Ugh, housing...

Originally Posted by Lindsey

Well, good news He had a meeting with a mortgage broker today, and he was offered 25,000 more than the bank would give him. This gives him just enough to be able to buy a house I found online today. We've been driving around and looking at houses and online searches for a long time and this one seems pretty promising. 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, an extra kitchen downstairs so you could convert it into a basement suite if you wanted, double garage... it's a bit of a fixer upper, but with some paint and new flooring (which he can get for free from his uncle's flooring company, and he can install himself because he used to do that!) it could end up being really nice He's doing a walk-through tomorrow with a realtor. I'm so excited for him! Oh, and maybe a little for me because I won't have to feel weird always going to his mom's house lol.

lindsey, marry him in his fixer upper and you wont need to buy your own house in 15 years!!!!!

[Lindsey]

Originally Posted by CoyoteQueen

lindsey, marry him in his fixer upper and you wont need to buy your own house in 15 years!!!!!

Lol nah I don't think I'll ever get married I just want to spend my whole life travelling around the world with my dog! So I suppose me buying a house would be pointless anyway

[Tink]

Lindsey, the economy is insane in the real estate market.
People are getting in so deep that when the interest rates on those adjustable rate loans goes up they simply can't keep up and they're foreclosed on. A bank will tell you that you can afford 25% of your gross income for mortgage payments, but when you do, the house ends up owning you... it's a sad spot to be in when anything else comes up that you hadn't budgeted for. (And it will!)

I would not even want to buy right now. My first house... a 3 bedroom one bath on a city lot was $11,300. Of course back then we were making a lot less too! Our payment on a 20 yr loan was $103 a month and that was plenty to pay! LOL

Katie and Josh and Joel and Shannon all rent upstairs apartments in our small town and both couples pay $325 a month. That's pretty average for here. It really does vary greatly what part of the country you're located in. Most of the jobs here are in factories and the starting pay is $10- 13. an hr. which is what they all make.

[Lindsey]

Wow Tink, that rent seems pretty low! When I first moved here after high school, 4 of us shared a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house for $700 a month, which I thought was really expensive! Now I'm in a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom duplex which is about a third the size of that house and we pay $1200 a month. It's hard to even find a one bedroom apartment for less than $1000.
If Kyle ends up with the house he's looking at today, mortgage payments for him would be around $1000 or maybe just a little less. He has two people (his cousin and a friend) who have agreed to move in with him and they'd each pay 1/3 of the mortgage for rent. Then if he saved up enough money to convert the basement into a suite, he could easily gain revenue from that, because the house is right near the tech college.

[DianaB]

In college communities the rent is always higher. I know that the rent around here is about like Tink's. My daughter's paying around $350 for her rent.