From Two Homes to One

As Couples Form, Housing Decisions Can Be Hurdles

You know it's love when it survives a shared 700-square-foot condominium -- with a single bedroom closet. When it inspires you to sell your first home at a loss. When you agree to delay moving in for more than a year after your wedding so your stepdaughter can finish high school.

As more single people buy property -- the National Association of Realtors found that nearly 30 percent of buyers last year were single -- more people are facing complicated housing choices when they find a partner. Do you sell both places and buy a new place together? Sell or rent one and move into the other? Share a too-small place, at least for a while?

Getting married or moving in together has always been a momentous decision. But in a down real estate market, the stakes can be even higher.

Jeremy Shere, 31, bought a one-bedroom condo in Takoma Park in June 2006, "basically a month and a half before meeting Marci," he said, ruefully.

Shere, who got engaged to Marci Lesser two weeks ago, paid $202,500 for that condo, including closing costs. He has been trying to sell the place without an agent and is asking $199,999. "I'm willing to negotiate, though," he said.

He expects that he eventually will hire an agent and said that after the transaction costs and commissions and a cut in price, the numbers won't look good.

"I recognize I'll probably still owe money when I sell it," he said. "I'm praying that it's not more than 10 or 15 (thousand)."

But there was no question that he would move into her place. Marci's parents bought her a 1,285-square-foot condo in Arlington in 1997, when she was a student at American University. It is not only almost twice the size of his place, but also much more convenient to her job in Chantilly.

After three months of their living together, the spare bedroom is still stuffed with boxes. "Between the two of us, we have six televisions -- and none of them are even all that good," Shere said.

Corey Mu¿oz, 29, moved into Zachary Price's 700-square-foot condo a year ago, after they had been dating for a year. Price, 28, had bought it a month before they met.

Price, who sells computer technology to the government, had gotten a big enough commission to make a 20 percent down payment on a $280,000 new condo in the U Street corridor in Northwest.

He said he wanted the tax benefits of ownership, and he recalled thinking, " 'Oh, there's no question I'll sell this place for $350,000 in three years.' I needed to get in the game."