Delete | Imamother

amother

Wandflower

Tue, Oct 05 2021, 10:36 am

As others have posted, buying a home makes financial sense in the long term.

In most situations, it will be the most valuable asset people have when they retire and they can either sell it to downsize or even just take out a reverse mortgage and stay in their house. Of course, that is only if they were smart and didn't continually refinance and use the equity as an ATM to finance a lifestyle.

Also - almost always - a house will wind up being less expensive than renting in a few years but the cost of your house remains about the same in terms of mortgage. There are of course maintenance along the way but in general those will still be less than if you were paying what rentals would then cost.

So at a certain point you mortgage is paid off so your housing costs are only property tax and whatever it costs to maintain your property. I own a condo and equivalent apartments in my building rent three times what it costs me to live in my apartment. I would not be able to rent a place in my neighborhood for what it costs me to live here. And if the worst ever happened K/H, I would be able to use the equity to fund care for myself.

With regard to OP's specific situation, it appears that she actually would be able to afford to buy a home if she has a bit of patience. She has a downpayment and there are ways to repair credit within a relatively short period of time. As others have suggested, make an appointment with a mortgage broker and find out exactly what you should be doing and also exactly how much house you will be able to afford when you are able to get a mortgage.

And then spend some time visiting homes currently on the market even if you can't buy one at this point. When I was buying my home, I was familiar with what was available and also by looking at homes, I was able to determine what I was looking for and what I definitely didn't want. When I was ready to actually purchase, I was able to make a decision relatively quickly when I saw the place that worked for me because I had already done a lot of visiting of homes and saw knew what was available.

amother

Moonstone

Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:03 am

amother [ Dustypink ] wrote:

Of course home ownership is a huge financial bonus. Rent you need to keep paying until 120, your home is yours after 30 years and you can sell at any time and get most or all your money back.
We bought our apartment in Beitar for around 700,000 nis. I think we put 50,000 nis down. Sold after 4 years for over 100,000 nis. Similarly, we bought in Cleveland for 90,000 k and then sold after 2 years for $140k.
Even with all the fees we more than made our money back.

It depends on the individual market
I have commented above.
I pay 1000 for rent vs if I buy I would pay 3000 mortgage plus appr 600-700 in for utilities and maintenance. So I would be paying this sum ofmoney anyway, but I have a much better quality of life.

amother

Blushpink

Tue, Oct 05 2021, 12:27 pm

Advantages of renting (with a reasonable landlord):
-when something breaks down, it's not your headache or money
-bad neighbors? You can move as you're not fixed
-don't have a several 100k loan hanging over your head
-can pick and choose location/size without compromising
-outgrow your current place-can just move without too much trouble

We rented for a long time until we were in a position to buy what we wanted. I know people who are renting for decades and it works for them. There are advantages to renting. I think people are brought up with a culture of being home-owners and having the equity in real-estate.
If you're saying in a few months the situation might change for you, then that's not long to wait. I would say evaluate the situation then.

watergirl

Tue, Oct 05 2021, 12:36 pm

amother [ Blushpink ] wrote:

The main stressor for us for the many many years we rented was the lack of stability in the places we rented. Between management changes in apartment complexes to private landlords deciding to sell or give their home to a family member/occupy it themselves, it was a constant stress when it was time to renew the lease. There was always the very prominent feeling front and center in LITERALLY every place we rented (always referred to by the landlord as a "unit") that this was NOT our home, it's a rental unit, and as such, we can not make it to our liking. How long can I live looking at white walls and not be able to customize? I've never had a landlord who allowed us to paint it as long as we painted it back before we left. I've never felt at home in my rental. Some people are fine and DO feel at home, but for me, I never did. The peace of mind and menuchas hanefesh I gained when I bought was far greater than any stress I may have felt over the loan (which is none, a debt due to a mortgage is not the same kind of debt as any other kind).