- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee boards
The Fi and I are looking for a house to settle down in. It seems it's not very typical these days ... people move, jobs change, etc, etc. There's only one person I know back home that's lived in the same house all her life, everyone else has moved at least once. My family's moved in the same area 3 times before settling into their home.
My Fi, on the other hand, thinks it's a little odd. He says that people in our part of Sweden seem to prefer not moving (not Stockholm). It seems the thing to do here is buy a vacation home to run away to in the summertime.
I'm wondering how many of you are looking for the home you'll raise a family in vs. your first home.
I want both, ultimately. I am 24 years old and have moved ~18 times in my life. I want to find a job/place to live and stay there until I am old and gray. Bury me in the backyard type thinking.
However, I know that financially and the job market being what it is, I doubt the very first home we buy will be that place. We won't be having kids for ~6 years, so I hope that we will be in the grow-old house by then or at least move while the kids are young.
i moved in with my fi who already owns a home... but soon (hopefully) we will be able to look for our home to grow old in. where we are now isn't big enough and doesn't have a yard for the dog, so it just won't cut it. i was born in the house that my parents still live in, and only moved for college, so i'm not used to moving and don't want to do it unless i have to.
We were in an odd situation when we bought our current home (we were moving to a new city, I hadn't solidified my job yet - so we qualified for our mortgage based on one income, we have a house we can easily save money in, it is beautiful, but doesn't have everything we could want in our forever house) ... we call it our "5-year" home, and in 5 years time we want to buy our "rest of our lives" house.
I'd love to do like my sister and BIL did and build a home-to-grow-old-in. But I have no idea if that will be financially feasible, what with my ideal home being a million dollar pipe dream, haha. In the meantime I'm happy renting. :)
My parents have lived in the same house for 30 years and I never moved until I moved out. It was wonderful growing up and now I love that I can still go home, but now my parents have a huge house with just two people in it.
I think a lot of picking a house depends on your family situation. It is hard to buy the perfect long-term "home" as a newlywed couple if you plan on having four kids in the future. It is just too much house for a small family.
We bought our first house several years ago. It's a townhouse, and while it's very nice, we definitely want something bigger someday! It's hard to say if our next home will be our "home to grow old in" though... we still aren't sure if we'd like to move south for awhile. It'd be hard to buy a forever home in a new area that we're unfamilar with. So we'll see!
For my FI and I, we both need an office at home, plus our room, and ideally a guest bedroom. That means, for us, right now, 4 bedrooms! lol. The one we have an offer on has a lot of room for us to be content and happy now, but flexibility to grow in the future. I DONT want to move a lot. I lived in the same house from 3-23 and if it wasn't for my parents being transferred overseas, they'd still be there! I love it and we too are buying to settle down for a while not "content for now."
We live in Boston and bought our first home - a 2 bedroom condo - right before our wedding. It is a great starter home and we love it...also "homes" in the city are virtually non-existent in the less-than-a-million dollar range. It's perfect for now, but in 3-5 years we'll want a backyard, the suburbs, and a bigger space.
We bought our house 3 years ago as a first house. We were pretty sure that we weren't going to live in CO forever and we haven't stayed in the house. Especially in this job market, it helps to be able to move where the jobs are instead of having to stay put with your house. Our house is a rental property now.
We live in Manhattan and will likely not be buying a place for at least 4 or 5 years, minimum. When we do get a place, I would imagine that we would want to stay there for at least 5 years. Of course, this also depends on how big the apartment is that we end up getting, and how many kids we end up having.
We bought our wonderful first home last June, and I think we got just about the best steal in the city. There would have been no way we could have afforded the big, beautiful home (also in the city) that we will want to raise our kids in one day, not this early in the game, but we were able to get in on the historic low interest rates and bottomed-out housing market and gigantic first-time homeowner tax credit from the federal government, all three of which were temporary conditions and therefore huge incentives to buy at that time. We have more room than we need for the time being and look forward to growing into this home in its fabulous location for the next 5-7 years, and will probably have our first kid here, but when a #2 child comes around we'll want to upgrade.
we might be buying a house this summer, depending on where i get in to grad school and where we decide to move (ie, if it's an affordable area). but we'd probably only be living there 5-7 years while i get my phd, and then we'll probably move again
The house I put an offer on would be a right now house before the 2 kids come into the mix. I'm sure I could have looked into a bigger house with 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, but right now, I can easily afford a smaller 3bed 2 bath house.
We can upgrade later and use this one as a rental property.
Financially, you usually have to live in a house at least 5-7 years in order for it to be a good investment (otherwise the closing costs pretty much eat up any equity you're earning.) Obviously this varies according to your situation, such as what your interest rate is and how quickly you're able to pay down your mortgage, but this means it can be risky to buy a house knowing you will want to move soon.
For anyone who's interested, here's a calculator that does this cost-benefit analysis: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/business/2007_BUYRENT_GRAPHIC.html
When I run the numbers on my own current apartment, the break-even point is 10 years, although I live in a pretty extreme housing market.
That's intersting. While that is generally true, it depends on what market you are in. For example, in Boston, home prices appreciate (we didn't get hit by the housing market) so any "hit" you would take from selling before the 5 year mark is absorbed by the increase in "market value."
Also, home buying for some is an investment where for others, it is having a sense of "home" and having a place you really like to live in. For us, we were sick of dumping 2K a month into rent and wanted to live in a place that was ours. We probably won't make a killing when we sell 4 years after buying, but we won't take a hit, either! Also, since we live in Boston, we can always rent it out if we are ready to upgrade before the market is ready to let us sell.
We are saving up to put a sizeable down payment on our "Forever Home." Until then we will be renting, not buying some other house. It's cheaper that way, and it gives us total flexibility, which we need since I'm in the military. I can't wait until we find "The One!"
My thoughts are always go for a "grow old" type home, you never know what circumstances you may end up in.
BF and I have a house that is slightly large for us, and even though it's most likely a "first home" (we aren't fond of the school systems or politics in this area), but if need be we can grow a bit.
Then again, our house was nicely priced, and the only drawback was that it was older than other houses we'd seen that were smaller and on smaller and not as awesome plots of land.
When we're better off, we'll probably get a house that has everything we want, as opposed to 80%.
We are going to start looking for a home where we can spend 10-15 years in... Then when my kids are in High School I plan on moving to the beach... But who knows... plans change a lot in 10-15 years.
We got a house that we LOVE...that is good for our lifestyle now...but later with kids etc we will definately need a bigger house. we are also thinking of relocating to a different state one day...in the next 5 yrs or so...so no we arent going to live in this house forever! depending on what the market does we may rent it out or just sell it all together...but for now...im in love with the house and plan to be here until we decide to move on
We are looking for a house to live in forever and retire in. We are having a hard time to find a house outside the city limits with land, but we need to be in an outlying area as we have 5+ dogs between us and we would not be allowed to live together in the city limits.
I own a house right now that I love, but it is not big enough for both of us. FI owns a duplex, but it also is not big enough for both of us. The plan is to sell my house and keep FI's as a rental, but man I HATE moving!
surkim makes a good point and one we considered. You never know what can change that will "prevent" you from moving, upgrading, etc...
it's funny - growing up I lived in 2 places - first 7 years of my life my parents (and my brother and I) lived in my parent's first home - a trailer in a mobile home park - then they got their first real HOUSE - and that's where they still live.
However - when I moved out - I was 20 and moved into the dorms for college...it's been 10 years and since then, I have lived in 13 different places!!!
It was mainly 3 different dorm rooms (count as moving as different buildings) - 3 different apartments during college (off campus/paid on own) - moved back "home" to home town - moved down to Indy and have lived in 5 apartments in Indy in 5 years before moving into our house (which is where we currently are). A lot of it was financial - and around here most leases are 1 year and then you get sick of a place and want to find something cheaper...
Our house is great though. We bought a "starter house" - it's an older home - built in 1940 - and there ARE some things wrong with it as lots of houses have...but it's also an investment for us to learn how to take care of a house, put smart money into it (put in a fence, replacing windows, etc...) and we plan on staying in this house until our first child is school age - as we're not a fan of the school system we live in.
THEN our next house will be our "grow old in" house.
We always say the house we are in isn't a forever home as it is, but when the times comes that we HAVE to expand, we'll look into whether we want to add onto our current home or just purchase another one. We are both getting so attached to this one that it will surely be hard to leave one day!
We always intended to buy a first home that we'd stay in 5-10 years tops and then upgrade... but we ended up in a great school district with a house way bigger than we ever thought we could afford. We have 2600 sq feet, 4 bedrooms, and a great community, so I think we COULD definitely raise a family and grow old here if we wanted to. Still, though, I think that we'll probably move once more (although maybe not so soon as 5-10 years). This house is awesome but it isn't our dream house. I'd like a bigger yard and a custom kitchen at some point. :)
We really lucked out with our house. We got a bungalow in a great neighbourhood with the best school in the district within walking distance. We bought it for the land more than the house itself (we're on a river, it's awesome!). I knew it was underpriced for the neighbourhood and as my dad always says, there's only so much waterfront. I didn't even care about what the house looked like inside, I called my realtor and told him to write up the offer!
Right now it's perfect because our bedroom is on the main floor, so it wasn't a huge shock coming from a condo, but the lot is perfect for renovating and building up a floor in another year or two. Other houses on our street (that aren't as well maintained as ours) have sold for way more than what we paid even though we bought at the apparent top of the market here. Weird I know. So we're sitting comfy for now and looking forward to renovating in a few years so we can have the perfect house to raise our kids and grow old in! I'm sure at some point we'll be tempted to sell and cash out, but I really really really love it here and I don't know if I could bring myself to do it.
FI grew up in 1 home all of his life... I, on the other hand, came to MI from korea when I was six and have moved around from apts to condos to houses etc. before moving out on my own.
This past August, we bought our first home together (YAY TAX CREDIT! and buyer's market)...
We really lucked out with a deal on our 3000 sq ft (not including basement) home... BUT, we definitely have plans to upgrade in ten years or so.
definitely, before our (future) kids are schooling age.
I plan to move many times in my life. Just like I did growing up. I lived so many places in my childhood. I know the home that my husband and I bought and live in right now will not be permanent. In fact, we plan on selling and moving within the next 1-2 years.
We bought our house with the intention of it being a starter home...but two years later, both of us love it so much that we never want to leave it. It's 3 bedrooms though, so once we start having kids it may just be too small. We'll wait and see I guess.
If we could afford the home we want to raise our family in and grow old in we would. But we are looking for a starter home. One that is nice and reasonably priced with the possibility of haivng a raise in value in the next couple of years.
think it is much more common for couples nowadays to be doing this, but if you can find and afford that dream home you want to raise a family and grow old in, I say go for it.
We're not going to buy a home until we can afford our dream home and are ready to settle in one place til death. We just don't understand the "starter home" concept and would much prefer to rent- no property taxes, no landscaping, no having to pay for something if it breaks.
Definitely the first option, because we don't know where we want to ultimately end up (location-wise) yet!!
I lived in the same house my whole life, but I don't think my parents intended for that to happen. They wanted to trade up eventually, but I think time and money can really get away from you when have kids. Now they don't want to take out another mortgage, even though they could probably stand to downsize now.
Because of that, I think I want to buy a place that has forever potential and not assume we'll move later.
The idea of "one home forever" just seems so strange to me! My parents bought a teeny house and when I was 2 we jumped to something larger (like 3500 square feet). Then when we moved to Missouri, we rented a little house (teeeeeny) while their new house was being built (they designed it themselves. It's ridiculous--6 bedrooms, 6 baths, 6 garage, on the lake. In the boonies....). So i'm used to the idea of changing houses. Although it's not like we moved until I was 17.
DH and I bought a house last year and it's 4 beds, 1.5 baths, finished basement (houses in the midwest have basements) with a bar and a bedroom (we turned a big empty room intoa bedroom technically) and an office. We're at 2,000 square feet or so upstairs, so it'd be fine if we stayed here, especially in the neighborhood we live in. But, I see ourselves moving in about 7 years, maybe 10, when the economy is better and we can buy something more 'permanent'. We have a lovely starter home, but now that I've owned a home I know what I want in the next one. We both want a bigger kitchen, a bigger master bedroom (with a larger bathroom) and a larger yard. It's hard to know what you want until you actually physically own a home. I would be OK staying in this house, though, if the circumstances required it. But the homes we love are in the 450K, 500K range, so we'll definitely wait until we can afford that before we make the jump. But, who knows. My parents use property as a way to make money so I'm just used to the concept of "buy smart, trade up, make a profit" and if you're smart, you can definitely do that.
We bought our home so that it would be big enough to have a couple of small kids in it. We originally were just looking for the 3-5 year house, but we ended up with a 7-10 year house we love it SO much. I would expect one day after 7-10 years or so we may want to upgrade if we need more space.
I'd like the house we move into to be the house we grow old in. One that if need be we can expand for our expanding family. By the time we buy a house there will be a total of 5 people and 1 dog so you can see the starter home just wouldn't work out for us so we need to save the money for something that we can be in for a long period of time. I think worst case is that when the kids are out of the house and my FIL & poochie have passed, we may downsize but I like the idea of staying in one home.
The first house my parents bought, we lived in for 17 years then they decided to upgrade. It really was too small for us for all those years. By then us kids were slowly moving out so right now my rents have this fairly large house for the two of them with the occasional grandchildren sleeping over. It is very nice to come over and I LOVE that house. Now my hubs on the other hand has moved over 29 times (no joke) so he is ready for stability and I am sure he doesn't want to move again after we get our first home.
We moved a lot when I was growing up, and the house my parents live in now is not the house I grew up in. It's kind of weird not knowing where the silverware in the kitchen is, etc... but I love their house now too.
Mr. MJ and I bought our house with the intention of moving someday. We can't afford the type of house we'd want for our 'forever' house, nor do we know where we'll be once we finish our degrees. So, we bought a house we love... but we recognize that we'll be selling it in probably 5 years.
Both my husband and I have spent our entire lives (pre-college, at least) in the same house. We know we want to stay in the DC area forever and both of our families are here. We're house hunting now, and we are definitely looking for a house where we can stay forever. That's not to say we'll never move, but I would be surprised if we spend less than 10 years in our first house. If we ever find it, that is.
I love hearing all these stories! I'm pleasantly surprised to see votes for the "grow-old-in" home. Although the idea of it is still a little odd for me, I think it's super sweet!
We realized that with a budget, we gotta be realistic. If we got 100% of what we wanted, then it would cost way more than what we can afford right now. So either we get a smaller place with everything we want (that we'll eventually resell to upgrade), OR buy a larger place not exactly what we want but with room to renovate in the future.
Our choice is the larger fixable home. The thought of reselling, relooking, and moving stresses me out and especially stresses Fi out since he never moved as a child. If we try to find a house that hits all the major points we want with room for upgrades later, it would be ideal.
I'm really looking forward to our forever home and the thought of fixing it up and renovating it throughout the years makes me smile.
We are in the process of buying a home. Since our number one priority was location with a yard, our house is small to be our forever home. It has 3 bedroom and 1.5 baths. Since we need an office, this only allows us to have one child before some changes need to be made. It is in a great area with a good school system and has a nice size lot. We could put an addition on in the future to make it our forever home or we can sell in 5-7 yrs and buy/build a bigger home. So I guess it's something that could be our forever home, just not the way it is.
You must log in to post.
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| ellisrobertson | 22 |
| MsPanda | 14 |
| aduarte3201 | 14 |
| pengoala | 11 |
| ShellVee | 10 |
| ladyartichoke | 9 |
| londonchick | 9 |
| londonpeach84 | 8 |
 KimKimmieKim |
8 |
| ndreighton | 7 |
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| hopeandpray | 1 |
| PurpleIris | 1 |
| SarahP898 | 1 |
