$315K is absolutely insane for a one bedroom condo. Are the faucets made of gold? The bathroom tiled in silver?

SELL! SELL! SELL!!

Triple your money in 5 years? Oh, Hell yes!

Quickly, some thoughts -

Your downpayment is too small - you really need to make at least a 10% dnpmt and couple that with an 80% first and a 10% 2nd. Never get a first of more than 80% since that automatically triggers PMI. Never, ever pay PMI (private mortgage insurance - it is a shameful racket). If you can't put up 10%, shop for something less expensive - commute and price are usually inversely proportional.

Wait till you don't have a car payment if you must.

Buy a house that you can rent out the basement AFTER you fix it up. Usually, the basement can pay 1/3 of the mortgage,

So, move further out, rent out the basement and lastly, increase your deduductions from your withholding to increase your takehome pay AFTER discussing with an acct how not to overdo it. Renter pays a third, gumit pays a third, and you pay a third.

Homebuying is not as hard as it seems. Find a good realtor - honestly, the older ones are more patient and more helpful usually - and will help you though the confusion. Buy a house if at all possible. We may never see interest rates this low again. Its worth making some other sacrifices.

Fuck you...it pays my bills. :)

Seriously, it helps put more people in a home of their own sooner. As I see it, it's no different than requiring people to pay for full coverage auto insurance while making payments on a car.

Unfortunately, I don't want to leave the area, I don't think my parents want me back, and all of the houses in the area are in a similar state.

I do wish I'd bought two at the time, though. I probably could have swung it (not easily, but still).

You are a patient Monkey. In your shoes....I assume you are single.....I think I would sell now, and rent a place for a year or so, then when prices drop back down, buy the same kind of house but without the mortgage....

I fear change. :worried:

Agreed on 10% being desirable, but that pretty much eliminates me from any single-family housing for the next few years, barring Powerball or my showing up in some long-lost Uncle Fred's will. About 15% is more like it, as I'd need money for closing costs and related expenses.

For instance, on that 250K house I first mentioned, that's at least 30K in cash up front; that's just not happening. On a 120K townhouse, I could handle the 12K down payment (I have about 10K in the bank, with ~7.5K in mature bonds I could cash in; I'd take a tax hit later, but the money would be there now), but an extra 3-4K in closing costs would hurt badly. Anything cheaper than that would either be made out of cardboard, have crack vials in the front lawn or be located in South Dakota.

The catch with that is that mine won't be paid off until three years from now, and my wife's (currently at 68K miles and counting) may well be worse for wear by that point. I have to expect at least one car payment in the mix for the longterm future. (On the plus side, there will be no credit-card debt or other easily-avoidable financial perils, either.)

On a 120K townhouse, I could handle the 12K down payment (I have about 10K in the bank, with ~7.5K in mature bonds I could cash in; I'd take a tax hit later, but the money would be there now), but an extra 3-4K in closing costs would hurt badly.

It's very plausible to negotiate into the price of the house that the seller pays all closing costs. That's what we did.

What makes you think they will go down, Jim?:confused:

the rates, they rise......


"Treasuries and Mortgage Rates
Yields on 10-year and 30-year Treasury securities are typically used to set long-term mortgage rates. Loans with short initial terms (1-, 3-, and 5- year ARMs, e.g.) are pegged to shorter-term securities. So when bond yields drop, typically, conventional mortgage rates fall as well. Conversely, when yields rise, so do mortgage rates.
Why? If a lender chooses to sell your mortgage loan to an investor, the lender will likely use Treasury yields as a benchmark for value."

http://www.mortgage-x.com/images/graph/t-3m.gif

Oh, my bad. I thought you meant the prices of the properties would go down.:blush:

I did, but jinx says I'm nuts. She points out that while rising rates may slow the dramatic rise in prices, there is a lot of room between the rapid increase they have been riding, and staying the same.....before they ever start to lose ground. I have to concede the point. The future is unwritten.