Follow up to buying a house thread

devorah1231

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 3:51 pm

At the moment, with rates as they are, the mortgage alone (not principal) on a nice decent sized house is more than rent for some two-bedroom apartments.

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 3:58 pm

ap wrote:

They aren't true options
Buying a house is more financially secure long term
Rent only goes up

The op never mentioned buying or renting. Maybe someone owns the small apartment.

rss

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 4:02 pm

Prefer? I don't know if we prefer this option. But it is what we are currently doing. We live in 2 bedroom apartment with 4children( ×2) bh. Yes I can describe the downsides but bh. Everyone has a bed and drawer space. All our bills are paid, our children have all their needs met (besides having more living space) and we can sleep peacefully at night knowing there is no debt or bills to haunt us.

devorah1231

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 4:04 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

The op never mentioned buying or renting. Maybe someone owns the small apartment.

I did mean renting.

If a two bedroom apt can be had to 2200 a month, and a house costs (including utilities and upkeep) 8k a month, and yes those are real verified numbers, it's a real qu.

If you have that two bedroom apt and 5k extra income monthly, would you rather go into debt (assuming there isn't a better in between that works for you) or have an extra 5k for your bills?

Live tight in money or space?

mommy2b1

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 4:07 pm

What about a 3rd option:
Buy a 3 bedroom townhouse that is not brand new.
I don’t know what city your living or your budget but you can get a 3 bedroom townhouse near Lakewood with the mortgage between $2300-2500 a month. Not a forever home but can set you up for a while

Trademark

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 4:08 pm

devorah1231 wrote:

I also thought you were referring to both owned, not rented.

You don't have to buy a big house to start off with. Eventually you can refinance/sell and get a larger house.

GLUE

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 4:10 pm

It also depends on how much living space you have and how old the kids are.

Some 2 bedrooms have a nice living space, others do not.

It is also a world of a difference when you have 4 kids under 6 and 4 Teens.

devorah1231

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 4:10 pm

Trademark wrote:

I also thought you were referring to both owned, not rented.

You don't have to buy a big house to start off with. Eventually you can refinance/sell and get a larger house.

Thread this is coming off of was about Brooklyn where choices are expensive, crazy expensive, or insane.

Was curious if people value peace of mind or space more.

realsilver

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 4:42 pm

I honestly can't answer because I'm in middle of this dilemma in real life. I have very similar numbers to the OP of the other thread. There are no small houses under a 1.3 million where I live... it's not an easy decision to make. While I'm dying to get out of my 2 bedroom apartment, I can't imagine being house poor.

Busybee5

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 4:48 pm

I was just thinking similar because we've just had a big extension on our house bH. Now I'm loving more space, more bedrooms etc, but it came at a high price. We have to be super careful so that we can pay off the debt from it. Squeezed so tight like we've never been before, and our kids tuition is just going up and up as the years go by. So I'm worried!
We could've kept living in a really small house, paid our bills much more easily, and had a nice savings account. But we'd be stuck in a small house forever because our expenses are getting greater and greater as our kids get older.
I don't like living so squeezed, I hate it actually. But I'm enjoying and reaping the benefits of a bigger house so I'm torn.
IyH once we've paid off the debt from it, it'll be totally worth all the stress.

Eta: we're not paying interest on any of our repayments bH. We're paying down monthly the minimum that we're allowed. But it's a lot!

Busybee5

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 4:49 pm

GLUE wrote:

This. Big kids really do need more space.
Finally our 15 year old son has his own room. Makes such a difference.

Pink Flamingo

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 4:50 pm

mommy2b1 wrote:

No such thing in Brooklyn. The cheapest house is probably approx 800,000 and needs work

icedcoffee

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 5:10 pm

Recently faced a similar dilemma. For the past five years we've been paying about that for a squishy one bedroom. It was soooo nice being able to put away so much money every month. We made the space work and were very happy. But we had to move because at some point the baby needs his own room. We lasted as long in that apartment as we possibly could in order to keep paying so little for housing. And being able to put away money every month is what allowed us to buy, but we picked a middle option from your choices - we bought a bigger apartment. It's really tough in such expensive areas. I'd say to squeeze as much time as possible in the cheap, small place until you physically cannot fit the family anymore. But housing prices keep going up too so there's no easy answer. It's tough! I learned to be very happy in a small space but that's just one kid, not four.

seeker

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 8:59 pm

Depends on the apartment. In my old neighborhood where everyone lived in apartments, some buildings a 2 bedroom apartment could fit 4 kids pretty comfortably and some would be really cramped. Some buildings have nice spaces attached for outdoor play and chilling, others don't. Etc.

Petra

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 10:02 pm

would rather have cushion to pay bills or be able to save for later so would rather rent. But I would always be pining to buy if I rented, so it's tough.

As it is now, we bought a house that is definiately on the small side but afforable. BH we can pay our bills and put away some savings. The house has appreciated so when the kids move out and maybe we down size, the mortgage will be paid off and hopefully we can use the funds for retirement if we sell.

If I lived in an area where my options are buy a 1.2M house vs rent, I would not be happy at all!