I know I will want to move in a few years (2 most likely), since I want to move my kid to a better school district when she start first grade. My question is should I move now if I find a home I like, I will be paying double the property tax as I will likely buy a higher valued home with higher tax rate, but the bank rate is so low right now. The alternative is staying at my current home for about two years and buy the home later to save on maybe 2-3k per year tax.
If you can afford it, I would move now. Just my opinion. Rates are so low. Whatever extra you spend on property taxes could be offset by a pop in rates. Also there's the qualitative benefits of being in the better school district now, too. Getting to know neighbors (some of whom should have kids that will be in your daughter's class), etc. I guess the area you want to move to should factor into it as well. My neighborhood has seen meaningful price appreciation the past few years, which I expect to continue.. of course, I'm in Austin and that's true for most neighborhoods around here. I'm just guessing wildly here.. but you want to move to a better school district. If it's a good school district in any way, than at worst I'd expect home values to increase slowly over the next couple of years. If it's a hot area in any way, could increase more. Granted, there could be other macro issues that kill the housing market again.... but that's a risk I would take. So, in summary: 1. Lock in low rates 2. Be in neighborhood earlier 3. Lock in current values, even if risking a macroeconomic issue that might result in home values decreasing after you buy Start looking to buy now.
I'm not so sure rates won't be lower 2 years from now. Heck, they've gone up over the past few months alone. So I don't think that's a good reason to move.
Just remember that if you own two homes only one of them can be used for your homestead exemption (provided you live in a place that has homestead exemption), so plan your property tax accordingly. Also, any profit you make on the sale of your current home can be used to purchase a new home within a certain amount of time and avoid having to claim that as a gain on your taxes. Not sure how that works retroactively.
I doubt I will have much profit if any at all on the current home, I am guessing it would be pretty close to the same price, maybe slightly less or more slightly more. Definitely would not like to carry two mortgages for any extended period of time.
