If your family is growing, you're earning more money than you were five years ago, you want to live in a more desirable neighborhood, or you want a larger or better-appointed house, you might be considering selling your house and "moving up."

Many homeowners are also motivated to move up because of increasing appreciation rates; they can sell their existing house and have a hefty down payment for their new house. The National Association of Realtors reported last week that 33 areas had double-digit increases in the median existing-home prices in the fourth quarter of 2003 versus the same quarter a year prior. Twenty-two had small price declines and 74 appreciated faster than the national historic norm.

The national median price went up 6 percent -- from $161,100 to $171,600. The biggest increase was in the Riverside/San Bernardino area of California, where the fourth quarter price rose 28.9 percent to $239,400. Sarasota, Fla. went up 26 percent and the Los Angeles area went up 24.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the NAR, in its "2003 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers" report, says 40 percent of the buyers the previous year were first-time buyers. The other 60 percent have gone through the process before and are moving up, down, or are relocating to a new area.

There are a host of things you should do as you consider whether now's the time to move up, including:

Published: February 16, 2004

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