Your Two Cents: Is Buying a House One of Your Goals?

August 28, 2008

The housing crisis has made it clear that owning a home isn't all roses. Beyond the financial commitment that comes with owning a home, including maintenance and a mortgage, it suggests a sense of permanence that not everyone is comfortable with. Is buying a house one of your goals?

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35 Comments

haydee 4 years

yes it was our goal and we fulfilled it last year :-)

valancyjane 4 years

Ugh, the "renting = throwing money away" thing bothers me SO much. What you get with your rent is peace of mind. If a pipe under my sink explodes at 1 a.m. (which has happened!) there is someone I can call. If the water heater dies, there is someone I can call. If the kids playing outside throw a baseball in our window, there is someone I can call. I didn't want to take on all that (plus higher payments, since my rent has always been cheap) just for the sake of "equity."

skigurl 4 years

i've always worked for a construction company/homebuilder so i've wanted to buy since i was 14 it's a goal of mine, but i don't have a timeline

Mintie 4 years

I am saving now to buy a farm in Italy when I retire. I have no desire to own here.

g1amourpuss 4 years

My goal was to own by the time I reached 30. If I really wanted to achieve that goal right now, I could make it happen. (I'm invincible once I put my mind to something.) But I have since changed my mind with the way the economy is right now.. bumping my goal back to 35. I'm more focused on raising my daughter, buying nicer cars for us, getting the essential pieces for my dream home, and helping my mother with her health right now. When we do buy I will have my mother living in the back in an apartment/mini-cottage. If for some reason this all comes along sooner than by the time I turn 35, that is okay with me as long as it fits into our lives and everything. Personally, I don't believe that renting is throwing money away. If anything it can actually save you more money in the end. Deed restriction fines.. Property taxes -- Now, that's money down the drain.

Berlin 4 years

My BF & I are in the process of buying a 1892 Queen Anne Victorian Home in the historic district of our town...I can't wait:)

porkypocky 4 years

hell yes. i would definitely be more motivated to keep it clean too...since i did pay for it. lol.

sharshar 4 years

Renting is okay but there's still nothing like having your own home.

popgoestheworld 4 years

Agreed Vespa. Where I live right now, if I were to buy the same house I'm currently renting, my monthly payments would go up 300% Now THAT would be throwing away money... I do want to buy some day though. In general it's a good time to buy I think.

Vespa 4 years

It always bothers me, the myth that renting is "throwing away" money. It's not the best option for everyone!

gemsera 4 years

My beau and I are looking at houses in the next 6 months or so - We both have such good prospects at the moment and really want to invest and renovate.

chatondeneige 4 years

I'm still so young - I don't think anyone should be thinking about home-ownership if thousands and thousands of dollars are still going to a university, unless they've got a hefty trust to follow it up. Eventually, I might want a home. But I'm definitely not where I want to settle, to be honest.

lizs 4 years

We plan to buy once we are married and once we figure out where we'd actually like to live (or will be living for work for more than 2 years)...I never thought I'd be the type to settle down, but it turns out I'm at least the type to invest!

thelorax 4 years

We're newlyweds...and we owned our own home within a month of getting married. We took that $30K that the "average" (??!!) couple spends on a wedding and put it towards a healthy down payment.

Martini Rossi 4 years

Yes, Im looking now. I really want a townhouse or condo. Im hoping to purchase one by next year.

valancyjane 4 years

We hope to buy in the next 6 months or so. If the market weren't where it were, I don't know if we would: Our finances could be a lot better (but whose couldn't?) and our apartment meets our needs and is super-cheap. But we want to buy eventually and if we can get through the mortgage process this seems to be the best time to buy. So, here we go. After Labor Day is when we've said we'll get serious, so this is my last few days of freedom! The permanence thing scares me a bit. I really don't want to stay in this town -- I hate the heat, it's sprawl-y and I don't have many roots here even after 9 years. But my husband's from here and has a lot of family and friends here, and I would have a hard time convincing him to move just because of the weather, you know? So I'll put up with it for a while longer.

psterling 4 years

Hubby and I just bought a house this month. I think before I was married I didn't want to be "settled" but now that we're married with careers, its not like we were realistically going to up and move to Rome or something so it just made sense. We're thrilled and can't wait to move in!

hmcmcd 4 years

of course! We actually tried to buy a home a few months ago, but b/c both of us work for ourselves, we would have to do a "No Documentation" loan. We have Excellent credit but the amount of money needed to put down on a house w/ a no doc loan is CRAZY! At first the mortgage guy approved me with the amount of money that I had in savings then he called me about a week later and said that the mortgage restrictions are tighter now b/c of the crisis, so we would need an additional 15,000 to put down! So for now we are just waiting to save up the rest of the money...

Renees3 4 years

We're actually looking at homes right now. It's a big dream of ours to own a home and prices are so good right now, some places our mortgage would be a lot less than we're paying rent!

elle j 4 years

Yes, I dream about my hypothetical home almost daily! Gardens of all types (vegetable, picking, rose, etc), pool, beautiful patio with a trellis covered in wysteria, an outdoor kitchen with a wood burning oven, thats just the beginning. A GIRL CAN DREAM!

alikat07 4 years

We want to buy a house in the next 2-5 years. While we are late 20s/early 30s we still don't know where we will settle and until we are sure we aren't buying (esp. with the market the way it is!). I'm finishing up graduate school, so hopefully we'll like the city where I find my first job. Otherwise we'll be renting until we get to the right city.

lawchick 4 years

I bought a house two years ago, and now I'm considering going back to renting. I totally underestimated maintenance costs for an older home. We can't afford it so we just live without some things that have broken (like the dishwasher; I did however get the air conditioning fixed, it's too hot in the deep south to go without).

gab6784 4 years

I definitely want to buy a home in the future, I always wanted to own my own home and have a backyard and pool, garden, the works! Probably can't afford one with all of that but it would be fabulous if I could :)

megln1022 4 years

someday. i'm so not settle with what i want to do in life and where i want to end up that it'd be pointless to buy now (plus i can't afford it). so maybe in 5 years or so i'd reassess

gabiushka 4 years

Yes, for my husband and I designing and building our house is one of our goals.

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