Reply to Anybody else extremely depressed over real estate?

Forum Index » Real Estate

Reply to "Anybody else extremely depressed over real estate?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm a second-time buyer and I am depressed too. Current home is a condo, has not appreciated much but everything else has, and our equity will not make up the gap.

We thought we were being practical buying a condo as first-time buyers because it was well within our budget and close in, which has saved us a lot of money on commuting over the years. And we have saved the difference in what we might have paid for a house if that's what we'd bought. But neither our appreciation nor our savings (nor our incomes) can keep up with the appreciation in houses over the last 7/8 years.

We either have to accept that we're raising kids in a small condo with bad IB schools, or make the big jump to a lower COL area. I guess it's better to have these two options than no options, but it's still disappointing. Especially when peers who only spent maybe 50-80k more (back when borrowing money was cheaper than it is now) are sitting on way more appreciation and have way more options. Our mistake was underbuying and being overly conservative about debt. It's a tough thing to reconcile.[/quote]

Pretty similar here. I have lots saved up, and despite my current property not appreciating much, I have paid off most of the mortgage. Strongly considering overbuying this time around. My career is stable, and at least I'll hopefully get something I like. It seems like stretching to afford the place you want is frowned upon on this board, but people who have done it in the past are now way ahead of me.[/quote]

PP here. We feel the opposite -- we feel less inclined to stretch now because we are older and have kids so the margin for error feels smaller than when we were DINKs.

Our original plan was to stay in our condo 7-10 years, then upgrade to a townhouse or SFH using equity and savings, and do a 15 yr mortgage. But because of rates, even a 30 yr mortgage is pushing it and a 15 yr is out of the question. We are mid-40s, the idea of doing another 30 year mortgage sounds terrible unless we are relatively assured of decent appreciation, but after struggling with appreciation the first time, we feel this cannot be relied upon. We won't be able to afford something in a very desirable neighborhood, so we many run into the same issue again with limited appreciation while everything around us skyrockets.

I spend a lot of time looking at real estate in cities like Philly, Minneapolis, Madison, Kansas City, etc., and trying to figure out if that's a jump we could make. It feels like the best way to take our current equity and savings and actually turn it into something meaningful. I also get stressed about staying in our condo longer -- I feel like the longer we stay, the more likely it is that we will basically need to replace everything in order to sell it because there are always so many brand new condos on the market (selling for not that much more than what we paid for ours) and I see older condos sitting a long time.

Sorry to complain so much, I just think about this stuff all the time and stress. Buying a home and building equity was/is a major aspect of retirement planning for us, and with college costs also just though the roof, I worry about money and what it means for my kids/our old age all the time. It's really not just about wanting a bigger or nicer home now (we'd be fine with an older/same size home if it came with good schools and a little outdoor space!), it's about feeling like we made a major financial mistake that we are only just beginning to pay for.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics