The market is a tide
A tide doesn’t choose which boats to lower. When prices came down, they came down for every home in the market, including the one you sold.
Compare it to staying put
On moving day, the two bars were the same length: an even trade. Drag back to the peak to see it.
What matters is the gap
Selling one home and buying another is really one trade, and both prices come from the same market. So neither price matters much on its own. What matters is the gap between them.
Thinking of moving up?
Try your own numbers
Change anything and the whole page updates. If you have a sense of what your old home would sell for today, add it. Homes in different price ranges don’t always move in perfect step.
| At the peak | Today | Change |
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Fair questions
But my home really is worth $250,000 less. Isn’t that a loss?
Where did the $450,000 go?
Wouldn’t it have been better to sell and wait?
In hindsight, selling at the peak and buying later would have been better still. But nobody can call the top or the bottom reliably, and you needed somewhere to live. Comparing yourself to perfect timing isn’t fair. Comparing yourself to staying put is.
What if my old home didn’t drop by the same percentage?
Different price ranges and neighbourhoods don’t always move in lockstep. If your old home fell by more than your new one, you’re even further ahead. If it fell by less, the advantage is smaller. Enter an estimate under Try your own numbers to see it, or ask me and I’ll pull recent sales for both homes.
What about the costs of moving?
Commission, legal fees and land transfer tax are real costs, but you’d pay them whenever you moved, at any point in the market. They’re left out here so the comparison stays about the market itself.