Is this crazy? (Staying in starter home)

[Anonymous]

I live in a tiny (tiny!) home: five of us. It’s in a fantastic neighborhood and we’d be very stretched to buy a house that we’d like to buy in the neighborhood. We’ve talked about buying a bigger house but I realize that will come with a lot of costs, and I’m considering just staying in our small house. Is this crazy?

Our mortgage is $1600/month, and it’s a 2 bd/1 ba, 1100 square feet. DH and I sleep in the barely converted garage. We make over $300k HHI but have a lot of debt/obligations. We’d have the added benefit of being rural when our kids apply to college (they are 10, 8, and 3).

I frequently say I wish we had a bigger place but the house is really cute. Over time we could properly convert the garage, update the kitchen, maybe add a bathroom - I don’t know. But the idea of having to save a huge down payment/take on a larger mortgage while also saving for retirement/kids college/paying student loans is unappealing.

Thoughts? Is this insane?

[Anonymous]

Sounds fine to me. I’d never extend myself just for a bigger house. But I grew up in a three bedroom one bath house for 7 people.

Thing is, your wants with regard to a house change drastically when your kids graduate from HS. So whatever you buy will be what
You want for like a decade.

[Anonymous]

Nope. Stay smart and happy! You are doing the right thing.

[Anonymous]

I wish I had stayed in my small starter home. We overextended ourselves, and now just dream of the days when our mortgage was less than 2000. I vote to stay as long as you can!

[Anonymous]

Stay and pay off the debt.

[Anonymous]

How much debt do you have? I’d plow your money into that, and once that’s done, consider adding an extension to the house. At least another bathroom.

[Anonymous]

We are in a similar boat and staying as well. We are going through the stages of pricing out a modular 2nd story. It should be slightly cheaper than a stick build addition, and can be done much more quickly.

[Anonymous]

If your children are happy socially and have adequate room to play, stay put. If it aint broke, dont fix it

[Anonymous]

Being rural for school is not an asset. Move to the city where you get a better education.

[Anonymous]

Stay. You sound content! That's worth a lot.

[Anonymous]

We are still in our starter home and our youngest is about to leave for college. Sometimes I wish we had a bigger host and could host out-of-town visitors, have parties, and host more than one family for dinner. The upside is that we paid off our mortgage more than 15 years ago which allowed us to save more for college and retirement. We will have a nice nest egg when we retire and a big part of it was not overextending ourselves on a mortgage

[Anonymous]

We raised two kids and many pets in a 1200 sq ft home. The only time it was difficult was when our oldest was a high schooler, and he hogged the one and only bathroom. Now he's in college, and when he comes home, he's gotten better about not monopolizing the bathroom. We still have our second kid living at home. During the pandemic, I fostered pregnant dogs and their litters of puppies, so at one point we had 13 dogs in 1200 sq ft - but most of them puppies. Now we only have 4 pets.

So... maybe consider adding another bathroom

We're the exception for the US, but I've lived in Paris and Tokyo, where families live in very small spaces. Don't feel too bad, OP, and enjoy not having a huge mortgage. We're going to be mortgage-free in June!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are still in our starter home and our youngest is about to leave for college. Sometimes I wish we had a bigger host and could host out-of-town visitors, have parties, and host more than one family for dinner. The upside is that we paid off our mortgage more than 15 years ago which allowed us to save more for college and retirement. We will have a nice nest egg when we retire and a big part of it was not overextending ourselves on a mortgage

This is OP and this is my main qualm: I love hosting and really can’t in our house. We have a nice big outdoor space so I do host garden parties in the summer. But the pros that you list seem to vastly outweigh the cons. Saving more v spending more on a mortgage is a huge consideration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are still in our starter home and our youngest is about to leave for college. Sometimes I wish we had a bigger host and could host out-of-town visitors, have parties, and host more than one family for dinner. The upside is that we paid off our mortgage more than 15 years ago which allowed us to save more for college and retirement. We will have a nice nest egg when we retire and a big part of it was not overextending ourselves on a mortgage

Great job!! You don't need to host out of town visitors--they can VRBO or rent a hotel room. And if you want to host a larger party, you can rent a space. But the benefits as you have pointed out are huge!

[Anonymous]

If I read correctly, you have a lot of debt? I would stay in your house, but don't use that as an excuse to NOT pay off your debt. Stay AND pay off debt.