place were stuck with it for years and were finally able to sell it for $400 less than they paid us 7 1/2 years prior.

For the new place, I realized a year or so in, that it was worth less than what we paid for it, but we weren’t moving, so it didn’t bother me all that much. In 1992, I researched the comps and filed an appeal with the assessor and got the tax basis reduced to $159K. It might have sold for that, but who knows, and at least we were saving $250 bucks a year or so on taxes (okay, so it seemed like a shrewd move at the time!) I’d guess we could have sold it for what we paid around 1998, but actually ended up selling it for $300K in 2002 (12 years later).