I was thinking the same thing sdrealtor. However, Mr. Mannion probably wouldn’t have had to foresight to sell and rent had he not been friends with Mr. Toscano.

Most who sold high also “reinvested” even higher with no way to get out now that the market is in a slump. I know a few of those buyers.

Unfortunately, the journalist and his editor cherry-picked the quotes that created the most conflict and which balanced out the negative sentiment.

Although I don’t know the exact #s, we all know the market value of homes in San Diego didn’t appreciate by 50% in the last 2.5 years as the article seems to imply. The truth of the matter is that the Mannions are hardly typical — they are experienced home sellers who have specific expertise and who put a lot of hard work and money into improving their home. Despite all of that, the sale was still slow and stressful. In retrospect, the Mannions are completely aware that Rich was right about the risk they undertook and that they are lucky they sold when they did.

None of that made it into the article …

Agreed -> upon second reading it really spun the whole issue postively toward homeownership and made the nay-sayers seem like stupid extremists. But we’ve known for years that the WSJ is biased.

sdrealtor,
The Mannions actually bought in December ’03 and put their house on the market in May ’06, where it stayed until Nov ’06.

You say:

“… buy in early 2003 before a huge jump in prices. All their appreciation came in the first 12 months and had they waited even a month or two their return would have been dramtically smaller.”

Hmmmmm, I guess they only got 1 out of those 12 months of dramatic appreciation.

Christina Mannion is an accomplished architect who has been featured in home design books. Considering these are my good friends, I know that she and Mike spent a lot of money and long hours over many weekends improving their 2nd home. Their intelligence and hard work deserve ALL the credit in my opinion.

sdrealtor, your comments piqued my interest. So I looked at some sales data. I concur with your observation that house prices went through the roof in 2004.

As an illustration, if you look at the houses on the west side of Camino Del Sur accross from Santa Luz, you’ll see that in 2003 they originally sold in the 500s and 2004 onwards they sold in the 700s and 800s.

The above neighborhood is a good example because it’s a new community so there wouldn’t have been major restoration jobs that would have skewed the data (unlike in more established neighborhoods).

sdr, that’s a nice one to have had for 20 years, MSFT; congratulations!

Beebo,
MSFT is no longer the growth stock it was and like my house the stock price while nice to look at is not my primary concern. In another 20 years my mortgage will be paid off and I should be reaping 6 figure dividend income from MSFT.