Though sweetiepieface and I have been saving all our nickles and dimes for two whole years (give or take), we do live in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country and neither of us is a high-powered anything. So we placed the whole idea of buying a house on the backburner of our minds. Recently, though, we looked around and realized the prices they are a droppin'--not into the range my relocated middle-american family is dealing with right now (actually their prices didn't even drop as they hadn't been inflated in the first place)--but still it's significant. And if you're going to buy anything, you might as well buy at the bottom, right? So I've been perking up and looking at real estate online, and then very recently I started learning about all this stuff that had just been random terminology before: like mortgages and credit scores. I started getting into the details: mortgage insurance, fixed-rate vs. adjustable rate, real estate taxes, "points" (which is part of your insurance paid up-front to decrease your overall interest rate), credit scores, and more.
The more I learn, the less I realize we can afford. Odd blue townhouse that I thought was in our price range:
is--alas--not quite.
However, each time we revise down our estimate and I look at property in our price range I realize that we may still be able to find something that is at least a little nicer (well, bigger anyway) than the place we are currently renting, and that will serve our main purpose and build some equity. Something like--say--this:
Of course, the real telling thing will be when we actually go to look at some of these places. For example, here's a question: are the kind of people that can not afford to pay for their mortgage such that their house gets foreclosed (is that a verb?) the type to have been very vigilant about the upkeep of that same house?
I've also learned that what we need in terms of financing might not exist, since we are planning to be making significantly LESS money in a couple or three (i think some relative of mine says that) years than we are making now, when I plan to go freelance part-time/mommy part-time. So much stuff to think about and then think some more about. I'm thinking maybe if I do this one step at a time it won't seem like such an impossible adult math problem. Our next step, I think, is to check credit scores and get ourselves ready for the big loan meeting. Also, a camping trip is pretty much in order.
Are you guys bored yet? Have any great tips?
6 comments:
Ha, I know exactly what you mean. Kelly and I have been looking casually, but suddenly find ourselves talking about points, downpayments, and tax assessments; stuff we didn't plan on.
I think the market is good for us buyers, mainly b/c there are a lot of desperate sellers, even here in DC, and interest rates are relatively low.
But like you, we also face the unknown of income in the future since we'll be in another country in two years and our job/family situation could very likely be different. It's one of the reasons I've always been in favor and think it still is a wise financial decision for people that have untraditional careers and don't plan on living somewhere for the next 30 years to still rent since looking at a mortgage that requires almost twice the amount paid back when you amortize the interest rate even in the 5-6% range over 30 years! That $300k house suddenly will cost you almost $600k in that time, not to mention all the upkeep!
Can you tell I'm still not "sold"!
DC is for the young and easy to rent or for the very rich and easy to buy market. IMO if you plan on family life it might help you to relocate somewhere that is growing fast but where the market has dropped significantly (like Phoenix or Vegas) or a place with super high employment rates (like, oh, say 2.1%) and a housing market that, though it has increased significantly over the last year or so (18%) is still within a nice, affordable range for most families (SLC,Utah, baby).
ha! i have often daydreamed about moving somewhere we could buy a much nicer place and not have to kill ourselves for it. but there's actually a lot of reasons--mainly family reasons and a kick butt pension--for us to stay in the area, which is why i'm trying to figure out how to make the best of it.
I'm with you MJ since I'm "vested" and K and I joke that jobs don't exist for our backgrounds outside of DC, haha. It's these tears of "joy" we pat dry as we cry ourself to sleep each night when discussing the upcoming mortgage payment!
Yeah, I've been thinking of buying now that DC Housing market is starting to look, well not reasonable, but maybe reachable. .
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