Baby Boomers Can Protect the Value of Their Home

It has been predicted that home values will decline more in 2010. However, you can add improvements to protect your home’s value. Add a fresh coat of paint; make the landscape attractive; upgrade the kitchen. You can increase the value of your home by adding a deck to your backyard or adding a gazebo. All these enhancements will keep the price of your house high if you have to sell. If you need to sell your home in a neighborhood that has a lot of foreclosures, offer to pay for the buyer’s closing costs. That’ll keep the price of your home high.

There may be homes in your neighbor that are vacant. That’s going to impact you. Vandals and squatters move into these vacant houses which lowers house prices more. Form a neighborhood watch group to make sure no squatters move into the foreclosed houses. For a premium, you can “lock in” the value of your house. This program hedges against a spiraling real estate market to protect your gains. But you do have to pay for the peace of mind of your home holding its value.

There are too many homes on the market for sale. People would love to buy these houses at these low prices, but banks are being stricter with the loans. Banks are requiring a larger down payment and higher interest rates. This isn’t going to last forever. You’ll start to see housing prices increase when there are fewer vacant homes on the market.