Poll: forever house?

AustinBride06

Another thing I'm wondering about...

ETA: Also... what would be your ideal "forever home" if you don't live there already?

[Poll]

Leigha12

We're currently renting, but our next home will hopefully be our starter home. I don't think we'll be in a financial situation to get one big enough to be our forever home. Although we'd really love our next move to be our last. I guess if we can afford a 4 bedroom and only have 2 kiddos, it could be our forever home

ETA: Ideal home would be 4-5 bedrooms, with 2 1/2 baths, and a second floor living area for gaming. 3 car garage or 2 car garage with a storage unit in the back that could be used for arts and crafts (I'd prefer to paint outside of the main house).  It would be in a family-oriented neighborhood, but with fenced yards so the dogs and kids can play without me freaking out. And definitely less than 30 minutes to work. Sigh.

labbielover07

I love our house, but it is def. a start home.  We'll get closer to our forever home in a few years when we move up to Colorado.

AustinBride06

We're in our first house, but I feel like we could stay in it for a while... at least until we're TTC #2 (still years and years away).  DH feels differently, but he grew up in a big house.

My ideal forever home would be in a family-friendly neighborhood within walking distance to a park or restaurants... 4 bedrooms... awesome schools... 30 min or less from work.  Yeah... we'll be saving a while for that one.  

CrazyNLove

This isn't our first home.  We were only supposed to live here for 1.5 years and then lease it out and buy another.  But - unfortunately with the market the way it is - we lost value in our home and are staying a lot longer than planned.  So like many people, we have dumped a lot of money into our home to make it perfectly livable for a few years longer than planned.

Temp919044062507573

I own but my home is only 1100 sq feet...definitely a starter home- I can't imagine having a toddler in this house with dogs and a spouse...

cookie1and2

If financially possible, I would like our next home to be a forever home.  But of course, being in my 30s, my answer would be different than someone in their 20s  The reason being is that (though very obvious), we have found though owning our current home that you cannot change a)lot size and b)location of home.  Duh, right?  But pretty much everything else can be changed.  We've changed so much in our home in the 6 years that we've owned it, and know that we eventually have to move because we don't like a and b.  If/when we move again, I don't want to start putting money back into the house only to have it be a house that doesn't fit us again 10 years down the road.  

mcgee

I do really like our current house, but we'd love to have a bigger family, and I think we'll be too crowded in this house in a few years. But then, families with more kids used to live in houses our size, so part of me feels like I should suck it up and find a way to make this house work for three of more kids. I don't know...

Our "dream" home would be an older home with some character to it that has at least four bedrooms and plenty of storage space. We aren't opposed to doing a lot of DIY work to make the space fit our needs, but it would have to be structurally sound with a good heat/ac system and good wiring.

ali-1411

This is our first home and we're here long-term.  We have plenty of room and we're in a good neighborhood.  We plan on downsizing as soon as the kids finish high school and move out, and our dream house is a little 2 bedroom cottage on a lake somewhere.

SaraLouiseBride08

We are in our starter home that we bought when I was 22. We've been in our house of 3.5 years and just in the last year have I started to love it. I've been working on the house the whole time we've lived there and it's really starting to feel like our home. We have over 1/3 an acre in a subdivision, which you just can't find in town in Austin without a huge price tag attached. We're in a cul de sac, there are no houses facing directly towards ours, our neighbors (although crazy) leave us alone. Also our mortgage is so small (I think it's like 18% of our take home income!) schools wouldn't be an issue because we'd be able to afford private school ...

Ideally I'd like to stay at this house for another 5 years, build equity, have a child while our other living expenses are down (low mortgage), and then maybe buy a house that we could stay in for the long term. Probably in Dripping Springs or Driftwood (still close to Austin, but also closer to my parents who are moving to the Hill Country), on at least an acre (for the dogs and the kids), around 2000-2200 square feet (enough space for a small family, but not so big I can't keep it clean), and  ... well that's all my requirements

Mainer-in-Texas

I said we are in a starter home, but, honestly, we could get by in it forever, it would just feel really cramped with two older children (which we hope to have someday). (It's 1460 sq feet with a small kitchen, 4 bedrooms, one living room, and a 2 car garage).

I'd really like our next home to have two living areas so the kids and the adults don't have to be in the same room all the time. I'd also like an office area so we could use our 4th bedroom as a guest room. Oh, and a big semi-gormet kitchen open to the living room is high on the list because MH loves to entertain. I'd also love to have a home with a 3 car garage so we could use one of the spaces for working in the garage. And bigger closets. And, of course, this all has to be in a nice neighborhood close to downtown. It's fun to dream.

sandieleeann

The plan is for this to be our starter home.  It's pretty small and all the way out in Hutto, which isn't that bad, just not our ideal spot for a forever home.  And the house is pretty small and it backs up to a two lane road which is not something I'm sure I want when we have kids.

CollieJade

We're halfway to our forever home.  This is my third house, DH's second (I bought a house before I met him, then we hung onto it for a while after I moved into his house).  It's what I like to call our "For-now-dream-house." It has all the upgrades I wanted and we need to do very little to it to make it just what we want (mainly painting and continuing the hardwoods into the bedroom, which is currently carpeted).  The only things I wish were a little different in this house are I wish the formal dining was just a smidge bigger, I wish the livingroom was situated slightly differently, and I wanted a bigger mudroom.  But what it is now will last us for several years! At 2700 square feet it's a perfect size for now, but I feel like once we have another child it'll be too small, plus I want to custom build at some point. 

thegastons

I voted for not a starter, but not a forever home. We could definitely make our house work for a long time, and really intend to do so for maybe 10-15 years. For a forever home, I would want a single story home with 4 bedrooms and an office so we could have a guest bedroom even after we have kids. I want bigger closets and larger bedrooms - our extra bedrooms right now are pretty small. If we stay in this area, I would like to move some where other than Hutto (its not bad, but not great either), although still north. I would like an upgraded kitchen that is a little bigger. And I think I would like everything already pretty well upgraded - our previous house was a fixer-upper and all that work sucked Now after looking at all these wants and the ones I didn't type out, I think I'm going to need to change my time frame to about 20-30 years

shanwalk2

We're renting, but plan for our first home to be a 'forever home'.  DH really wants to save like mad for the next 4 years to have 20% on the dream home.  I think we can do it... assuming nothing major happens (job changes/locations, ect).  We'll be renting until then... but doing a lot of dreaming. 

Our dream home:  New construction with craftsman influences.  4 bedroom, 3 bath, 2 living areas, office, semi gourmet kitchen, large laundry (not walk though), probably 2 story with master downstairs, large closets, lots of storage with a large backyard.  The school district will be super important to DH, and we'll have to be close enough to be confident there won't be a rezone.  Location would depend on DH's employment and commute.  2300+ square feet. 

FireChiefsBride

I'm definitely thankful we're in a wonderful home, not a starter, but still not our forever home.  We had to give up a garage and land to move into town to be closer to DSS's school, so we'll stay here until he's out and then probably move again.  The house is fantstic, but not perfect, the lot is smaller than we would prefer and DH really needs a workshop to be happy (larger than a 1-car garage).  To his credit, he's a mechanic, can do carpentry, weld, whatever, so I'm not opposed to his outdoor space requirements.

Long-term (retirement) we want to move farther out of town, somewhere like Boerne or Bulverde with a few acres at least and a custom home.

TX-Bride

We are living in a house I bought way before we got married. I can't wait for us to move to our next upgrade. I don't need a lot more sqft, a bigger master and closets and a formal dining room is all I am asking for. But I would love to have all the upgrades, nice appliances, stone counter tops, etc.

With me being unemployed and no luck finding a job and DH so un-motivated to get another job, we can't even imagin when our next move will be.