October 2009 Weddings
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Buy vs Rent
Since I'm nosy (at least I'm honest), I see someone's house-hunting. If you do not currently own, what are your plans over the next few months? Do you plan to continue renting or are you going to buy? If you already own, are you getting something different?
Renting and buying both have their pros and cons. We're discussing our options at this point to determine what's best.
Anyway, here's an interesting calculator to show you financially what is more beneficial for you based on rent and mortgage payments.
Matt loves Munkii!!!
Re: Buy vs Rent
I suspect I am the person you are refering to when you say "I see someone's house hunting". We have been actively looking for 2 weeks now so we can take advantage of the $8000 FTHB tax credit.
Ok, so I live in California where rent and home prices are outrageous. We rent right now for $1445 a month and I really would like to put that to something I can own at the end of the day. Ultimately, I feel the market is going to continue to be bleak in the housing market (I work in finance for a bank). So I guess the rule of thumb we are using is that whatever we buy, we want to plan on living in it for at least 3-5 years. That way if the home depreciates in value while the market is leveling out, we can ride out the wave.
I moved into my husbands 1 bedroom condo after we got married. We definitely need more room, and will be putting our house on the market around next Christmas. (This year we'll be fixing it up.)
There's two reasons we're buying. First is financial. Like Nicole, we're want our money to go to something permanent, not temporary. Real Estate, no matter what the market is doing at the moment, remains one of the best financial securities over time.
Second, we're going to be getting a house because we're inviting my MIL and FIL to live with us. Both are in poor health and in a dire financial situation. When we buy, we want to live in that house until we retire - so it'll need to house a family.
I figured it was meant for everyone to respond since it wasn't addressed to me.
What are your thought Munkii on buying?
My thoughts on buying. If we can find something affordable that can get us through the next few years without taking a huge loss (tiny loss is ok), then buying will be a good open. There are a lot of colleges here; so there's also the possibility of turning what we buy into a rental.
However, I'll be done with school within the next three years and do not want to live in IN the rest of my life! There's no point in taking out a 30 yr mortgage on something we will only live in for 3 years. I'm ok with taking out a mortgage on something I can pay off in a few years, though.
We pay 1200$ in rent, and while it would be nice to see those funds go into something permanent that's ours, I have the bonuses of not paying: water, garbage, maintenance issues, landscaping, or pest control. If we buy a house, we'll take on all those responsibilities.
We bought our house a little over 3 years ago. Where we live, it was cheaper for us to buy a small home then to rent something. We've remodeled inside: in the bathroom (made it bigger, replaced sink/vanity, new walls, flooring, trim); in the kitchen (gutted it, new walls, cabinets, countertops, trim, flooring, appliances, put in a bar); new flooring in both the bedrooms, & new trim throught the house. Outside we've done: new flower beds in front with new stone blocks. Now we're trying to have our first baby so we're going to stay were we are so that we don't lose on the investment. Hopefully we can just get back the money we've put into the house. We'd like to move in a couple years or so. The house defiantly isn't big enough for more then one child.
I am one lucky girl. I live with dh in a 3 story house with a pool, 3 bedroom 3 bath, and my mom owns it. She moved to Alabama a year ago and basically told me that I could have the house and when I decide to move, she will sell it.
My dh works as a manager of a publix grocery store. We are currently trying to get him transferred to anywhere in TN, AL, or GA. We want out of florida! I hate it here and I have no family, I am all alone! We will prob rent once we move so that we can get used to the area and confirm that we like the location, then we will start looking for a house
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I encourage everyone to OWN a home - that is assuming you've been saving and have money to put down on a house. Once upon a time, you could get 100% financing...hence the reason we're in the housing crisis that we're in. Both DH and I owned homes - I sold mine and now live in his. It's a little too big for us as he definitely overbought in square footage, but it's growing on me. It's not the neighborhood I'd want to raise a family in - not the school district I'd want to be in, etc, but for the next 2 years or so, it's home.
Find a realtor and explore your options. And it is still a good investment, but don't plan on staying for less than 3 years if you're going to buy. You just won't get your money out of it and the whole point in buying is to build equity.
We also bought. DH and I each had condos... we sold mine, and rented his out. And then we bought a little 3/1. It's a great neighborhood, and it's in the city on a good deal of land. So overall we're happy. The one bathroom thing is a killer.
Ok now that I've responded and changed my siggy, back to studying! Miss you guys!
Our wedding bio page (including vendor reviews) and items for sale
We rent right now for a couple of reasons, the main one being my current awful credit situation. It's a long a painful story that I won't bother you with. Also the home prices here are insane. Starter "doll houses" go for over 300,000 bucks. The mortgage rates are higher then I am willing to pay right now even if we could get a mortgage. Plus we have no down payment to speak of.
Our rent is cheap as far as this city goes. Some people think what we pay is high but those people live in houses already and don't realize just how high rent is. I wish we were in a town house or something though rather then an apartment just to have more space and a little yard. The problem there is most people who rent their town house bought it when the rates were even higher then they are now and in order to break even on the mortgage they have to charge upwards of 1300 to 1700/mth for rent. We're paying way less then that for our apt.
We bought our house last year. It was silly of us not too. When we were renting our apartment we were paying just under $1100 for a 2/2. Our mortgage payment is $1135 and we have a 4/2/2 with a nice back porch and decent size backyard so that when Jaiden gets older he has plenty of room to play outside.
We rent for now, our rent is low (850) but our place is super nice and DH and I just aren't ready to put down roots yet. We both want to travel for the next 5-6 years and don't see kids in our future atleast until then. So for now we are just going to keep renting, move around, and enjoy the freedom. So far I have lived in 3 rentals and each one has given me thoughts on what kind of house I may want to buy/build in the future. So hopefully in 6 years or so we will buy or build a house and I'll have lots of ideas on the things I would like to have or not have in our house.
I bought my first house last year. In VA the housing prices are pretty high so it's either a $1000 payment toward something that belongs to you that you can do whatever you want with, or $1000 toward a place you can't decorate, are told what pets you can have, and get nothing back out of.
There's one company around here that owns almost all of the apartment buildings in town and they're horrible. They cheat you any way they can think of, don't respond when something is wrong, and if you need something done right away you pay for it yourself. It's just easier to own.
We're currently renting. We have been for 4 years now (me alone for the first year, then together for the rest). Our lease isn't up until July, so we're no thinking about anything now.
I like renting, but neither DH nor I are very good at fixing things, so I like the maintenance men who come with renting. If something's broken, we call and it's fixed the next day.
We also live in a relatively large city, where homes in "nice neighborhoods" are very expensive. Apartments in these same areas have rents that are pretty manageable. I definitely couldn't get a house right now with a mortgage payment the same as my rent - no way. Not to mention the down payment, appliances, taxes, etc. that come along with a house.
We're currently renting a townhouse I shared with 2-3 other girls prior to the wedding. Rent is $1300. We're looking to buy but probably not in under six months. Next month, unless something crazy happens and we find a perfect home to buy, we'll be moving into a small house DH's grandpa owns and will only be paying $600. The plan is to keep our current budget and put the extra $600-$700 away to increase our down payment a bit or to give us repair $ if we find something cheap that just needs work (there are ALOT of those around here right now with all the bank owned homes).
Call us insane, but our ideal buying situation would be to find a big piece of property we can share with MOH1 and her husband and possibly MOH2 and BM as well... room for gardening, chickens, a couple goats... that would be so happy.
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Millie, I want to live on your commune. I'll bring llamas.
Interesting post, Munkii
. DH and I are saving to buy a home but aren't really planning on doing it for another few years. We live in a large city where homes are very expensive - unless you want a hellish commute. Considering we live "close in" and my commute is already 40 minutes with no possibility of working from home ever...it isn't very motivating to purchase.
Also, we are planning to move away from the area in the next few years, once I finish grad school, because I have ZERO interest in raising my children here. I am one to buy a house for life - my parents still live in the house they purchased when they got married - so I don't want to buy something here just to buy it and then turn around and try to sell it a few years down the road.
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We really want to own a home for a couple of reasons: 1. We feel like we're suffocating in our 2/1.5 townhouse- we really need more storage area and I'd love a backyard so we can have a dog. 2. Our landlord sucks and never fixes anything properly- we're renters who actually care about our "home" and would like leaky roofs, etc. to be fixed.
But we aren't prepared financially and we aren't "settled" yet. We are no where close to having a down payment (hello wedding!) plus I guess I'm a little commitment-phobic about buying. I wouldn't know which neighborhood to choose, and it just scares me a little bit. I guess it just feels so "adult." But I'd say within the next 2-3 years we'll be looking to buy.
We have a pretty sweet deal right now. Hs parents bought a new home 2 years ago & their old house wouldn't sell (they got hosed on thier new house & were trying to get way too much out of thier old house). So we moved into the old house when H lost his job. Our rent is only $400, but even thats been hard since H was out of work for over a year. So we have a 3/1 with a full finished basement for only $400/month. ILs are happy to have us covering their expenses associated with the house and we happy not to be in an apartment, but I've never felt like it's home.
H finally landed a job and has been putting in as many extra hours as possible & I've picked up extra flying to try to boost our savings, which is non-existent. Hopefully with him working & me flying extra we will be able to get a starter home/fixer upper before the tax credit runs out. It's going to be tough and tight for the net few months, but we are trying.
We're currently renting at $1100 a month and are also trying to buy before the tax credit runs out. We want to keep our mortgage payments at or below what we pay now in case one of us loses a job or decide to stay home with kids.
I'm not sure if we'll be able to find a place in time though. We want a single family home...ideally within walking distance of the train to Boston, and in a good neighborhood. So far everything I've found is too expensive OR surrounded by sex offenders/halfway houses for people recently released from prision =(
I am renting at the moment and we are happy with that. We live in the part of town where we want to raise our kids. The only thing I don't like, we are renting a apartment:( it's a 3bdrm and there's lots of room but I don't like having someone on the other side of the wall.
I have wanted a house for a long time but, there really isn't much in the town where we live and if we want something nice it costs allot. Luckily DH and his family have renovated a few homes so, if something comes up that we like it doesn't matter if it needs fixing we can get it done:)