Thursday, February 12, 2009

Not So Sure

I shouldn't have been so sure, so confident in the fact that our house's value was unlikely to depreciate given the good neighborhood and the school district. It still hasn't happened, and maybe it won't, but when this deal took place we were a bit concerned.

It turns out that one of our friends from church is a dentist in town and many of his clients work for the recently acquired pharmaceutical company, including CEOs, and last week they were telling him in despair that the plant (and headquarters) is most likely going to be shut down. When he said that, K immediately turned to me and distressingly exclaimed: "Then we're never going to be able to sell our house!"

I panicked, of course, and started wondering whether we shouldn't try to sell it this Spring before people buy houses planning for the new school year. However, putting the house in the market is impossible right now, given the unfinished renovations and the necessary projects still-pending-for-lack-of-funds, not to mention the crisis, etc. And of course we don't know if and when the big pharma will be shut down, but if it is, this region will take a heavy blow from which it will take many years to recover. With two other big pharmas in the area (the one above is not the one K worked for), if they begin to struggle too then... wow, I really don't want to be here then! Well, hopefully K will get a job next year and we'll sell the house before the company is shut down. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

So, one more thing to add to our ever-growing list of worries. Great. Just what we needed right now.

3 comments:

  1. Unfortunately, almost everyone who has purchased a house in the past 5-6 years is looking at depreciation. Talk to real estate agents in your area and look at comps for houses that are selling. That should at least give you an idea. Your area might be an exception.

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  2. que coisa... espero que voce consiga vender a casa sim...

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  3. Hi Anjali, our area was more or less an exception until now, BUT, if Wyeth closes, then, it will be a veritable disaster! The worst part is that the likelihood of us staying in the area for the long term so we wouldn't loose all our money are slim, not to say not existent.

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