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I own a condo. I'd love to have a house with a yard when I have kids, but in the big city it's not too common!
If everything goes according to plan (although life rarely does!) I'll be selling my condo and buying a house in 2-3 years, and I'm not planning on getting pregnant for 3-5 more years, so hopefully I'll be living in a house when I get pregnant. If not I would probably be living in my condo.
Hoping to sell my townhouse this year and buy a house. Want to have kids later this year. Though, if you live in NYC that's really different than living in Pittsburgh!
It doesn't matter much to me. My fiance and I plan on saving up a 20% down payment to build a house, which would probably mean we'll be raising kids in an apartment for several years. They won't know the difference, they're just children, haha.
We are hoping to buy a house right after the wedding and then TTC after we are settled in.
Of course, no one knows what the future can bring and I think I'll cope with living in an apartment with a baby if that's what it comes down to. Not an ideal situation and I totally understand your frustration.
Both my parents and my FI's parents rented with infants. My parents purchased their first home when I turned 2 and FI's parents when he turned 3 (I think). They too wanted to own, but needed the few extra years before they were ready to do so.
we own a condo in chicago right now, but are hoping to have a baby in the next year or so. our plan is to stay in our condo (2 bedroom) for another 3 years or so, and then move to the suburbs in a house.
Can you use stick ons for the nursery? They are large stickers that peel off easily and leave nothing behind. My daughter has Cinderella's Castle.
You don't have "Rent house" as an option. It's a really good option, especially because in most major cities the rent:own cost ratio really favors renters (even after equity is accounted for).
That said, I hope we will buy, if only to fulfill my design fantasies ;-). We would do a baby in a condo if it had enough space/we didn't have a down payment together yet, but my hope is to have our first home prior to starting TTC.
I can't help from personal experience, but I do have two sets of friends who had/are soon having babies while living in NYC apartments. As far as I know, these were planned pregnancies, with the couples' ideas being that they will start looking at houses in the suburbs when the babies are a few months' old. I think the idea for both couples was that a baby doesn't require that much extra space, even though they want more room as their kids get older, and also to keep the shorter commute during pregnancy and while the baby is very young.
Actually, come to think of it, both my fiance and my ex (one of the friends having a baby soon) were born in NYC and had their parents move out to a house when they were a little older. So, yeah, it's definitely a fairly established order... there's ntohing wrong with doing it either way, imo. Hopefully you can do it the way you want, but if you can't I don't think it's anything to be super worried about.
Omigosh- stick ons in the nursery is a great idea! And yes, we can cope with an apartment, it just isn't what I had always envisioned. Who knows, maybe we can find something, even if just a condo for now, in the next few months.
Ultimately, as long as there's love in the family, the housing is secondary, at least to me.
We currently own a townhouse and would like to buy a new house before the baby comes. We're going to try to rent out our town house. We have kind of a short time to do this just b/c I don't want to be 9 months pregger and moving (I'm 3 months now), so we are just hoping that it will work out now. If we have to stay in the town house it's not the worst thing in the world, but we're really looking forward to something bigger that has a yard.
i chose other. we are moving into a house after the wedding- but we will be renting it, not owning it. we would love to buy something first, but with FI going back to school for another degree & plans for me to stay home with little ones once they come, it's just not in the cards at the moment and we aren't willing to wait until it is. we live in a very nice apartment now, but we want something more 'homey' once we are married & starting a family. that being said, most of my friends with babies live in apartments. some of them have been able to paint. i think the decals SoontobeMrsA suggested are a GREAT idea!! i think curtains, wall art, and rugs also can totally change the feel of a space. i know painting the nursery can feel like an important step in getting ready for the baby, but i promise you- the baby will not notice! =)
what @kitzy: said.
Besides, every apartment I've ever rented has not had a problem with me painting as long as I promise to paint it white again when I am moving out. Try asking if you are allowed to paint!
Forgot to add that we'll be moving to CT, well technically I live in CT, but my husband is still in NY for a bit (until his new position begins) so I don't feel like a resident here because I spend most of my time still in NYC. So, things change a little in CT, I feel like most people have a house already. Oh well.
We are in the process of house hunting, hoping to be done by the end of the year. We have a few years before we decide to TTC, so I am sure we will be in our home by then.
Right now we live in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment, so I would not be thrilled to raise a baby here!
We too live in NYC. Aka the land of renters and partments =o). So we dont own right now. We're moving to the suburbs (Jersey or Connecticut) in just a few months though, so we'll rent a house or a townhouse for a year or two while we look for homes to buy
For the baby room in our rental house, Im doing decals. Gotta work wiht what ya got.
Tell your mom to relax. MILLIONS of people in NYC have babies, they all manage =o)
I chose other. We currently rent a house, but my fiance is in med school, so we still have residency & fellowship(s) to get through, and wont be stable enough with our location for at LEAST 5-7 more years. We plan on having kids before then for sure, so we'll be renting something (apartment, condo, house?) until then.
I actually posted a similar question a few months ago. I never wanted to have a baby in a condo, but that's likely what we'll be doing since we're NTNT soon to be TTC. I always wanted a house first but the real estate market is bad, since DH bought his condo at the top of the market, and high DC area costs and our ages 37 me and 38 him mean we've got to start very soon. I did make money on the sale of my condo but it's not enough, his condo is down a huge amount in value and we can't rent it for anywhere near the what the mortgage payment is. UGh. I never dreamed I'd be in this situation since I always thought kids should be raised in houses as I was, but on my other post many people pointed out that raising kids in apartmments/condos is necessary in the city or close-in and I don't want a 2 hour commute one way. I've done 90 minutes one way and that was bad enough.
even though i'd like to have a house when we have kids, I'm not sure it'll happen. we've discussed it and we think its okay to have a townhouse or condo when we start a family. its no big deal.
If this makes you feel better, the whole painting the nursery thing is overhyped anyway. I know how fun it seems because I'm big on it too (but not even TTC yet), but really, a lot of times the baby isn't even in the room despite all the best intentions the parents have. And babies can't even see in color for a few weeks. AND, even when they can see in color, boring neutral colors work best because the colors can cause them to be over stimulated making it harder for them to relax. That's what they teach us in my early childhood educ classes (my classes focus on infants and toddlers). Being in NYC, we'll be in an apartment, so maybe I'm just using those things to convince myself, but I've managed to tell myself that it's just not that practical anyway, even if we owned a home. Wait until the child is a bit older then go all out designing a room they will really enjoy! :)
@jennifer_espos: Why aren't you able to paint the nursery in a rented apt? We painted our bedroom and living room in our apt rental--I hate boring white walls!
We fully plan on renting for at least the next few years, unless something drastic changes (property taxes fall waaay down, for instance!). We're planning on having kids in our apt--both DH and I grew up in apts and we don't feel like we missed much. Although one of the things I always wanted as a kid was a staircase (weird, I know) so I could send my slinky down it! I ended up using the stairwell in our building :) I don't really see a problem with renting while having kids...it's certainly not less permanent--we know a couple who's been renting their apartment for 10 years, and they have two young kids.
We rent our house which we moved into when I was pregnant with Moose. It'd be nice to own, but it's not in the cards right now. I'd say love is more important than own v. rent.
I was going to say, a lot of rental properties allow for painting, you just have to repaint it white after :)
I don't personally like apartments in general... DH lived in one when we first started dating and eh, wasn't a fan. I've never lived in one but have had many friends in them over the years. They're great for some people, just not really my deal.
I (for the same price mind you) always rented townhouses/duplexes/or single family homes. I always had more sq footage and a more "homey" feel....
If you actually live in NYC though... I'm not sure if you mean more like "renting an apartment" or "owning a flat/apartment." Real estate in NY is crazy (my whole family is from NY) and I'm so glad my parents "got out." :)
I voted "own house" because we do. If we needed to though, we would have rented a town home/home. I would have ideally wanted to buy before "school" boundaries came into play. I wouldn't want my kid to need to change schools etc...
In my perfect world, we would own our own home on a big piece of property (several acres). Both of us grew up in rural towns and my parents had a bit of property, so us kids were free to roam around and play outside all day. We built countless forts, had campouts, etc....Can't imagine my kids not having those experiences. With that said, where we want to live, the land is extremely expensive, so who knows if we'll ever be able to afford that. I suppose as long as I have a front/back yard, I can't complain too much. But I would love to have atleast 3 or 4 acres.
In my opinion, take it for what it’s worth, I feel that if you can afford to put a roof over you and your child’s head than you are much better off that a lot of couples in America right now.
EDIT: I say this because I have seen too many of my friends and friends of friends get houses (and have babies) with no down payment and then lose them because they could not afford the mortgage payment. (From losing jobs or baby expenses) If you can afford to rent for a while and save for a house at the same time than do it. There should be no reason to stretch your money thin because you feel you should have a house for a baby when they don’t even know what their toes are. They won’t know the difference.
This is an interesting question...so many facets to it. The way Hubs & I see it, it's more about lifestyle & way of life rather than "own/house" vs. "rent/apartment". We live in LA (not nearly as tightly spaced as NYC, but similar kind of "city living" situation - many people rent) & we're into improvising our apartment living situation to the house lifestyle we'd like to eventually get to. For example, instead of having a big backyard, we bike 10 minutes to the park nearby. Like many PPs stated, our complex lets you paint walls (not ceilings - can't do any adjustments to ceilings) & even repaints it for you for a very small fee (we did a HUGE accent wall in our previous apartment in the same complex & it cost us less than $50 to have THEM repaint it). We get to take advantage of the complex dealing with all repairs, exterminations, technology adjustments, pool, hot tub, & landscaping maintenance; another added advantage: my commute is 20 minutes, Hubs is walking distance. Our complex is on the Marina, so we have a private marina walk with access to watch the Boat Parade & Fireworks shows from our apartment balcony. It's pretty great. We moved into a 2 BDRM place, right on the water, to accomodate our new arrival (coming soon in March!) & can't wait to decorate his room, as well as make our living space more "homey" with paint, decorations, etc. the same way "house/owners" would.
We're making a "home" out of wherever we live & it's actually helping us understand better what we want in a "house" when we go hunting up in the Bay Area (plan to move in 3-5 years, when the Kid needs to start school). Like, we've learned that we don't really want/need a HUGE backyard...we'd rather live close to a park that somebody else maintains/landscapes & have a big ol' field rather than deal with a make-shift soccer/baseball/track field. We want an indoor-outdoor living space (like the balconies that come pretty standard on most apartments on the West Coast), like a patio or deck. We're gonna use these next 3-5 years to figure out if the Kid & any future siblings need their own room or could share for a while. This way, we don't buy "more house" or "more land" than we really need (useful when you're moving from LA to SF). It's got it's advantages.
I LOVE the wall art idea! This is even good for owners...kids can change the wall art with their preferences as they grow! Super cool!
Yup, the cards won't fall into place for us to own a house by the time we have kids. I wish I could buy a house but it's not possible at this time. We are living in a 2 bedroom/ 2 bath but I'm hoping to move into a 2 or 3 bedroom rented townhouse by the time we do have kids. Or maybe when our lease is up, see if we can rent a house. That would be ideal but then I have to deal with moving costs. Currently the apartment we are in and the townhouse we want to move into will be in the same building, so we won't have that much moving to do. Hopefully get a few friends to help us move.
A house is what I voted for, but I am not opposed to renting an apartment at all. My only concern is the inconvience for laundry.
We live in an apartment in Jersey City, which is pretty close to NYC but we also have 2 bedrooms/2baths/washer & dryer and 1200 sq ft.. If we have a baby in our apartment we are fine with it but will more than likely move to the burbs further out in Jersey. As long as there is enough room for everyone I don't see why it would be an issue. Once our children get a little older we'll want a backyard, etc for them to be able to play in but that will be at least a few years, plus there are always parks nearby you can go to.
You will have awhile before the kid cares about a yard! Maybe enjoy the pros of an apartment for now...no yardwork, maintenance etc. and enjoy the little one. The last thing you need to do is worry about moving while pregnant. There will always be something else to do to live up to someone else's (or even your) idea of being a perfect mommy, but we all have to be a little kinder to ourselves!
I grew up in apartments all my life, and our kid will be raised in an apartment or condo. We'll probably look for one with walls that are not paper thin. This is how our current building is, and our neighbors have a baby with their bedroom right next to our living room. I can tell you, we haven't had peace and quiet in the four months since they moved. I feel like we're raising the kid along with them through those two-hour non-stop screaming fests.
Ideally I'd like to own a house someday, but I'm not sure if it'll be before or after we have kids. For me the important part would be having enough space, whether rented or owned.
And like other bees have mentioned, some places let you paint, even if you're renting (our current landlord let us paint the house all sorts of colors :-)
The house we live in now. That was one of my reasons to buy this house last yr...plus the fact of getting a great deal in a great school system. Already have the baby's room picked out. :)
Right now we rent a house - we have talked about it and realized that we would be 100% fine with continuing to rent even once we have our first child. However, ideally we would like to own a house either before having our first baby or within the first few years and before our second child.
I always wanted to own before having children. Well, I don't think I would be able to have children if I waited for THAT to happen. However, I know families that rent great houses or live in nice apartments. So I'll make it work.
Stick ons are a great idea!
They have BEAUTIFUL ones on etsy and also Pottery Barn Kids! You can also google murals for kids rooms and find some fun ones :)
We just purchased our first home and will be moving in within the month...we are due in April ....we got very lucky with that one
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I'm just curious to know your thoughts on renting or owning when you have children. I'm sure the ideal to a lot is to have a house, but sometimes the cards don't fall that way. My husband and I didn't plan this pregnancy, we just began looking for houses so we might end up in apartment for awhile longer than expected. My mother is not happy with this. I'm not really thrilled either, for two reasons, 1. It might be harder, financially, to get the house the way we'd like to once a babies expenses come into play and 2. I won't be able to paint the nursery. I know the last one is kinda silly, but it's important to me, I've dreamed of it!
Where do you guys live with your babes? Or where will you live? What are your thoughts?