Anonymous wrote:

Your home is only worth what someone will actually pay for it. If you sold right now, it is possible for could make a killing. But if you had to sell in a year or two, you may not get what you paid for it. Real estate increasing is never guaranteed.

What you have is a nice place to live & the benefits of privacy, freedom. I sold 2 homes, after improvements, buying & selling costs, not even including mortgage interest- I lost money on both homes. Timing & luck needs to be on your side.

THIS - the interest plus maintenance time/money plus the ridiculous brokers commissions fees made buying and selling a home after 8 years a colossal waste of time and money. Buy a house because you really want to live in it, its no longer a good investment and typically leads to a lower quality of life. Wish it wasn't pushed so

OR if salary package improved with time, stockes matured, wife started working, dad left a small inheritance then you can just pay it off and live rent free.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are paying $3k/month rent, its $360k down the drain in 10 years or probably $400k due to rent hikes. Imagine having it in home equity! Yes, you'll have other expenses but even if you net half of it, its $200k. Think about it.

But it’s not, a lot of that is interest.

Try to put enough down payment to avoid PMI, add extra 100 to every payment and mark it towards principal, any money from bonuses, part time second job or tax return should also go towards principal. With any value appreciation, you should have enough equity in 10 years to move to a bigger and nicer house or to remodel this one.

I am in the NYC area. Regardless, we’ve decided to rent for now. We pay a set amount and have a comfortable and nice place to live, no worries about renovating or hidden costs, don’t pay property taxes, and can be nimble if need be since leases run 12-14 months. We are years away from being concerned about schools (also a conviction of mine to send to neighborhood public elementary if at all possible) and are saving in the background for when the time is right. I think when we purchase we will move out of the area entirely — the suburbs here don’t appeal to us, and I don’t see us raising a family in the city.

Anonymous wrote:If you are paying $3k/month rent, its $360k down the drain in 10 years or probably $400k due to rent hikes. Imagine having it in home equity! Yes, you'll have other expenses but even if you net half of it, its $200k. Think about it.

But it’s not, a lot of that is interest.

Anonymous wrote:We recently sold earlier this month and are renting until we find another house. Sold because we wanted to capitalize in on this market, but it now leaves us in a bind, well not really. Our old rate was 3% and we recently got quoted 5.7% yikes.

Anyhow our old mortgage was 3k so we are renting at that same amount. Question for those who intend to continue renting, will you rent forever or do you plan to still buy. I'm thinking renting maybe the cheaper option for us considering transaction cost, maintenance and everything else that comes with a home.

Is no one worried about capital gains taxes?

If you are paying $3k/month rent, its $360k down the drain in 10 years or probably $400k due to rent hikes. Imagine having it in home equity! Yes, you'll have other expenses but even if you net half of it, its $200k. Think about it.

Anonymous wrote:People bash homes. But my current home I paid $1,325,000 in 2017 now worth $1,625,000.

I put a lot down so mortgage plus taxes plus insurance is $4,000 a month.

My house would rent $6,000 a month.

I spent $240,000 on monthly payments last five years and home rose in value $300,000. I did do $50k work on home so my cost is $10,000 positive. Zero cost to own.

Renting at 6k would be $360k for my house over 5 years

Your home is only worth what someone will actually pay for it. If you sold right now, it is possible for could make a killing. But if you had to sell in a year or two, you may not get what you paid for it. Real estate increasing is never guaranteed.

What you have is a nice place to live & the benefits of privacy, freedom. I sold 2 homes, after improvements, buying & selling costs, not even including mortgage interest- I lost money on both homes. Timing & luck needs to be on your side.

People bash homes. But my current home I paid $1,325,000 in 2017 now worth $1,625,000.

I put a lot down so mortgage plus taxes plus insurance is $4,000 a month.

My house would rent $6,000 a month.

I spent $240,000 on monthly payments last five years and home rose in value $300,000. I did do $50k work on home so my cost is $10,000 positive. Zero cost to own.

Renting at 6k would be $360k for my house over 5 years

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We will rent until we move somewhere where $1 million buys a nice house. I won’t spend that much money on an outdated 80s ranch.

Unless its happening soon, there is no guarantee you'll move. If you don't want to buy a million dollar house, buy a small half a million one, sell it in5 years, save rent, build equity, sell and move when time is right.

A half million buys me a small condo and four people in 1200 square feet would make us miserable. Houses just aren’t the investment they used to be and we’ve lost money on the two we owned in the past. Houses are money pits IME so if I don’t even like it, it’s just not a good use of money especially when it feels like a bubble. Little scary out there now.

We rent and save a huge amount of money. Either we'll be able to afford here, or we'll just have more saved for retirement and get something where we want to retire. If you rent, make sure that you are able to save and invest, so that you have a cushion, are saving a bigger down payment, and so you aren't living to the edge of your income.

Anonymous wrote:We will rent until we move somewhere where $1 million buys a nice house. I won’t spend that much money on an outdated 80s ranch.

Unless its happening soon, there is no guarantee you'll move. If you don't want to buy a million dollar house, buy a small half a million one, sell it in5 years, save rent, build equity, sell and move when time is right.

We will rent until we move somewhere where $1 million buys a nice house. I won’t spend that much money on an outdated 80s ranch.

OP did you want to move closer in?