Sell or keep the 3% rate
We live in a small town in California and want to move about 30 minutes away for better community, schools etc. the new town puts me even more away from the Bay Area for job opportunities if that becomes an issue. Currently remote.
We are between keeping our current home in case we ever want to come back (Bay Area way too expensive and family is near) or selling it to have an even bigger down payment (300k with selling + saved amount)
Our current home is at 3%. It’s a beautiful home & brand new so not much upkeep. If we sell we would have 200k roughly to our down payment and that’s on the low end after fees. We have about $450k left on the house.
If we keep the home we have about $100k saved and will continue to add for another year with a new build (just smaller home). We would just buy smaller, wait 5ish years and once we feel good about the community and careers long term then we can 100% shift over unless things are even smoother.
Now please keep in mind, this post comes with a lot of uncertainty concerns in the future and trying to build a good safety net.
If we rent it for the same mortgage is it still worth it? Is this a good safety net because of all the uncertainty and layoffs? Will I thank myself long term for keeping it?
Yes I have rental experience so not worried about that.
What would you do?