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Credit underwriter? Huh? Does USAA actually do their own mortgages? I thought they passed you along to somebody else? Though, I can't get a straight answer out of them for stuff anyway because I'm married to someone who inherited her ability to get insurance - that should mean I'm all-in, but they keep redirecting me elsewhere so she just has to call for quotes. My name is on the accounts once opened  uwaeve posted:Check to see whether you are in a high cost of living area, in which case you may be able to get some options that are not the full premium of a jumbo mortgage. It's by county here. Oh God that would be a pain in the rear end. Nobody here even blinked an eye at being a high cost area, but I honestly didn't want to deal with an out of town lender.
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Dec 28, 2012 21:08
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Advent Horizon posted:Credit underwriter? Huh? FWIW the lender we went with was a local credit union, so I'm not positive you would have to go out of town or to some Internet only bank if that's what you were thinking of. Though at $700k you are probably above all limits everywhere. I wish you luck, the whole process kinda blows.
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Dec 28, 2012 21:29
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Advent Horizon posted:Call and make an appointment, explain exactly what you're thinking and that you want to discuss options. Our first meeting with a loan originator was basically being walked through all the stuff we needed to have (and him being amazed that we had it all there, printed out). After than he ran our credit (this was optional, since we didn't have a realtor yet) and we ran theoretical numbers on the fuckoff huge mansion he should have never said we could afford. I'm fresh out of grad school, basically, but the field is highly related. So we're looking at 5.5 years of lovely grad student income and 0.5 years of awesome private industry PhD income, whereas my fiance has basically been doing the same job for about 4 years but now has a new employer. But in this equation there are no loans or debts of any kind for either of us, just some credit cards that get paid off every month and a spotless credit report, so that has to help, right? As far as the island goes, we have a good read on the various areas that would be practical for us. The real estate market is super tight, so we're ready to sit down and be patient until the right place comes along. I'm expecting to not even find anything that we like in the first 6 months of looking. The longer we wait, the larger our down payment will be (although I think that interest rates may start slowly rising in the next few years, so we don't want to wait forever). moana posted:Hey Quarkjets, just curious what part of the island you're looking at. Building houses is surprisingly cheap to do on Maui once you've bought land, and if I ever moved there that's what I would do. Depending on your price range, I also hear they're doing some development near Olowahu that's supposed to be affordable (~250k). We're looking at the south-central part of the island (Kihei), since that's where we're renting now and it's close to both of our places of work... and central/south Kihei is a great area. Olowahu would be a little too far for us to commute (but a very pretty area to build in). I'm having a little trouble finding out how much it might cost to build a home + purchase a lot. How much do you think a 1500 sqft home might cost to build? We've been browsing Zillow for the past few weeks just to get a feel for what things are selling for in the areas in which we're interested, and we're seeing around $250-$300/sqft, although that includes the land. We could already afford this on just my salary without hitting that magical 36%, so we have some wiggle room. If building a house is competitive, then maybe looking at empty lots is something that we should be doing? (if we end up saving money by just building on a lot instead of buying a house, then maybe we could even build an ohana and rent it out! Please, tell me more!)
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Dec 28, 2012 22:11
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You may already be aware of this, but: consider not buying (or building) in any of Maui's Tsunami Evacuation Zones. That's anything in the shaded areas on those maps. If you do buy there, make sure you carry insurance that will cover you from a total loss in a tsunami.
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Dec 28, 2012 22:54
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I would guess around $150-$200/sq ft to build, though it might be cheaper in Kihei since you're not shipping things as far as most places in Maui (hah, guess that's expensive compared to the mainland, but not really that bad compared with pre-built homes there!) The nice thing about building is that you really don't need as much square footage since it's almost always nice and sunny, so you can build out a lot of stuff outside like garages, sheds, living areas, etc (example, my mom's boyfriend built this outdoor dance hall: http://aquaponicsinparadise.com/APforums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1001.0;attach=96638;image). My mom built out a 500 sq ft ohana cottage on her property for $17k, but that was a decade or so ago so prices are probably higher now. I would definitely recommend building out a ohana like that if you can, since they can recoup the costs quickly if you're in a touristy area like Kihei. Her boyfriend runs a hippie commune thing in Haiku and has built all of the cottages there himself as a general contractor, so if you find a lot and are considering building, PM me - I can see if he has any recommendations for good contractors.
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Dec 28, 2012 22:58
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uwaeve posted:FWIW the lender we went with was a local credit union, so I'm not positive you would have to go out of town or to some Internet only bank if that's what you were thinking of. Though at $700k you are probably above all limits everywhere. I'm not the only looking at a $700k house. Just want to make that clear  Our loan is for $445,550, so not horribly over the regular jumbo limits anyway. Since we're a high cost area we can qualify as a regular mortgage. You can qualify for a low income mortgage around here with a six figure income 
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Dec 28, 2012 23:29
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Advent Horizon posted:I'm not the only looking at a $700k house. Just want to make that clear Holy hell, I would lose my mind if my wife wanted that. I got eyes on a 160k double wide by WalMart and she wants a 230k attached near the glacier that's is way more than I want to think of spending. Advice for everyone else. Do not move here if you are poor.
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Dec 29, 2012 00:09
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Advent Horizon posted:Credit underwriter? Huh? When I bought my place 3 years ago I dealt with USAA up until it got funded, at which point the mortage was sold off to someone else as far as processing behind the scenes. I still deal with USAA for everything though.
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Dec 29, 2012 00:12
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Crazy Mike posted:Holy hell, I would lose my mind if my wife wanted that. I got eyes on a 160k double wide by WalMart and she wants a 230k attached near the glacier that's is way more than I want to think of spending. Lemon Creek? Oh, God, no! It won't be much longer before the sun doesn't even rise over the dump! Also, I've been told by several women who have been pregnant in this town who had issues even driving near Lemon Creek, even in the winter, because of the dump smell. That $230k place would be about $1400/mo including taxes and insurance. That's not too bad at all for around here. I was actually the one who had to talk her up on the price. The only reason we're going that high is because it has an apartment with a solid rental history. We qualify for the mortgage without it but really don't want to make those payments much if we can help it.
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Dec 29, 2012 01:11
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gvibes posted:Anybody have any experience with mortgages over the GSE limits? Say I want to buy a 700k home, and the limit is 417k. Assume 20% down Can you get a cheap 417k mortgage and a more expensive 143k HELOC on top of that? Or would I need a 560k jumbo? I got a jumbo 2 years ago. I assume the market is more or less the same now since there's still no appetite for risk from the banks. Consult with a mortgage broker to explore both possibilities and see what's available, but you're probably going to find a single jumbo loan works best. Cheap conforming + jumbo 2nd was a viable strategy before the crash, but there weren't many good options for the 2nd when I looked. Many had loan limits of $100K; the few that could stretch beyond that had hilarious interest rates in the 7-8% range (at the time, conforming 30yr was ~4%, jumbo ~5%). It was just cheaper and easier overall to go with a single jumbo loan.
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Dec 29, 2012 01:16
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I am getting.really close.to the 45 days to Completion date on my new home build. At that time I can lock my mortgage rate. Any thoughts on rates for the next month? I can't imagine that they would go up....
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Dec 29, 2012 02:40
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With the fiscal cliff, all bets are off. Which is to say, I see no reason why they'd suddenly rise or fall, but it's probably a bad idea to try to guess either way right now. Everything depends on what sort of deal (if any) gets worked out. With "no deal at all" being the thing everyone (well, the mainstream media) is afraid will tank the economy. Tanking the economy should not cause rates to rise, of course, but it could cause banks to tighten lending further. Or not. Maybe the opposite? What if they eliminate the mortgage interest deduction? Or cap it at a certain income level? Oh god what if they cut HUD's funding or eliminate FHA loan subsidies or...  ...Take a deep breath, stay calm, don't worry too much. It'll be OK.
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Dec 29, 2012 03:13
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moana posted:I would guess around $150-$200/sq ft to build, though it might be cheaper in Kihei since you're not shipping things as far as most places in Maui (hah, guess that's expensive compared to the mainland, but not really that bad compared with pre-built homes there!) The nice thing about building is that you really don't need as much square footage since it's almost always nice and sunny, so you can build out a lot of stuff outside like garages, sheds, living areas, etc (example, my mom's boyfriend built this outdoor dance hall: http://aquaponicsinparadise.com/APforums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1001.0;attach=96638;image). Thanks for your help so far It looks like vacant lots run in the range of $200k-$300k or more, depending on how much land you want. Ideally we could buy the land and build the ohana first (we're renting a 500sqft ohana right now), live in it while building equity, and then build the main house. That sounds like a pretty cool plan. But first thing's first: we need to talk to some lenders and see what we qualify for.
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Dec 29, 2012 05:10
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Closing took all of 1.5 hours, I did a final walk through before to check on everything noted in the inspection with only a few things that really stood out. Incorrect hardware on the door, a misalignment on the faucet in the counter, and some touch up paint that needed to be done. Got all that noted in the closing documents to be fixed. Within an hour of being the house I notice that the return register tab is poking out, I go to close it and the whole tab breaks off. Now I've got to figure out how to close my return register in my hallway ceiling so I can have an air filter in there. Ugh. EDIT: Unless anyone has any suggestions on how to fix/replace this thing? The tabs were really thin and pop-riveted to the grille. They appear to only hold the filter to the ceiling by friction which doesn't seem super stable in the future. EDIT 2: Can anyone recommend a magnet that'll hold close a roughly 10lb door held against gravity with roughly 1/4"-1/2" spacing? FunOne fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Dec 30, 2012 |
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Dec 29, 2012 05:59
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gvibes posted:Anybody have any experience with mortgages over the GSE limits? Say I want to buy a 700k home, and the limit is 417k. Assume 20% down Can you get a cheap 417k mortgage and a more expensive 143k HELOC on top of that? Or would I need a 560k jumbo? Sure, you can do that. Getting the 2nd may be a bit tougher than the first since any 2nd is going to be a portfolio/non Fannie/Freddie backed mortgage but other than that it's not really a big deal. Advent Horizon posted:Credit underwriter? Huh? Credit underwrite usually means you've submitted for a loan without having a property address determined yet. Basically we review your credit report, income, and assets to see if we'll approve you based on your credit profile. Once you find a house you want to buy we figure out if we're willing to lend on the property. If they're getting a VA loan, you actually have two separate underwriters - one handles everything related to your credit profile and the other reviews the property/appraisal.
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Dec 29, 2012 09:05
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gvibes posted:Anybody have any experience with mortgages over the GSE limits? Say I want to buy a 700k home, and the limit is 417k. Assume 20% down Can you get a cheap 417k mortgage and a more expensive 143k HELOC on top of that? Or would I need a 560k jumbo? We're in the process for shopping for a house in jumbo territory, and according to the 5 or 6 banks/brokers we've spoken with, the jumbo market has pretty much entirely dried up in our area. They're all recommending we go with a 417k conventional + the remainder in either a HELOC (10 yr interest only draw period/20 yr repayment) or a home equity loan (10 year loan, 30 year amortization), even though the amount we're looking for is just barely into jumbo territory and we have a sizable down payment. The interest rate difference is pretty low between the two options (4% variable for the HELOC/5.5% fixed for the equity loan, and we haven't even really started shopping around), so we're leaning towards the fixed equity loan option since I think there's a decent chance rates recover more than 1.5% in the next couple of years as the economy recovers. The balloon payment on the equity loan isn't a major concern since we should have it paid off way before the 10 year term is up, and it's a relatively small amount compared to the conventional loan we'll be locking in at 3.25%.
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Dec 31, 2012 04:11
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We put in a bid on a house today! It's been incredibly stressful thus far, and I can only imagine it gets worse!  Actually, it hasn't been that bad up to this point, but just thinking about what's ahead is turning me into a nervous wreck. The house needs a fair bit of work, some of which we will be doing ourselves. I called a roofer to go out and get me an estimate Wednesday, they didn't get out there until yesterday and they still have yet to get me the quote. My stepdad had his guy go out there, and he got us a ballpark number. We are going to strip the roof ourselves to save some chedda, so there's one project. Next order of business was to get an idea how much new carpet is going to cost, because if there's one thing I've noticed during the hunt, it's that we are going to have to replace the carpet pretty much regardless of which house we get. We had a hard time finding a flooring place that's even open until after the new year, but when we finally did, we got a quote that I was actually really happy with. But with that comes another project, as we are going to strip out the old carpet as well as some laminate flooring ourselves as well. All I wanted was to get the new roof, carpet, and possibly appliances under $15k to feel comfortable with making an offer. That leaves us with enough that we can still make a 10% down payment, and it looks like we should be able to get most of the appliances as well. The house last sold in August for $137k, and the buyer never even made a single payment, but it seems like they tried to get their moneys worth by running off with all the appliances because all that remained was the dishwasher. The windows probably need to be replaced as they are wood and probably not very efficient, but none are broken, so I'm ok with that for now. I think if we get this thing it will be a hell of a deal, we offered 137k with 10% down and paying our own closing costs (rolled into the mortgage), and the agent says it's a very strong offer. Listing price is 136k, but it's in one of the better neighborhoods in town. The CMA was showing 175-200 for similar houses. It's a HUD home, and they are taking bids up until tomorrow night, and the agent says we should know by the 2nd or 3rd of January. I'm so excited, we really love the house. The only thing I feel like we are settling on is the garage, it's a single but at least it's oversized so we can get both of the motorcycles and my Jeep inside. Other than that, the house is pretty great. So exciting!
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Dec 31, 2012 04:44
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I'm currently paying 1K per month in rent for an apartment in a city where housing is dirt cheap. Has anyone ever purchased a house and saved money in PITI as a result? If so, how does that change the calculus of what I need to be thinking about?
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Dec 31, 2012 09:24
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Feces Starship posted:I'm currently paying 1K per month in rent for an apartment in a city where housing is dirt cheap. Has anyone ever purchased a house and saved money in PITI as a result? If so, how does that change the calculus of what I need to be thinking about? Of course it's possible depending on the area, the house, and how much you were paying in rent. A friend of mine in the Phoenix area bought a house recently and is paying slightly less per month now in PITI than he was in rent, but houses there are dirt cheap right now and rents went up over the last few years. That said, he also purchased in a pretty cheap neighborhood Having a lot of cash on hand is still as important as ever (down payment, closing costs, maintenance, etc).
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Dec 31, 2012 11:28
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In my experience I have always paid less for more when buying vs renting, but it can be deceiving. You have to budget in additional expenses for upkeep and repairs that would normally be covered by your rent. You can possibly, maybe, if your lucky and don't screw up, come out ahead if you stay in a house for more than 5 years but that is very situational and 5 years is the minimum you should consider as a commitment level for buying. Also your generally going to use that equity again right away to move to somewhere else. If you don't know where you will be in 5 years you have no business buying a house (IMOHO).
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Dec 31, 2012 11:35
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NJ Deac posted:We're in the process for shopping for a house in jumbo territory, and according to the 5 or 6 banks/brokers we've spoken with, the jumbo market has pretty much entirely dried up in our area. They're all recommending we go with a 417k conventional + the remainder in either a HELOC (10 yr interest only draw period/20 yr repayment) or a home equity loan (10 year loan, 30 year amortization), even though the amount we're looking for is just barely into jumbo territory and we have a sizable down payment.
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Dec 31, 2012 16:24
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Feces Starship posted:I'm currently paying 1K per month in rent for an apartment in a city where housing is dirt cheap. Has anyone ever purchased a house and saved money in PITI as a result? If so, how does that change the calculus of what I need to be thinking about? My mortgage is less than rent on a comparable town home/large apartment, but that's not the only thing to think about. Unless you are for sure committed to an area, and a home for 7 years, I wouldn't even think about buying a house. The main issue with buying a house is lack of flexibility. You rent your apartment for a set lease term and then you can leave if you want to. Relationship over. Neighborhood goes to hell? You can leave penalty free at the end of your lease. Need a bigger place? Move! Promotion in another city? You can go. Most of those options are much more expensive, or off the table completely when you buy a house. You just need to make sure it works for you. Also remember houses have large acquisition and disposition costs. 4% of the homes value up front in closing costs is normal, and 6% realtor commission when you go to sell. 10% just to acquire and dispose of a house. When running your calculator don't forget about those costs.
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Dec 31, 2012 17:23
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Appraisal is in. $1,000 more than agreed price, imagine that. $70,000 less than the city has it assessed for. I get to contest that in March. Edit: Comparable sale #3: 10/1/1995. Advent Horizon fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Jan 2, 2013 |
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Jan 2, 2013 06:09
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Advent Horizon posted:Edit: Comparable sale #3: 10/1/1995. That's completely retarded. I don't know how anyone could consider that with a straight face. I'd be worried the lender will reject this appraisal.
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Jan 3, 2013 09:15
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Here is a really dumb, basic question: do I need to have my down payment fully saved up before beginning the mortgage approval process?
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Jan 3, 2013 14:44
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I'm curious what you guys will think of our situation. My fiance and I are looking at buying a condo. We currently live in an area where rent for our tiny garden-level three-window 1-bedroom apartment is $1300 and going up to $1400 next year (the landlord told us as much when we re-signed our lease). There are condos in the area that are larger and nicer for around $300,000 on average--some lower, some higher, but $300,000 seems to be a good place to start (plenty higher, actually, but that's if you go to the luxury high-rise buildings that have a lot of units and a concierge and a pool). One of our good friends bought in the area we're interested in for a little over $200,000, so it's totally possible to get it for cheaper. Some salient information: - We're not rich by any stretch, but we're comfortable right now, and can manage $1400 a month rent just fine, but honestly, it's only going to go up and our apartment is tiny and has no windows and the fiance works from home and gets no sunlight. We want to move. I hate moving and want to move in a place that's actually ours. - We both have student loans that aren't going to get paid off any time soon. We make those payments on time just fine. Our credit is great. But it is another monthly expense. - My dad and my fiance's parents are both willing to chip in as an instead-of-paying-for-a-wedding thing to the tune of about $20,000 combined. (Will we be taxed on this? How would that even work? I assume my father can't just throw that into my checking without some kind of unholy taxation hell for me.) - We also have about $7k saved between us, but that wipes our savings completely out. (I've started a savings program to help increase that amount, but obviously it's happening slowly.) - No we are not going to have kids ever so we are not going to need to upgrade our amount of space suddenly or anything like that. We love this area, we love this city, and we're settled here. We both work for smaller businesses that definitely won't ask us to move to other places. So on the personal front, I'm pretty sure we're ready to buy. Are we nuts to try to do this? Should we just chill and save for another year or two before trying to dive in? Or is it not worth the bother? I just don't want to go through all the crap of talking to the bank and seeing places and looking if the monetary end of stuff works out. In this area, the housing (condo) market moves very, very quickly in spring--it's not unusual for a place to be under agreement in the first 15 minutes of an open house. I'm just hoping to tap the wisdom of goons who would know if it's worth the bother. A lot of stuff in the OP talks about house-house stuff but I know that some condo stuff is different and other condo stuff is the same and I don't even know where to start.
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Jan 3, 2013 17:23
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I believe you can get tax-free gifts from family up to 13k, so there is that. This is only federal, I'm not sure if any states have gift taxes. 27k for a downpayment on a minimum of 200k means you're looking at PMI/FHA/whatever else. This means, generally, a higher interest rate and monthly payment along with a longer loan term in order for it to remain affordable for you. I'm far too lazy to crunch the numbers for you, but I'm guessing once you add in HoA fees, property taxes, and maintenance on your condo that you're not going to be saving much if anything by buying instead of renting. But you should do this math yourself to be sure. Most of the differences between houses and condos have to do with the associations and the building integrity. You need to have the building inspected as well as your unit, and you want to make sure the association is well-funded and takes care of the property. You can have special assessments imposed by the association for emergency repairs, so having a small monthly fee isn't always a good thing compared to a higher fee and lots of money in reserve. I'd advise you to look for a better apartment with more sunlight and keep saving, especially since you have to wipe out your whole account to get any sort of downpayment (no emergency reserve = bad bad bad).
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Jan 3, 2013 17:37
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Where do you live? I generally abhor condos, and think they're terrible ideas, but it sounds like you live in one of the few major metro areas where it could possibly make sense to buy a condo.
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Jan 3, 2013 20:35
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Rooster Brooster posted:I believe you can get tax-free gifts from family up to 13k, so there is that. This is only federal, I'm not sure if any states have gift taxes. You may have to file a gift tax form, but in general the first million or so are tax exempt.
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Jan 3, 2013 20:57
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Nicol Bolas posted:I'm curious what you guys will think of our situation. The general advice you're going to get is to stay away from buying a condo, even before considering you don't have much in the way of savings for a home/condo purchase. Positives/Neutrals in your situation regarding buying a condo: - You claim that you don't want to move away to another city - You do not want kids ever so in theory you won't need a larger space in a few years - Interest rates are about as good as they'll ever get Both of these things are overlooked by first time buyers of "Well I'll just buy something for a few years and then get a house in the 'burbs" completely ignoring the fact that even if they condo keeps it's value, you'd still dumped a ton of money into closing costs, HOAs, interest payments, etc and that's money you'll never see. Negatives in your situation regarding buying a condo: - You don't have much savings, certainly not enough for a healthy down payment, closing costs, and still having money left over for an emergency. Even the $20k coming in isn't what most people would consider adequate. - You have other debts (student loans). You can make your payments, but principal/interest/insurance on a $220k condo is likely to be $1300-1500 not including any building/hoa/parking fees (if you have a car). That will be a significant jump in outgoing. - As always you need to be wary of those building fees skyrocketing due to poor management or any other number of issues. - You have a wedding coming up, which can be extremely expensive even with help. - You can't choose your neighbors, in a condo you could have a ton of nearby noisy neighbors to hate, and there isn't much you can do about it. General advice: Find another apartment if you don't like the one you're in (for the money). This way you may get to see another part of the city that you'd possibly consider moving into. If you're serious about buying a condo, get your crap together and save save save. See if you can cut back on your lifestyle stuff if that's where some of your money is going because owning a home is expensive no matter how you look at it. Better to get used to having less money now than jumping right into it and making GBS threads your pants.
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Jan 3, 2013 21:00
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Unless you're living in a rural or depressed area, or make like 150k a year, when is a condo ever not the only option for a working class person??? When a "starter house" way the gently caress out in the exurbs is like 450k are people just supposed to rent a lovely 60's apartment their entire lives?
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Jan 3, 2013 21:03
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Baronjutter posted:Unless you're living in a rural or depressed area, or make like 150k a year, when is a condo ever not the only option for a working class person??? You must live in a coastal city or something, because your numbers seem outrageous to me. I live in the Midwest, and it's neither a depressed area nor is it rural. We are in Colorado Springs, and while housing is a bit more expensive up in Denver, it's still nowhere near 450k for a "starter house." For reference, the house we just bid on was listed at 136k, 4 bedrooms/2 bath with only a little bit of work needed, and it was in one of the more desirable neighborhoods in town. If we wanted to live in the ghetto, or at least this towns version of it, we could easily get the same size house for under 100. 450k would get you a whole lotta house on an acreage around here. We were outbid on the house though.. We only offered a thousand above listing price, and while the realtor said it was a very strong offer, it still seemed like too good of a price to be true. So now we get to keep searching. It's only been 2 months and I'm already so tired of looking at houses.
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Jan 3, 2013 22:34
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Baronjutter posted:Unless you're living in a rural or depressed area, or make like 150k a year, when is a condo ever not the only option for a working class person??? It's discouraging and depressing but lots of hard working Americans can't afford to own homes. Lots of people who can afford to own homes do so and regret it. At least with renting you don't carry the risk that comes with owning.
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Jan 3, 2013 23:03
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Not everybody that can own a home should own a home. I know several people who have absolutely no business owning real estate, and yet they bought fixer-uppers. I'm sure the mortgage will be paid off on time but the houses haven't had any of the improvements done. One guy seemed genuinely surprised when his front porch fell of. It's not like there was no warning, it was listed in the home inspection! Insurance told them to take a hike because it was a pre-existing problem that should have been fixed. They just borrowed a saw or something and hacked the rest of it off, whomever did the cuts didn't do a very good job at even that. I don't understand how people can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and just let stuff rot. Honestly, if I were running an insurance company, I'd probably require a periodic property inspection just to make sure it's still safe. Same with mortgage servicers.
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Jan 3, 2013 23:23
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marauderthirty posted:You must live in a coastal city or something, because your numbers seem outrageous to me. I live in the Midwest, and it's neither a depressed area nor is it rural. We are in Colorado Springs, and while housing is a bit more expensive up in Denver, it's still nowhere near 450k for a "starter house." I've been to Colorado Springs, and in comparison to a coastal city it pretty much is "rural/exurban". We've got suburbs that are denser than downtown CS. I keep a casual eye on real estate listings in my area, and most anything listed in the city proper for under 300k that isn't in a total poo poo neighborhood is a major fixer-upper verging on a tear-down. Realistically even a modest starter home in a gentrifying neighborhood is about 400k - and for that you'd be lucky to get even a single car garage. Even our better suburbs you'd be very hard pressed to find a house in good condition for under 250-300k. In desirable urban neighborhoods and the better connected suburbs, nice single family homes bare minimum start at 500k and easily get to 700k-1M. And these are not mansions or on large plots of land. When staring at a market like that, a modern steel-and-concrete condo in a central urban neighborhood for 250-300k starts to look appealing, at least on the surface. Your dismissal of a "coastal city or something" is a little humorous, considering that many more millions of people live in coastal cities than they do the midwest, hence the demand and pricing. It's hardly an unusual case. Guinness fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Jan 3, 2013 |
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Jan 3, 2013 23:50
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Guinness posted:I've been to Colorado Springs, and in comparison to a coastal city it pretty much is "rural". We've got suburbs that are denser than downtown CS. I don't think you know what rural actually is.
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Jan 3, 2013 23:58
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Thanks for the advice, goons. You're kind of confirming some suspicions I had--which sucks a lot, because I actually like our little shoebox apartment, but the fiance spends more time in it than I do, so his dislike for the place matters quite a bit. I suppose we'll just have to swallow the financial hit of moving into another rental. Even if it's over $1000 to get out of this apartment (which it very well might be), that's still orders of magnitude less than trying to own anything. I've been socking away $50 a week ($200 a month) since I just recently got a better paying job and am still living about the same. Christmas kind of disrupted that in a serious way for a couple reasons, but once my buffer in my checking is back up to snuff I'm going to go back to that grind. I think showing the fiance this thread will also help him realize how much we need to do. (He doesn't have any kind of savings plan, but he does have a couple grand sloshing around his checking earning interest.) The main reason we were going to try to pounce on it this year is this: dreesemonkey posted:- Interest rates are about as good as they'll ever get But your'e right, the negatives do outweigh the positives, even if there's some $200,000 dream condo out there for us. (I do live in a coastal city, and do not know how to drive, and we don't own a car, so there is no way we can go for the suburbs without a serious and expensive shift in lifestyle.) The other thing of saving is that--yep, we do have a wedding coming up someday, but we both want to get out of the renting game first. It's completely stupid to spend tens of thousands of dollars on one day of party when that money could go towards something real, like a place that would actually be ours. I'd rather get married in ten years when I'm 35 and have a place of our own first. I could care less about throwing a party. (But of course, our families will kill us if we just elope, so we have to pay higher separate tax rates. Hooray.)
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Jan 4, 2013 00:08
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Guinness posted:Your dismissal of a "coastal city or something" is a little humorous, considering that many more millions of people live in coastal cities than they do the midwest, hence the demand and pricing. It's hardly an unusual case. It wasn't a dismissal, I was just stating that which is a fact. If you live on one of the coasts, cost of living is considerably higher, regardless of population density. But I guess that's funny? Anyway, that's why I also referred to Denver. The population isn't anywhere near that of a Los Angeles, but probably greater than a lot of coastal cities, and prices aren't that much higher than they are here. Certainly not looming on half a million for a subpar home.
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Jan 4, 2013 00:18
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Nicol Bolas posted:The other thing of saving is that--yep, we do have a wedding coming up someday, but we both want to get out of the renting game first. It's completely stupid to spend tens of thousands of dollars on one day of party when that money could go towards something real, like a place that would actually be ours. I'd rather get married in ten years when I'm 35 and have a place of our own first. I could care less about throwing a party. (But of course, our families will kill us if we just elope, so we have to pay higher separate tax rates. Hooray.) Weddings don't have to be expensive. Mine cost something under $2k, and that includes everything anyone paid for anything (my mom paid for the catering, for example). If the room in your budget for savings right now is $50 a month, you cannot buy a house. Your current apartment costs approximately the principal + interest on a $300k loan ($280k, 3.5%, 30 years is $1257.33/mo), and that doesn't include PMI (likely $200+ a month), hazard insurance (could be anything from $80 to $300+ a month), taxes (2% of property value per year, as a random guess?), maintenance (at least a couple grand a year), utilities (compared to your apartment?), HOA dues/Condo fees (potentially hundreds a month) and a bunch of likely up-front costs (new furniture, appliances, moving costs, etc.). I think you could comfortably budget for $2000 a month for your condo purchase but you should check tax rates and typical insurance rates for your area to be sure. You should also get married before you buy especially if you're taking a tax hit every year for not being married. You want your incomes and tax burdens worked out before you buy so that you are in the best possible financial shape. Bear in mind that if you buy at ~$200k and up, depending on your incomes and other deductions you are likely to benefit from the mortgage interest tax deduction (for which you must itemize, so the savings has to be more than your standard deduction). This number is obviously different depending on your marital status (for some goddamn reason). Above all you should understand that buying a home is incredibly stressful. It will put pressure on your relationship. Weddings are also incredibly stressful and put pressure on your relationship. I advise you not to be arranging or organizing both at once. So my suggestion is, get married (if that's what you want to do), get your taxes and finances figured out, and either reduce spending or increase income until you can comfortably afford to buy. Don't worry about interest rates too much. If you can't afford to buy with a 5% loan, you probably can't really afford to buy with a 3.5% loan either. e. By the way, I live 30 minutes' drive from San Francisco, one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country. I bought my house in december 2009 for $240k and prices fell for two more years after that. It's a three-bedroom 1.5 bath 1150 square foot home built in 1958. It was a foreclosure and had some minor repairs needed, but nothing major (no problems with foundation, roof, only minor plumbing and wiring issues). Two car garage. The neighborhood is ethnically diverse but not dangerous and the town is nice and not bankrupt. Anyway my point is, being on the coast does not automatically mean you cannot buy a decent house for under $300k, and being non-coastal does not mean you live in a rural backwater nor that your housing market is necessarily awesome. Incomes vary a lot by location too. All that said, the world doesn't owe you home ownership, and for a huge swathe of the American population, home ownership is financially impossible. If you want to buy a home, you have to pick something you can afford. If the only thing in your area that you can afford is a condo, you have four choices: 1. Buy a condo in your area. 2. Earn more money so you can afford something else. 3. Move somewhere else where you can afford better. Or 4. Don't buy. Too many people ignore options 2 through 4. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 00:36 on Jan 4, 2013 |
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Jan 4, 2013 00:24
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I was more concerned at why skipdog things condos are horrible ideas as a condo will be at best what my self and my entire "class" of not-rich people will ever be able to even think about affording. It's either renting at 1200+ a month, a condo starting at 200k, or a house starting in the high 400's. (although it's more like 600k for anywhere worth living) I've got 50k saved up for a downpayment on a condo, aiming for 60k so I've got 10k in the bank for all the fun little extra costs that go along with owning the place you sleep in. It's either ratty 60's apartment with no in-suite laundry, expensive coin-op machines, and horrible appliances and fixtures that take months for the property management company to fix, or about 200k for the same size unit but with in-suite laundry. If a condo is a horrible idea I don't know what the other option is. Are there secret underground town-houses no one told me about? Cause I'd buy a secret fuckin' hobbit house in a second if it was under 300k.
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Jan 4, 2013 00:33
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