Just a question for people calculating PNW (personal net worth). For real estate, are you using the purchase price or the current market value?
In my case, I bought a house in 2018 and Zillow says it's worth 68% more right now. I think the Zillow figure is too high, but the purchase price is unrealistically low as well. Or maybe I should split the difference and add 34% to the purchase price and use that.
I just update my house value once a year with a close approximation to what Zillow says is the value. So if Zillow shows my house is estimated at $515000, then I will input that it's $500000 in my spreadsheet for this year.
It may go up or down throughout the year, but since I have no plans to sell I don't really care about the noise.
@OpticalMoose @andocas are you planning on selling the house or staying in the house in retirement? If you are planning on staying I might not include it in my NW at all. Otherwise, I just include the Zillow price with a 6% discount, but houses near me have been selling near their Zillow estimate.
No, not planning on staying there. I love the house, but I bought it in a self directed Roth IRA, so I'd have to withdraw it from there in order to actually live in it. It's had such a big gain in only 5 years, I don't really expect that to continue. After insurance and property tax, the rental income is only a 4.9% return on what I originally paid for it.
I hate these inflated prices. It's hard to make any decisions because everything looks overpriced.
I use the approximate market value for net worth, but that’s more of a fun number than something that figures into my retirement plans at this point. For my RE number I don’t consider my house at all.
Pointless milestone achieved, at least for the moment, I’m a 401k millionaire. Kind of crazy to see that amount in a single account.
