Yes, I do.
Every month I update my Net Worth in a spreadsheet I have kept current since 2005. I have a Column for all financial investments and a column for the house value (using Zillow). I realize it is not a perfect number, but it does give me trend over time. I add up these two Columns to give me a good idea of my Total Net Worth. The house is about 9% of my total Net Worth. House is paid for.
I do not understand why people would not track home value (with whatever tool they like best) in a Net Worth calculation. If I were to sell my home (become a renter) and put the proceeds into the bank, I would then count those proceeds towards my net worth. Because those dollars are a in a less liquid form of a home does not mean they do not exist. Also, if I died tomorrow and my estate was liquidated and given to my heirs - the value of the home would also count as part of my estate.
I don't ignore my home value, I just don't include it in my NW because it's not meaningful unless and until I extract equity from it.
I don't just look at it as an asset because no matter what, I need to live somewhere, and the decision to move is usually dictated by life factors and not primarily financial factors.
For example, my current house has jumped a lot in value, but not as much as the other houses in my area. So although my NW has increased, my buying power has actually decreased in terms of housing.
I would have to relocate to a lower cost area in order to actually gain any wealth from my home equity increase, which is a huge lifestyle choice, which I'm very unlikely to do, since DH's career and my medical team are here.
So unless someone's life circumstances actually permit them to easily downsize or relocate or rent indefinitely in a market where rent stays cheaper for some reason, then the equity in a house is essentially meaningless, even if they do sell.
In terms of renting, I still conceptualize it as housing cost. So say I have a paid off house and rentals in my area are about the same cost as ownership, then selling my house will essentially just fund renting. I'm still not ahead unless I find a way to rent for less.
Regardless, I stay on top of my house value, but only relative to alternative housing options in the event that that I find an attractive way to pull out equity.
Only then, only if it *makes sense* to profit from my equity gains, will I add it to my wealth level because until then it's just potential.
So it's not that I ignore my house value, I just don't mentally lump it in with my wealth because it's not useful to me as wealth.
That said, as I mentioned, my condo will never appreciate relative to the market. I basically can't downsize because it's a one bedroom apartment, and it would be more expensive in any other city in the country. So in my particular case, the only way I could feasibly tap into my equity would be a HELOC or refinance, which I might consider, but that wouldn't add to my NW, that would allow me to do some leveraged investing, which could raise (or lower) my NW.
Now, I *did* recently cash out equity in my last place when I downsized to this place. So I'm not talking theoretical, I already did this. When I lived in the old place, the equity was useless to me. Totally useless. There's also no way I would have downsized and liquidated it unless I actually wanted to live in the smaller, cheaper place. Luckily for me, the smaller place was always my dream home, so it was a no brainer to cash out when I could.
I don't think either approach is wrong, it's all just mental math, but I thought I would share how I still closely track my home value, but don't consider it as part of my overall wealth unless the lifestyle factors line up to actually access it. Which in my case, they did.
