I sold a $50k house in a D+ neighborhood of a LCOL area in the summer of 2008. Its value supposedly declined about 7% and then stayed flat for a decade.
I put the proceeds (half my NW at the time) to work in the stock market throughout 2008-2010 which one might think would have set me for life but unfortunately I engaged in stock picking, dividend chasing, speculation, etc. through the early portion of the recovery. Timing = perfect. Execution = squandered.
In hindsight, it is cash you want going into a bear market, because with cash at that time you can buy far better earnings yields than RE offers. For example, the ROE of that house was 5-6%, but near the bottom you could buy REITs yielding 10-15%. You’d hate to be locked into an illiquid asset when such deals appear.
