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Comment by ulizzle | Hacker News Reader

Buying a house in 2019 was one of the top 5 worst decisions in my life

I bought a home in 2017 and considering what I have spent on down payment, mortgage, taxes, insurance, and standard home maintenance and improvements in the last six years if I sold it today I would still make about 35% more than all the cash I have put into it so far. My home is simply not an expense, it’s a savings account I get to live in.

Of course YMMV…

Consider yourself lucky. If I was to sell my house today I would probably get basically the same price I paid in 2017. All the money I've spend on renovations and improvements are 'lost'.

That being said, I love my house and I'm very happy I get to live here. So in the grand scheme of things I still consider buying this place a huge win.

Well I didn’t think of it that way. I admit im sentimental about it but it’s not sounding too bad too sell now either

I’m in Austin, so my house went up in value quite a lot.

We are in a similar situation (Florida). I’ll admit it’s tempting to sell and grab that cash, but the more I run the math it just makes sense to stick around until we have to sell, or if it looks like the real estate marker starts moving the other way. Then we hop out, ladder the proceeds into some CDs and use the interest to rent until we find the right place to buy again.

How so? It's probably worth more now. You can sell, no?

I don’t want to, but looks like I’ll have to, interest rates being what they are. I really liked the place, made a nice little garden for the first time in my life

But if yall think selling is a good idea, that’s a good omen

Sounds like either you are not in the US and did not have access to fixed rate mortgages, or you are in the US and opted for an adjustable rate mortgage, and somehow missed the unprecedented refinancing opportunities of 2020/2021?

Why?

Yea, I don't understand myself, at least if they are in the US. Could be very location dependant, but mostly housing prices greatly increased since then.

I don’t want to sell, I was hoping to be buried in the backyard when I died.

But you haven't explained why it was a bad decision to buy.

My mortgage is up a thousand bucks due to interest rates. It was a an FHA loan so it made sense at the time

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