Amethyste
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2003
- Messages
- 2,201
The rates are amazing - it''s a buyer''s market. My husband and I have been looking around for purchasing our first home. We have been looking and we are trying to get something in the mid to lower end of our budget, but all of the homes in that range are either really really far from where we work, are in need of extended repairs or are condos/townhomes ( i really do not want to get into a condo or a townhome due to prior really bad experience ). I had a townhome before and when I bought it, my monthly dues were $85 a month and 4 years later they went up to $435 and was really really hard to sell it b/c of that, so it sat on the market for such a long time...
When we go in our upper budget, we find really decent homes - ready to move in with little "fix-ups" which is what we are looking for. But the TAXES - OMFG!!! NH has the 3rd highest property tax rate in the country!!! For this home we are looking at ( which is $220,000 ) the yearly taxes on it are $5,511! most likely, we''ll end up paying about $1,500 - $1,600 a month for mortg+Ins+taxes... Leaving us with about $1,300 of "play" money at the end of the month ( that''s for food, gas, fun etc ). I don''t want to be house-poor and eat Ramen noodles every day - but I don''t want an older home either that eats in repair all of our extra money either - finding the perfect balance is almost impossible...
I guess I just didn''t know how perplexing owning a home could be... I am just a little surprised - ad frightened at the same time. so many people do it... why can''t we just make the jump and go for it?
My realtor suggested that we find a home that in case of one of us loose their job, could be afforded on 1 income. Who can do that?! That means we''d be living in a barn
Could anyone here share their experiences, opinions etc on what they went through when purchasing a home? I guess we are a little "scared" to make the jump from renting to home ownership!
Thanks