Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions! To clarify one point, the current mortgage is a standard 5yr ARM, that is amortized over 30 years and fixed initially for 5 years.
The fixed period expires 3.5 years from now, a little after the window for selling the house tax-free, assuming we move out of it. I think I’d rather keep the benefit of the 2.125% annual rate rather than have the hassle of refinancing now. If we do decide not to return to SD, we probably don’t want the hassle of managing a property long-term.
I’m tending now towards selling the house. Some reasons:
– less total hassle
– prices have run up a lot in the last year and competitive current listings seem high-priced and rare to me
– if we sell now, we can stage the house and it will look good; after tenants, it may look much more worn
– if we do return to SD, we may want to be in a different school district.
But we haven’t made a decision yet.
