The Shock of Sweden's Housing Market Is Hitting the Country's Currency

Re:The Shock of Sweden's Housing Market Is Hitting the Count... by dmode on Wednesday November 15, 2017 @12:03PM (#15705299)

I am very confused on your reasons not being able to downsize. Capital gains should have no impact, since first 500K is exempt. So you will have at least 500K in cash. Real estate agent fees are everywhere and can be negotiated to 2%. Property taxes are not really high. I live in Union City, and pay 1.2%.

I guess you cannot downsize because a smaller home costs a lot of money these days. Which is fair enough, but you can book your profits, invest that cash in other assets and rent for a few years till the market comes down.

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Re:The Shock of Sweden's Housing Market Is Hitting the Count... by lisper on Wednesday November 15, 2017 @12:20PM (#15705464)

That's true, we could do that. But then we'd have to move twice, and at this point in our lives (we're both >50) moving is a non-trivial hassle. It's also not a given that prices will come down, so this strategy carries some risk that we end up stuck in a rental.

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