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We have been looking into buying a house for a few years now and haven't for many reasons - We live in a HCOLA, the housing market here has yet to be affected by any housing crisis and we live in Europe, there is a real housing shortage, so the houses available are nothing that we have really felt was worth the money.
My husband really wants a house -- I feel like it can wait. We are currently expecting our second child and trying to prepare.
The situation:
We rent a little townhouse which is enough for what we need but lacks in a few perks - like no yard, one room too few, not great ventilation. But overall we are comfortable here. We rent from the city - a foreign concept I know - but really a good thing because they take really good care of the apartments (If the city messes up as a landlord it makes the front page of the paper, so they are very on top of things). The rent is also fixed and we are part of a renters union that negotiates any rent increases any year. We count on about a 1.5% increase each year. Our rent includes heat and hot water, basic cable and parking.
We have the opportunity to rent a larger freestanding house and are now considering if it is worth it or not. The house is bigger, with an extra room and a much larger living area. There is also a really nice backyard that is well landscaped. It is in a really nice neighborhood that feeds into a nicer school system than where we live now (Our oldest is 3 so not a huge concern, but still). We could never afford to buy in this area, but the rent is doable. The costs will be about 500 dollars more per month than we pay now. Rent does not include heat or hot water, but we have gotten an assessment about what that might cost. It is really nice and we really like it. The landlord is a private landlord, they live in an apartment in the city center. It is their first time renting something out. I actually know them from work, so I think they will be reliable, but there will be a different level of service. Rent is still set by certain limitations, and if they do something there, we can always use our union to get our money back (happens a lot here, if you set your rent too high - there are strict rules for rent based on quality of the apartment)
Is it worth it to make the move?
Our situation: We are in the black. The only debt we carry is student loans, 25,000 and we have about 50,000 in savings. We also have unemployment insurance and national health care - so while we are saving for emergencies, we do have good coverage for some emergencies.
We are expecting our second, but will be on paid leave for 12 months, so no big income hit. We also do not pay much for daycare and that expense can be covered by the child allowence we get. So financially I think we are sound.
We do like to travel a lot, living abroad we have a lot of family to visit, we have special savings to travel and with one more kid travel will get more expensive pretty quickly. This is a concern.
Right now we save about 20% of our income a month, but we will probably not be able to keep that up in the new home. But we could live there for a long time, so we take away the pressure to worry about eventually buying a house.
Right now this is looking like a reasonable compromise between my husband's desire to be a home owner and my fear of getting my feet wet in a housing market I fear is at its peak (Although to be honest I have feared this since 2006 and prices still keep going up up up). If you have read this far -- what do you think?
My husband really wants a house -- I feel like it can wait. We are currently expecting our second child and trying to prepare.
The situation:
We rent a little townhouse which is enough for what we need but lacks in a few perks - like no yard, one room too few, not great ventilation. But overall we are comfortable here. We rent from the city - a foreign concept I know - but really a good thing because they take really good care of the apartments (If the city messes up as a landlord it makes the front page of the paper, so they are very on top of things). The rent is also fixed and we are part of a renters union that negotiates any rent increases any year. We count on about a 1.5% increase each year. Our rent includes heat and hot water, basic cable and parking.
We have the opportunity to rent a larger freestanding house and are now considering if it is worth it or not. The house is bigger, with an extra room and a much larger living area. There is also a really nice backyard that is well landscaped. It is in a really nice neighborhood that feeds into a nicer school system than where we live now (Our oldest is 3 so not a huge concern, but still). We could never afford to buy in this area, but the rent is doable. The costs will be about 500 dollars more per month than we pay now. Rent does not include heat or hot water, but we have gotten an assessment about what that might cost. It is really nice and we really like it. The landlord is a private landlord, they live in an apartment in the city center. It is their first time renting something out. I actually know them from work, so I think they will be reliable, but there will be a different level of service. Rent is still set by certain limitations, and if they do something there, we can always use our union to get our money back (happens a lot here, if you set your rent too high - there are strict rules for rent based on quality of the apartment)
Is it worth it to make the move?
Our situation: We are in the black. The only debt we carry is student loans, 25,000 and we have about 50,000 in savings. We also have unemployment insurance and national health care - so while we are saving for emergencies, we do have good coverage for some emergencies.
We are expecting our second, but will be on paid leave for 12 months, so no big income hit. We also do not pay much for daycare and that expense can be covered by the child allowence we get. So financially I think we are sound.
We do like to travel a lot, living abroad we have a lot of family to visit, we have special savings to travel and with one more kid travel will get more expensive pretty quickly. This is a concern.
Right now we save about 20% of our income a month, but we will probably not be able to keep that up in the new home. But we could live there for a long time, so we take away the pressure to worry about eventually buying a house.
Right now this is looking like a reasonable compromise between my husband's desire to be a home owner and my fear of getting my feet wet in a housing market I fear is at its peak (Although to be honest I have feared this since 2006 and prices still keep going up up up). If you have read this far -- what do you think?
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