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"Doctor, it hurts when I do this." "Don't do that." The standard recommendations for buying a house, in my opinion, are recommendations for buying a house you
by jerf 7y ago
"Doctor, it hurts when I do this."
"Don't do that."
The standard recommendations for buying a house, in my opinion, are recommendations for buying a house you can barely afford. I recommend buying houses you can comfortably afford, and put some extra principal payments in towards the beginning if at all possible. (Especially if you're just starting now-ish... I suspect the whole "but you could have put it in the stock market instead and made tons more money" both looks a bit less appealing than it did a year ago, and may take a bit before it's advice that would turn out well again.)
An HN-specific nuance is that I might as well be saying "don't live in the valley"... you want to call that an exception, eh, go ahead, you're an adult. But in general I recommend that.
(Also, you have to check the area you are in. Where I happen to live & in the price zone I'm in, mortgages are quite a bit cheaper than rent. Though that may not be true in another year!)
- brlewis 7y ago>I recommend buying houses you can comfortably afford This is great advice. In addition to paying less mortgage, the more affordable house is likely smaller, costing less to heat and maintain. I'd be really interested to see a TCO breakdown for various sizes and ages of house.
- jerrre 7y agoWhere I live cheaper houses are more likely to be old (ie 80+ years) and badly insulated, costing more to heat and to maintain....
- _they 7y agoThis is tough if you have children. I have no problem living in a 1200sq ft modest house, but they simply don't exist in good school zones in my area.