House Swapping Is An Option For Homeowners In A Struggling Market

In the film The Holiday, two women on opposite sides of the world decide to trade houses over the Christmas holidays. Trading homes for vacation purposes is not a new idea, but what if the swap was permanent? Investors looking to sell a house could consider a swap if they are interested in purchasing new property while receiving market value for their own.

An estimated 16,000 Americans are in the market to trade their homes, according to ConsumerAffairs.com. That’s not many in the grand scheme of things—there were over four million homes on the market at the end of 2007—but the number is steadily growing as more people get fed up with the lack of buyers.

And that growth is significant. “At Craigslist.org, the popular ad site, the number of ‘home swap’ listings—which includes people trading homes temporarily for vacation—jumped 56 percent, to 7,392 in the 12 months ending in December, the company says, and much of the growth came from people trying to permanently sell each other their homes,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

In addition to Craigslist, a number of websites dedicated to house swapping have sprung up in response to the rising demand, offering sellers a place to list their home and fill out criteria in hopes of finding a match.

Continue reading “House Swapping: Trading Spaces Forever” Written by Cali Zimmerman at www.NuWireInvestor.com

Also read “House Swapping Is a Growing Trend in Tough Real Estate Market” at www.abc.com

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