Your home is one of your biggest investments, and if you live in Lake Oswego, it is back to being an appreciating one. You want to protect it, so here are a few suggestions for New Year’s resolutions to help you do just that.

1. Make a “honey-do” list from fixing a leaky faucet to replacing the family room carpet. Try scheduling the improvements in the year ahead. You never know when the urge to move may strike and you want to be prepared. Plus, so many homeowners wait to fix things up right before they move and regret not having had time to enjoy some of the improvements themselves!

2. Find out what your home is worth. Your home could be your biggest asset. Factoring that into your financial future is difficult to do if you don’t know its true value. Feel free to give me a call and I can come out and prepare a market analysis based on comparison sales and current market conditions. You don’t have to be thinking about selling—I provide this service to many of my clients who just want to know what kind of value they’re really dealing with. In many cases, others financial decisions rest on this one.

3. Consider refinancing. Interest rates are still low but are poised to increase so now may be a great time to refinance, for a variety of reasons including consolidating your debt. Currently interest rates in the Portland metro area are hovering around these levels for conventional loans up to $417,000 (listed first), and jumbo loans from $417,000 to $4 million (listed second):

30 year fixed – 3.75%/4.0%
15 year fixed – 3.125%/3.5%
7 year ARM – 3.25%/3.25%
5 year ARM – 3.12%/3.274%

4. With that in mind, now is also a good time to use the equity your home has recovered (about 18% in the last two years) to remodel. Once again, knowing what your home is worth can help you in deciding if remodeling is a wise investment – will you get that money back? In most cases in Lake Oswego, the answer is yes. But I’d be more than happy to help you sort out that decision. Call me at 503.939.9801.

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