<prompt> Human: Hi PF - regular reader, first time commenter I guess that would make me a lurker. My wife and I purchased a home almost 5 years ago, and it has since gained over 300,000 in equity based on comparable home sales in our area. Sounds great, right? Well, its not a bad thing but its also sort of put us in a strange situation. When we purchased the home, it was just the two of us. Then we got a dog. Then we had a baby. And now we have another baby coming very soon. We have outgrown the house this is a townhome2 story condo with no outdoor space. We love the area where we live - we are close to work, we have excellent weather, we are close-ish to the beach, we are close to friends, and we are right in between our parents who help with our kid from time to time. Moving would cause all of that to change, so of course we want to stay here... BUT - single family homes in our immediate area, in good school districts, and nice areas, are not affordable to us think 1.3M, and our budget is around 1M. So, given all of this info we are thinking of selling the home in order not to lose the equity. If we stay in this house and the market recedes and we lost even 100k Im not going to be happy. In other words, we want to put the equity to work as a down payment on a single family home that is further from our ideal area, but is still a fantastic area to live. The downsides are: longer commutes for both of us possibly requiring new jobs, which are are not worried about, and most of our friends are in the area where we are currently vs. 25-30 miles away where we are looking. So - is the idea of not wanting to lose the equity a sound one? Putting aside that we need a larger space with a backyard, and are willing the move a bit to get that, is selling with the underlying reason being not to lose equity a good idea? Does this make sense? Is this stupid? Your replies are greatly appreciated!  <response>: Keep in mind, in a housing downturn like we saw back in 08, the close-in housing performs a lot better than the far out housing. Youre also a lot more vulnerable to shocks in the price of gas. Gas goes up to 5 a gallon? Your house just lost 200k in value. 