Tell me more about your house, what your mortgage rate is, etc. I'm looking at houses in the Boston area but I can never seem to grow enough balls to buy one even though I could.
I entered into a 30-year mortgage at slightly above 3% last year, with a reasonable amount of money down, and my mortgage payments plus tax on a bigger and newer house are substantially less than what I used to pay in rent. Plus I deal with less traffic, I encounter more diversity in my day-to-day life, and people, even the less well-to-do, are happier here. The only real downside has been that overall the availability and quality of fine dining is less here.
Naturally, people don't move solely for the ability to buy a cheaper house, but it is something worth considering, depending on your circumstances. I was in a similar boat as yours before I moved, where I could theoretically have afforded a house where I was, but I didn't want to.
I'm having anxiety about moving from downstate New York to Lexington, Kentucky. I've spent time there, I enjoy the city and the surrounding area, but I keep coming back to "If I don't like it I can always move back", instead of "The upsides far outweigh the downsides. You'll like it."
Thanks for this.
Cincinnati is close and has even more amenities like Jungle Jim's (2x giant grocery stores, 100% go here), CAM, theme parks, Union Terminal and niche museums (Sign Museum, VOA, Air Force Museum in Dayton), various pinball arcades, and places like Microcenter.
Can you name the cities?
Either way, you still moved to a city, so the local politics aren’t likely all that different. Though you did make sure to mention it a few times.
2.6% interest rate.
1.2% property tax rate.
Look for deals; some places need work, or don’t have AC, but can be had for cheap. Most buyers in the GBA don’t want a house that needs even a new kitchen, much less some walls knocked down.
Like seriously.. replacing a countertop is not hard!
You can't really take the investment aspect or any of these others out of the analysis if you want to understand what's best for you. Particularly in countries with policies to encourage/subsidize home ownership the answer is often, "buy a place", but not always.
No tax benefits go to renters. That's one of many considerations here other than raw liabilities.
Agree a investment property is a whole other can of worms, but not really relevant on the "should I buy or rent, personally" decision. For that one, you need to compare to other investments, which is in many ways more straightforward.
This is only true if you assume the same housing at the same cost/mo (including everything). And assume timelines. Usually this isn't the case, so there are definitely scenarios where you are better off renting.
In any situation where the rental scenario results in extra cash flow that you then invest, you can end up ahead in total, sometimes significantly so. It's all complicated by the fact that you are rarely comparing rent vs. buy on the actual same property.
Remember also in the "buy" scenario you have to include closing costs etc. which can affect your timeline. Your 1yr is unrealistic, you'll eat 5-10% of sale price on just that, typically, which may be way more than rent.
I can tell you from personal experience that you are wrong.
Example scenario: New >$3000/mo mortgage, $2000/mo to interest and property taxes = $24k. Have a 5% state income tax?, on $60k, that's another $3k deduction.