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The equity is the same thing as market value minus ‘leftover debt’…otherwise known as mortgage. Some people don’t include their house at all. Those who do will always include value of house and mortgage as part of that equation. Biggest question then really becomes how to get the right market estimate. Some people go so far as to subtract out 6% since they’d pay a realtor that to sell.
Mentor
To get market value I take the average of 3 different sources. It helps prevent large swings in either direction.
That said, during the last couple years, appreciation has been pretty high all. Even doing this market value has gone up pretty dramatically.
Subject Expert
You should include the estimated value of your house at the time or price you'd sell it.
Probably depends how conservative you want to be. I’m risk averse so wouldn’t bank on any theoretical value increase based on something like Zillow.
IMO Zillow estimate value is fine for calculating net worth. I use CoPilot money so it keeps checking every couple of days.
Zillow estimates move around a lot, so if you’re doing it manually every once in a while, then just eyeball the zestimate graph.
1- It’s an estimate and obviously if you sold at any given time there would be costs associated with selling (or even repairs to sell perhaps). Trying to make it super accurate makes no sense imo. Just value - debt.
2- make sure you understand how much of your net worth is real estate equity, and consider it when thinking about net worth.
eg I’m like 65% real estate because I have rentals, 5% cash or so and rest is basically stocks/equity. So 95% of my net worth is a shift number and goes up and down a bit all the time. Up over time of course.