Are you 30 or older, do you own or rent your home?

amother

Ecru

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 3:50 pm

32. Bought 8 years ago for 500k. We took a 35 year mortgage to make the payments more manageable. We borrowed a large chunk of the down payment, which we've since repaid. Our house is now worth 1million and we are tapping into our substantial equity to build an addition to house our growing family. We live in a large city, not in the tri-state area.

amother

Maroon

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 4:04 pm

32 and own our house. Bought it 9 years ago at 23. We live in Lakewood and paid 250,000 for an old house. With savings, first time home owners grants and personal loans (since repaid) and some gifts we were able to buy. Over the years we did small home improvement projects, which is nice. Now as expenses are increasing, it's more difficult to do big projects. We still fit in to the house (4 br house) but living space becomes tight. Hope to extend down the line. Very grateful that we bought back when we did since old houses selling for $400+ and new construction selling at $550+ in Lakewood. The mortgage is affordable.

amother

Blush

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 4:08 pm

Lower 30s

We are still renting - skyrocketing Brooklyn...
in process of search to buy something now.

amother

Periwinkle

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 4:10 pm

28
Bought 3.5 yrs ago, Brooklyn, 665k. We had help for downpayment by parents and have a tenant in our basement that covers 1/3 our mortgage. And we still both work very hard and long hours to pay the bills. I am grateful we bought then bec. now prices went up and I dont see how we would be able to do it...

amother

Floralwhite

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 4:13 pm

36
israel (on paper)
roughly 400K

Shoshana37

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 4:22 pm

38 yr. we bought our first house 2 years ago for 645k with 20% down payment for 30 years. NY Brooklyn. There is no way we would have bought it on our own my parents helped us because our 2 bedroom wasn’t suitable for us anymore. Plus our neighbors were complaining of too much noise our kids made.
So glad my parents helped will always be great full for them

thunderstorm

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 4:57 pm

I was 33 when we bought.
Chestnut Ridge
$410k

nicole81

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 5:38 pm

I'm 36, and was 26 when we bought in Brooklyn for 445k.

amother

Copper

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 5:43 pm

I misread the title, so I voted. I am 27, bought a house when I was 26. We bought a house in Pomona, NY for $520k. I am a RN and work two jobs. My husband works as many overtime hours as he can. We barely cover our expenses. I love my house and my community but we are definitely struggling financially.

icebreaker

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 5:47 pm

I'm 40 and just purchased my first home.
542,000 in Connecticut. Can't wait to move!!

thunderstorm

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 5:49 pm

icebreaker wrote:

I'm 40 and just purchased my first home.
542,000 in Connecticut. Can't wait to move!!

Lots of mazal and bracha!

icebreaker

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 6:58 pm

Bizzydizzymommy wrote:

Lots of mazal and bracha!

Thank you!! Hug

amother

Cerulean

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 8:51 pm

24
Detroit
152k

Best decision ever. When we bought we were just getting out of kollel no help making 35k a year combined! so it was tough. but I'm glad we did. The house is worth 50k more now 3 years later and our mortgage is lower than rent would be.

amother

Pink

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 9:31 pm

Im 29- we bought 3 years ago for 500K in NY. (A small little house that needs lots of projects.) No, we didnt get a cent from our parents/grandparents. We borrowed a lot of money for our down payment so we shouldn't have PMI and pay that and the mortgage each month. Our mortgage is the same price as rent in our area... which is high but manageable. We did not do a stitch of work when we moved in. Not a thing. And I mean not paint, floors, anything.

Our house is now actually worth alot more than we bought it for. We are contemplating selling and moving to a slightly cheaper area but nearby and get more house for our money.

camp123

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 12:45 am

slushiemom wrote:

I'm renting, and we never plan to buy. Rent in my neighborhood is relatively cheap, and totally doesn't match what it should be based on how much the house would sell for.

We can rent forever and not pay the amount we'd pay over the years for a house and all related expenses.

It's so easy knowing that any major issues is the landlord's problem and not ours.

We love the flexibility we feel we have when we rent.

My city in particular (Bet Shemesh) is not a place I assume we (non-chareidim) will have a long term future in. Part of the flexibility we enjoy of renting, I don't panic (as much as I would have if I owned a house) at the thought of the inevitable chareidization of Bet Shemesh.

I truly don't care about what my house looks like. I love my house because it's practical, big enough that each of my kids has their own room + a guest room, home office and a HUGE backyard. For cheap. I don't care about tiles, faucets, toilets, doors, windows etc. I just can't bring myself to care about that stuff. I never want to have to spend months picking out interior design for a house. I'd rather watch Netflix. As long as I find a house to rent that meets my practical needs, I couldn't care less what it looks like, and I've seen the kind of stress that experience puts on people. No thanks.

We love experiences. Not having most if not all of our money sunk into a house, not to mention a huge mortgage and unexpected expenses, allows us to enjoy cash flow we wouldn't otherwise have. I'll take experiences over items every single time. That means a trip to Amsterdam instead of fancy faucets, and yearly trips to Tel Aviv and Eilat instead of walk in closets and mold repairs.

We lucked out, finding the absolutely perfect long term rental. We've been here 6 years, and as long as everything goes smoothly, I need it for another 6 years or so before we'd be ready to move. However, if we want to move earlier, it's easy to do so.

IF we ever buy a property, it would likely be a vacation rental apartment on the coast that we'd rent out to cover the mortgage, and schedule in time for ourselves throughout the year. That's down the line though.

Sorry so long, those are my thoughts on this! I find the topic fascinating. It took me awhile to come around to the idea of long term renting, but now that we've been doing it for 12 years with no plans to stop anytime soon, I really love and appreciate the benefits of it.

Very curious to know how much are you paying to rent this that makes it worth while not to take a mortgage.

amother

Seagreen

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 12:59 am

1st house at 29 350K in Los Angeles area - old beat up small house in bad area.
Now at 37 sold it for 500K and bought a much better in good area for 880K

amother

Fuchsia

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 2:00 am

I'm 38, bought ten years ago in Jerusalem for the dollar equivalent (at the time) of roughly 225k. We lucked out, buying in dollars during an especially favorable exchange rate era (due to such fluctuations, purchases here are now made in NIS). So glad to own. Even with a huge, long mortgage, our monthly payments are far less than rent would be. I love the security of not having to deal with a landlord, the risk of eviction, etc. It's a payoff, knowing all repairs are our responsibility. But having a solid home in which to raise my family is worth it.

ETA: Since we purchased, our place has more than doubled in shekel value, though in USD it'd probably come out to 500K now.

amother

Gold

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 4:39 am

My answer is not so clear cut. We own our home in Israel. But it does not have a legal building permit, as our community over the green line has no official zoning (this is a political issue).
So there is a trade off, we have a house that fits our needs, 150 square meters, four bedrooms, a family room, large well equipped kitchen, large living room and porch, building costs were low as we built using less durable methods and materials, but it only took us two months to have the house ready to move in. But our house is not legal and could theoretically be torn down. Also it would not be worth much to sell, but hopefully our community will get the legal stamp of approval and our house will become of value.

I think the cost of our home was roughly 160K in today's USD. We could probably get 1K USD or so in rent per month for our home.

I am 37.

Raisin

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 5:10 am

slushiemom wrote:

Unfortunately many rental arrangements are not so stable. Too many people I know who rent are forced to move every 3 or 4 years or more often.

sirel

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 5:14 am

We bought in our 20s
250k, probably worth 350K now