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The best part of owning a paid off house is no rent due. Rent cannot go up. Zero rent is a fine number.
Sure, you have to pay for property taxes, insurance and maintenance. But if you are a renter, you are paying for that anyway as a part of your rent.
It gives me peace of mind to know that I have a place to live and it would be very difficult for somebody to push me out. If I was renting, at the end of each lease period I might be forced to move.
There's a 900 Sq foot home on a 1/2 acre right down the road from me I WANT. Asking price is 44,900. Place is outdated by at least 20 years with an tax assessment from 2014 for 30,589.....
Sigh, I can't even GET a bank to make a preapproval for it as I wanted to offer 31,000. Ugh. Credit isn't god enough for a personal line of credit for that much nor is income high enough since that would have to be paid off in 7 years....... if I could get a home loan the total including taxes and insurance would be LESS THAN MY PRESENT RENT.
I have no problem fixing it all up and just living wit it until it's updated as I have the cash....
A credit union might be much more willing to help you out. Also FHA has a "235 loan" program for borrowers to buy/update older homes in need of TLC. You might have to go with an on-line bank if none in your area are interested.
Others tend to sell and moves so they never tend to stay in one place for 30 years. Most of my friends parents downsized upon retirement, so they would sell their (warning, overpriced MA price alert) $500K home (that they bought for $80K in the 80's, and go out and buy a $150-200K condo and save the rest. If they jumped around to a few times, they've typically rolled over equity so that by the time they go to retire, they have enough equity to pay cash for their last home. That's typically what I've seen done in my neck of the woods.
That's the retirement math in any high cost of living area. It's the same math in metro-Boston, NYC tri-state, metro-DC, the Bay Area, or LA/San Diego. The best you can do is buy on the housing market corrections and hope that when you retire and want to downsize at retirement, that the housing market is at a peak. You need a lot of deferred gratification to save up the 20% down to avoid PMI and you need to pay attention to paying your bills on time and not having consumer loans or car payments so you have the credit rating and debt ratios to qualify for the mortgage. If you bought in 1985 or 2005 at the peak of housing bubbles, the math doesn't work out the same.
That's the retirement math in any high cost of living area. It's the same math in metro-Boston, NYC tri-state, metro-DC, the Bay Area, or LA/San Diego. The best you can do is buy on the housing market corrections and hope that when you retire and want to downsize at retirement, that the housing market is at a peak. You need a lot of deferred gratification to save up the 20% down to avoid PMI and you need to pay attention to paying your bills on time and not having consumer loans or car payments so you have the credit rating and debt ratios to qualify for the mortgage. If you bought in 1985 or 2005 at the peak of housing bubbles, the math doesn't work out the same.
Or in a depressing area, like detroit or somewhere else economically depressed. You probably won't be retiring on your house anytime soon there
There's a 900 Sq foot home on a 1/2 acre right down the road from me I WANT. Asking price is 44,900. Place is outdated by at least 20 years with an tax assessment from 2014 for 30,589.....
Sigh, I can't even GET a bank to make a preapproval for it as I wanted to offer 31,000. Ugh. Credit isn't god enough for a personal line of credit for that much nor is income high enough since that would have to be paid off in 7 years....... if I could get a home loan the total including taxes and insurance would be LESS THAN MY PRESENT RENT.
I have no problem fixing it all up and just living wit it until it's updated as I have the cash....
Ugh, tell me about it. I was shocked when I was finally approved for my mortgage of 55k-from Wells Fargo no less. I put about another 20k into renovations and it's worth around $110,000.
As mentioned by Linda above, I'd look into credit unions (where my mortgage is now) or smaller local banks. It will still be a challenge, so an FHA 203k loan could be a possibility too-where the renovations are factored into the mortgage.
Ugh, tell me about it. I was shocked when I was finally approved for my mortgage of 55k-from Wells Fargo no less. I put about another 20k into renovations and it's worth around $110,000.
As mentioned by Linda above, I'd look into credit unions (where my mortgage is now) or smaller local banks. It will still be a challenge, so an FHA 203k loan could be a possibility too-where the renovations are factored into the mortgage.
Off topic, but other than some savings in origination fees, what are the benefits of going with a credit union? My understanding is that they are just as likely to sell your loan as any other institution. I was advised that unless a customer as a LARGE amount of deposits on record with the lenders bank, that the mortgage is almost always sold. Mine was sold within weeks--which I was aware would happen. I did research into the bank I borrowed from to ensure it would go to a decent mortgage servicing company and it did.
How are they "different"? I graduated from college in the 1970s when "stagflation" courtesy of OPEC made life miserable for newbies to the job market. Then we got the 1980s with mortgage rates in the double-digits and car loans close to 20%. When I bought my house in an Albany suburb back in 1991, my interest rate was 9%. Tell me about "the good days".
It's time for you to stop whining on C-D about how "tough" you've got it, and start working towards getting a down payment saved up if a house is something you want. My first house was a two family. I lived in one unit and rented out the other.
You want something, you work for it. Nobody is obligated to hand you anything.
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House Hunters
