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We own our townhouse now, my husband bought it as an investment before he met me. Obviously that didn't work out well. Now we're looking to buy another home to upgrade, since we have a baby on the way we need more room.
We're still renting, for a lot of reasons, not least of which is that we don't want to be in the city where we are long term, but the other day I read this article on CNN and found it really interesting: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/real_estate/1101/gallery.rent_or_buy/index.html
For us, we do hope to eventually buy a home, but first we need to figure out where we're going to settle down (we hope to live internationally for a few years before having children) and be stuck for a long time ... then we'll invest in a home there.
I clicked almost all of those! I was in my last year of university and hubby (bf at the time) was working. When he was away working he found a house on an acreage that was so cheap. The house needed a lot of work but got a whole quarter section plus house for a steal. So we bought it. Plus I was finishing up school so it was time to upgrade. We are still in it and have done LOTS of reno's.
I voted other. I bought my house when I was single, and it was in 2005, so it was a seller's market in our area. Long story short, I hated living in an apartment and didn't want to share walls with strangers. I bought my first house and rented out two rooms which covered the entire mortgage, so I basically lived for free.
It SHOULD have been a good investment, but then the market crashed. I bought a house with my DH last year and now we have that one as a rental.
I clicked a lot of those! We were hunting for a larger condo, but couldn't find what we wanted, so we started looking at houses because the price point was basically the same for what we were looking for. We wanted another bedroom since DH's son was no longer a wee baby and needed a "big boy bed" for his weekends with us and our 1+ den condo just was not working for our situation any longer. We stumbled into our house which ended up being an awesome deal as well as an incredible investment. If we put it on the market today we could likely list for at least $200k more than what we paid for it 3 years ago. Insane. So, we got the bigger house, the good lot, great schools, and now we're going to renovate it top to bottom and side to side to make it our dream home :) We could not pass it up!
I had the money to buy and I was tired of apartment living, houses were cheap, so I bought it. I own it outright, so it really is a security thing of, no matter what, job loss,etc, as long as we pay the property taxes, we have somewhere to live. Eventually we'll probably upgrade, but use this one as a rental for a side income. :)
I clicked on a bunch of those: we found a great house for a great bargain in a buyers market at a time when there was a first time homebuyer's incentive. Also, we were just married so each of our homes was too small for two people and it felt like the most appropriate next step in our life plan. Plus it was a great investment.
We were dealing with a bat shit crazy landlord and after crunching the numbers we realized that our mortgage would be similiar to our rent at the time. Uncle Sam was also offering first time homebuyers $8,000 in 2009 so it seemed like a no brainer.
Secondary reasons (but not less important) were that we both had stable good paying jobs, and we were in a major buyers market. We ended up buying a 2,000 sq foot colonial which would have been out of our reach in a better economy.
We're about to buy, we're 23 and 24.. we've each been renting since we were 18 and are sick of paying other people's mortgages when we can afford our own.
We are in the process of buying an apartment in NYC and I clicked many of these. We've been renting for a long time, but growing weary of living in rental buildings. People move in and out constantly, make a lot of noise, don't report problems so there are constant bug infestations, water leaks, etc. Subletting, having guests for extended periods, we are sick of it all. And the management company has no incentive to upgrade our apartment ever, since it's not ours we don't want to put any money into things like appliances, nice blinds, even paint.
To upgrade to a 'nicer' rental building wouldn't make any sense because we would be paying more a month to live in a small studio in a nice building than we would pay for a mortgage on a large one bedroom.
IMO, if you are going to live in NYC for an extended period of time and have the money, it makes sense to buy into a coop building. There are a lot of rules in good coops that benefit all the residents. And nice buildings usually have a lot of amenities like gyms, storage spaces, play rooms, roof decks, library's, etc. So while you don't have a huge house with a backyard, you still have access to many of those amenities.
It all happened kind of fast for us, we had been saving for a long time and our lease was up in May, so this past January we started looking around. It didn't take long to discover exactly what type of place would be perfect for us, so once we found it we made an offer and it was accepted. We can't wait to move in, but with coops it's a long process since you have to be interviewed and voted on by the board.
DH and I are starting to look at buying for many of the reasons above. I HATE throwing away money into rent and we could buy a relatively new, large house and pay pretty much the exact same for mortgage, taxes, and insurance as we pay now in rent. Plus we would then have equity instead of nothing to show for the large amounts of money spent every month.
I also dislike apartment living, shared walls, other people's disrespect for the buildings/amenities because they don't own them, etc. DH and I have money and secure jobs and are ready to take that next step in our lives.
Because my little girl has a learning disability and needed a better school and a more structured home life. It cost us the wedding we had planned but it is completely worth it to better her life.
We bought our house because it was SUPER cheap! A 3 BR and a HUGE, long yard that we could not pass up! FI wanted to take advantage of that first time buyer stimulus program and he had a stable, well paying job.
My husband bought our condo 3 years before we were married, so that was really a nice thing to not have to worry about right after the wedding. We saved for a year and started looking for a bigger house. We found it almost 9 months later - we were just ready financially and space-wise. We were looking for a good school district as well for our future kids.
In retrospect, we went into buying our home pretty ignorantly. DH moved in with me shortly after we got engaged -- which wasn't really part of the 'plan', just how things happened. Two months later, we were at our wits end -- we needed more space!!! We were planning on moving into a 2br/2bath apartment next door to the one we were currently in.. but after getting the run around from the apartment staff, we decided it was a better idea to buy rather than continue to throw away money on rent. After all, we had had the credit, the stable job to do so. 3 weeks later we closed on our house.
several reasons:
A LOT of friends had been buying homes - friends we didn't think could afford homes, so we thought - if our single friends can do it, the two of us can, and that started the ball rolling.
FI was in a steady job with good credit. Since we weren't married, he alone qualified for the mortgage (his name is on the mortgage, but we are both on the deed). My FI has his master's in mathematics, so he crunched all the numbers and figured out what we could afford. We are currently only paying about $200-300 more than we were when we were renting, so it was do-able. We weren't looking for anything huge - just a basic home. Ours is 1300 sq. feet, 3 bed, 2 bath. The backyard was great for our dog, and it's not in a development, so no HOA (we were adamant about that). Everyone agrees that it's a great "starter home" - which is true. We have all the space we need, and none that we don't. It's in a great area, and will resell well if we need to relocate anywhere.
We were also motivated by the $8k homebuyer's tax credit.
We knew we had to move out of the place we were living in, and we realized we could buy instead of rent as a next step if we were willing to make some concessions and downsize a little (we were renting a 3-BR, gorgeous, single family home on a large lot). This is a great investment and we were ready to make it...so we downsized, bought, and here we are!
We lived with his dad, so we started looking for houses right after we got engaged. It took us over a year to find the one we are in now, and we moved in 6 months after we got married. We got really lucky on it, it was completely gutted and renovated on the inside, so we got pretty much a brand new house for a not brand new house price. And the $8k tax credit didn't hurt either!
I voted it was cheaper to buy than rent. Which is sort of true. I bought a condo on my own before meeting FI because I wanted to move closer to work but I didn't want to put money in someone else's pocket by paying rent. Used it to build my credit and had something to sell when FI and I wanted to buy a home together.
A lot of those applied. Basically we were ready finacially, it was the next step and it TOTALLY is a buyers market. 3 years ago our house we bought was apraised at 137k MORE than what we purchased it at. So eventually it will turn into an investment as well.
Probably not the best reason but there were a ton of tax credits when I bought my first home and so those covered the downpayment. I guess I also feel that paying rent is throwing all your money away whereas paying a mortgage is only throwing most of your money away (taxes, interest, HOA) but a little goes to principle.
I checked off a lot of the reasons. We were each renting a separate basement suite, and wanted to move in together. Buying our condo was cheaper than two places, so we knew we could afford it and wanted a place that was ours. We'd been working in stable jobs for over a year and had a nice savings account. At that point, interest rates were the lowest they'd been in a long time, so we wanted to seize the moment and take advantage of a cheap mortgage.
I checked off most of those-our rent and mortgage payment are exactly the same. We had stable jobs, had been working full time for over 5 years, interest rates were low, and we had enough of a down payment to qualify for first time homebuyer programs. We also wanted to take advantage of the first time credit.
It was a great decision :)
I want my children to grow up in a house because I never had that opportunity. Apartments just aren't the same thing. My husband and I have been saving like gangbusters because houses are still very expensive in Southern California. Hopefully, we'll find something soon and be able to move this summer.
We were living in a condo, and our strata council decided to pass a repiping repair where they were going to tear holes in our walls in the bathroom and kitchen and have it complete chaos for almost a month.. We weren't keen at all of having strangers in your home and making a mess. Also it was an extra $7,000 we had to pay on top of our mortgage and strata fees! So that was a big motivator for us..
Also, we didn't agree with everything our strata did, and they were talking about increasing our maintenance fees for next year.. There was talk about paying for a new roof soon too. And the building wasn't rain screened, which could be very expensive to repair later.
We wanted to move into something bigger and get out of a condo.. Get a house with an actual yard, no noisy neighbours, no rules, more private.. We wanted a dog too which we didn't want to get while we were in a condo. But basically when our strata council started pissing us off then we looked into a house sooner than we expected.
But yes, interest rates were low which was nice.. We found that what we were paying for the mortgage and strata fees at the condo was around $200 cheaper than the mortgage for our house. So there wasn't a huge jump for us to get a bigger mortgage, and a house.
I came home one day to find SO looking at condos. Before that, the thought of owning a home beyond fantasizing hadn't even occurred to me. He quickly got me excited and we looked through tons of listings together. We originally were going to get a mobile home because it would be even cheaper than rent, but then realized that would be pointless, as they don't appreciate in value. Then we thought about condos and realized that we hated the concept of strata fees and rules. Soon, the idea of a single family home with a yard just seemed like heaven (noisy building, rude neighbours, not enough space) and the perfect starter home was just waiting for us to find it :)
To rent an apartment similar to our condo would cost a couple hundred dollars more a month + renters insurance. We could find a cheaper rental, but I didn't want to live like we did in college (craptastic apartment, no in unit laundry). Our place is small, but really nice and located 10-15 minutes from everything (beach, grocery store, military bases, etc..) The community we live in is also pretty great- lots of old people :) I hate our condo association though- we have some of the highest HOA fees in the area. But there is a pool, workout room, and the grounds are well maintained.
We also bought as an investment. The military moves us frequently, when we leave we would like to rent this place out.
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