Can I Afford to Sell My House and Buy Another One? Start With These 4 Numbers

You'd like to move.

Maybe you've even caught yourself looking at homes online.

Then you look around at your current house, remember your mortgage payment, think about today's home prices, and close the browser.

"We probably can't afford to move anyway."

Maybe that's true.

But before deciding, we'd like four numbers.

Because one of the biggest mistakes homeowners can make is comparing the mortgage payment they have today with the price of the house they'd like to buy next and assuming the gap between the two tells the whole story.

It doesn't.

If you've owned your home for several years, your financial position may look very different than it did when you bought it.

Your home may have appreciated.

You've been paying down your mortgage.

Your income may have changed.

And you may have accumulated enough equity to significantly change the math on your next purchase.

So before deciding whether moving is realistic, let's figure out what we're actually working with.

Number 1: What Could Your Current Home Realistically Sell For?

Not the number you'd love to get.

Not your tax-assessed value.

Not necessarily the estimate you saw online.

We want a realistic range based on what buyers are actually paying for homes like yours.

That means looking at things like:

• Recent comparable sales
• Current competition
• Location
• Condition
• Updates
• Lot and property features
• Buyer demand in your price range
• How your home compares with the alternatives buyers will see

At this stage, we don't necessarily need to determine an exact list price.

We're trying to answer a bigger question:

Approximately what asset are we working with?

Let's say your home could reasonably sell for around $550,000.

Now we have somewhere to start.

But $550,000 isn't the amount you have available for your next purchase.

That's where Number 2 comes in.

Number 2: How Much Would You Actually Walk Away With?

Suppose your home is worth approximately $550,000 and you owe $280,000 on your mortgage.

It can be tempting to think:

Great. We have $270,000.

Not quite.

Your gross equity and your net proceeds are different numbers.

We also need to account for the costs associated with selling.

Depending on your particular transaction, those might include things like:

• Mortgage payoff
• Real estate compensation
• Seller closing costs
• Potential concessions
• Repairs or preparation
• Other transaction-specific expenses

Once we estimate those costs, we can get much closer to the number that actually matters:

What would you likely have available after the sale?

Maybe that's $220,000.

Maybe it's $180,000.

Maybe it's considerably more.

Whatever the number is, now we can start making decisions with it.

Number 3: What Does the Home You Actually Want Cost?

This is where we'd rather be specific than theoretical.

Don't tell us you want to "move up."

Show us what that means.

If you opened your favorite home search right now and chose the houses you'd genuinely consider buying, what do they cost?

$600,000?

$750,000?

$900,000?

This matters because sometimes homeowners assume the next house is financially out of reach without ever defining what "the next house" actually is.

Other times, we discover the opposite.

The house they really want costs substantially more than they expected, and knowing that now allows us to create a longer-term plan instead of forcing a move that doesn't make sense yet.

Either answer is useful.

We're trying to replace:

"I don't think we can afford it."

with:

"Here's what it would actually take."

Number 4: What Would Your New Monthly Payment Be?

This is usually the number everyone is worried about.

And understandably so.

If you bought or refinanced when mortgage rates were unusually low, your current payment may be difficult to replicate.

So let's not pretend otherwise.

Your next payment may be higher.

The question is how much higher and whether that number works for your life.

Suppose you sell your current home and have approximately $220,000 available.

You decide to keep $40,000 in reserves rather than putting every dollar into the next property.

That leaves $180,000 potentially available toward the purchase.

If the home you want costs $700,000, we're no longer talking about financing the entire $700,000.

We're building a financing strategy around the amount you actually need to borrow.

Your lender can then help estimate:

• Principal and interest
• Property taxes
• Homeowners insurance
• Mortgage insurance, if applicable
• HOA dues, if applicable

Now you have the number that matters much more than the interest rate by itself:

What will living in the next house actually cost each month?

Now Put All Four Numbers Together

This is where the decision starts becoming much clearer.

Imagine we've learned:

Current home value: approximately $550,000

Estimated proceeds after selling: approximately $220,000

Next home: approximately $700,000

Estimated new housing payment: a number your lender has helped you calculate based on your financing strategy

Now we can have a useful conversation.

Does that payment fit comfortably within your budget?

Would you rather put more of your proceeds down and reduce it?

Would keeping more cash available be more important?

Would buying at $650,000 instead of $700,000 create a better balance?

Would waiting another year materially improve the picture?

Those are strategic questions.

And they're much more useful than assuming you can't move because mortgage rates are higher than they used to be.

But Can You Buy Before You Sell?

There's another question hiding inside this one.

Even if you can comfortably afford the next home after selling, how do you actually get from one house to the other?

That's where sequencing becomes important.

Depending on your finances and financing options, possibilities may include:

• Selling first and then buying
• Making your purchase contingent on selling your current home
• Buying first and selling afterward
• Coordinating both closings
• Using financing designed to help bridge the transition

Not every option works for every homeowner.

And different market conditions can make certain strategies more or less competitive.

That's why we don't want to solve the sale and the purchase as two unrelated transactions.

They're one move.

The strategy needs to account for both.

Don't Put Every Dollar of Equity Into the Next House Just Because You Can

This is another conversation we want homeowners to have.

Let's say selling gives you $250,000.

You don't automatically need to put $250,000 down on the next home.

Maybe that produces the best financial outcome.

Maybe it doesn't.

You might want to maintain cash reserves.

Pay off higher-interest debt.

Make improvements to the new property.

Keep funds available for another investment.

Or simply avoid having nearly all of your liquidity tied up in your house.

The right down payment isn't necessarily the largest down payment you can make.

It's the amount that makes sense within the rest of your financial plan.

This is also where a lender, financial advisor, or tax professional may need to become part of the conversation depending on your goals.

And Don't Forget to Ask Whether the New Payment Is Worth It

Let's say we run everything and discover that moving would increase your monthly housing cost by $1,200.

Can you afford it?

That's one question.

Here's another:

What does the additional $1,200 buy you?

Maybe it gets you:

A dramatically shorter commute.

Another bedroom.

A neighborhood where you plan to stay for 15 years.

A home office.

More land.

Less maintenance.

A better location for your family.

Or simply a home you genuinely enjoy more.

Then you get to decide whether those things are worth $1,200 per month to you.

Maybe they absolutely are.

Maybe you look at the number and decide you'd rather spend that money traveling, investing, starting a business, or doing literally anything else.

That's useful information too.

Affordability isn't just about whether a lender says you can make the payment.

It's whether the payment supports the rest of the life you want.

Sometimes the Answer Is "Not Yet"

We think this is important to say.

Running these numbers doesn't always end with:

Great news! Let's list the house!

Sometimes we discover that moving today would create more financial pressure than the next house is worth.

That doesn't mean the conversation failed.

It means we now have a target.

Maybe you need another $30,000 saved.

Maybe paying off a particular debt changes your qualification.

Maybe the next promotion makes the payment comfortable.

Maybe you need more equity.

Maybe the house you want is simply $100,000 outside the range that makes sense right now.

Now we can build toward it.

A good real estate plan doesn't have to result in a transaction this month.

Sometimes the most valuable outcome is knowing exactly what needs to happen over the next 12 or 24 months to make the move comfortably.

Before You Decide You Can't Afford to Move, Find the Four Numbers

You don't need to start by cleaning your house.

You don't need listing photos.

And you definitely don't need a for-sale sign.

Start here:

1. What could your current home realistically sell for?

2. What would you likely walk away with after selling?

3. What does the home you actually want cost?

4. What would your new monthly housing payment realistically be?

Once we know those four things, the conversation changes.

At SAVIA, that's why we believe the best time to talk isn't necessarily when you're ready to list.

It's when you first start wondering whether a different home could make sense.

Because before we figure out how to sell your house, we want to figure out whether selling it actually gets you where you want to go.