Ft Leonard wood area (Waynesville, Saint Robert: RENT or BUY? (Sedalia: for sale, real estate)

[HoneyBee123]

It is likely that my husband and I will be moving to the Ft Leonard Wood area within the next six months for at least 3 years. We are trying to decide if we should rent or buy a home. It seems that, in this area especially, a mortgage would be much cheaper than rent. This would be our first home purchase, with the goal of building equity. We would like a 3 bedroom home and have an upper budget of $115,000, buy would preferably spend less. There seem to be several properties that meet this criteria that are for sale to buy. To rent a comparable property would be ~$850. (More could be spent in rent, but we would keep our budget to that, and it looks like we could get a place we would be happy with for around that much or less.) Our biggest concern is not being able to sell the home when we are ready to move after approximately 3 years. It seems there are several homes for sale or rent in this general area, many of which seem to have been listed for some time, or listed them removed/price reduced and relisted. Looking on Zillow, I see many houses listed for rent that are also listed for sale, revealing to me that the property is vacant and the owner is desperate to fill the home in anyway they can--likely military owners who moved away and are unfortunate long distance owners/landlords. Also, according to history information in Zillow, several homes are being listed for far less today than what they were bought for, say, 10 years ago. What is going on with the housing market in the Ft Leonard Wood area? Are we being wise in considering a home purchase right now in this area? Any advice?

[lepoisson]

This is my piece of advice: Always rent first when moving to a new area, even if it costs more. Make sure you like the area before buying a home.

I live near Sedalia and the housing market here is weird. Homes sell for less than what they sold for 10yr ago. And they stay on the market for years. No way would I buy a house here unless I knew this would be my permanent home.

I know nothing about the Ft Leonard Wood area, but I do know that it's far from anything resembling a large city. No doubt I would be bored there.

[Arrby]

There used to be a rule of thumb that it does not pay to buy a house unless you expect to be there for five or more years. While this may not be quite as true in this era of low interest rates, I do think it still applies to a certain extent most places. For the Ft. Leonard Wood area it is even more true due to the length of time it can take to sell a property in that area.

The monthly mortgage payment is only part of your expense. As an owner you also pay for insurance, taxes, and repairs. This is easily understood. But what is often forgotten is the expense of selling - usually six percent of the sales price if using a real estate agent.

On the other hand, if you keep all the realities in mind, and buy at a price that reflects those realities you can do pretty good after about four years. Almost every mistake in buying real estate can be overcome, except one: paying too much.

[Floorist]

I was stationed at Ft. Lost in the Woods, Misery. Wild area. No place I would want to live.

[HoneyBee123]

Thanks for the input Floorist, but I am from a similar area and won't mind living in FLW for a while.

It's really hard to pass up buying 3bed/2bath houses for $55,000-$80,000. I've heard the "5-year rule" that you mention Arrby, by depending on the source, that becomes 3 or 4 years. With my calculations on a fairly detailed calculator on realtor.com which does take into account taxes, insurance, etc, after only 2 years buying becomes cheaper than renting. It seems like a buyers market right now in this area with houses listed for sale at half the price that they've been sold for in the past. Can anyone in the ft Leonard wood area speak to my itch to buy? Or anyone military who has known a similar situation?

[recycled]

The golden rule in real estate is that when things seem very cheap (low priced) there is usually a lack of demand, or buyers. That means it takes sellers a long time (in most cases) to sell a house, much longer than it would in a "hot" market where prices are higher and demand is higher.

A 3 year rotation at FLW would seem too short to risk buying a home in an area where the surrounding economy is so weak. Even though it costs more in the short term (for 3 years) to rent, in the end you could come out ahead compared to taking a 20 or 30 percent future loss in a quick home sale, in the event you have to PCS to another location. Buying a house quick is so easy, but selling a house quick is not so easy.

I was stationed at FLW, but it was so long (42 years) ago that it is not relevant, even though the surrounding towns haven't changed much in the past 42 years!