For those that live in expensive cities, are you going to buy property?

[CCrox24]

Are you ever going to buy property or just rent?

Property is so expensive. Where I live, it's about 350-400K for a mediocre studio apartment.

Cities I am talking about - LA, NYC, Boston, San Francisco

Everyone I know that has purchased has had to get help from parents. You need at least 50K for a downpayment.

It just seems ridiculous, however maybe my generation just feels entitled to own something too soon.

[Restless&Lost]

Are you ever going to buy property or just rent?

Property is so expensive. Where I live, it's about 350-400K for a mediocre studio apartment.

Cities I am talking about - LA, NYC, Boston, San Francisco

Everyone I know that has purchased has had to get help from parents. You need at least 50K for a downpayment.

It just seems ridiculous, however maybe my generation just feels entitled to own something too soon.

Of course housing will be at a premium in the major hubs you're talking about. But then, owning property nets you major tax deductions, so it is advantageous to own rather than rent if you can afford it. Also, for most folks, their house is the single largest contributor to their net worth.

I don't necessarily think it's an issue of entitlement so much as an issue of practicality, though. While it'd be nice to own a D.C. condo at 25 (and I'm sure many people my age do), I neither have the salary nor the intergenerational wealth (my parents a flat broke) to spring for one anyway. But rest assured, I would own property in a new york minute if I had the means, and I think that's true of most people, regardless of age.

[vinsanity]

I still plan to buy a condo, but I'm having second thoughts about it because the average monthly expenditures, after HOA, property tax, PMI, etc., of a small but ok condo would put me in a REALLY nice apartment if I decided to keep renting instead.

[wordsmith]

No, and I live in a less costly city than most. There's really no compelling argument to own at this point.

[IPlanTheCity]

i am a los angeles resident and i am in the process of purchasing a condo right now. of course i'm not attempting to own in the extremely high col areas like redondo beach (where i work)/hermosa beach/santa monica/etc. i would LOVE to live there but know that its beyond my means on my salary.

what i was able to do, however, is find an area that is still near (because i would hate a long commute!) but has a lower col in hopes of one day living in these areas. i decided to move to long beach - a city that often goes unrecognized for its nice areas. i was able to find something to will be a stretch at first but is not above my means. i definitely wouldn't have been able to buy this place if the market had softened because this is a recent conversion where each unit went for $350k-$400k less than a year ago. today i'm getting it for $195k. yes that is a huge decrease in a short amount of time but i'm in it for the long haul and i'm prepared to ride the market out.

[steph78]

When my husband finished his PhD and was job searching we specifically chose NOT to live in Washington DC, Southern Cali, or South Florida (he had job offers in all of those places) but we instead moved to Alabama where he was offered a comparable salary to what he was offered in the high COL areas, he's doing cool work...and we could actually afford to buy a 4-bedroom, 3 1/2 bath home.

[winneythepooh7]

We just bought in a fairly expensive suburb of NYC. We used some of our wedding money, as well as an inheritance my husband got from a deceased relative, towards our down-payment and closing costs. I can't remember the exact percentage, but we did put down only about $20K plus closing costs. (I can't remember off-hand what they were but it was somewhere between $15k-$17K). We also have excellent credit, so got a really good percentage rate, which will also go down several points if we pay our mortgage payments on time, or early for a year straight. That is major!!

We wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise (without the money we came across and if we put down more than $20K it also would've completely drained our savings---something totally not safe to do either).

We are also fortunate that the house we bought this past spring, probably would have sold for about $200K more on the market 2 or 3 years ago, since it was in move-in condition, has a huge fenced-in yard, huge kitchen, and most of the house was pretty newly upgraded.

We also are older than 25 as well, with fairly decent, steady income which also counts for us being able to be home-owners ;). There's no way in hell I would've been able to do this at 25, or even remotely interested at 25 in buying something......I'm also married.........I would no way be interested in buying otherwise...........way too risky financially, and well, just down-right impossible on my salary alone ;).

[arrow]

Nah, not owning. It would require me to pay at least twice as much as I pay now in rent and I don't think it's worth it. I want to have a house one day, but not here.

[Deavan]

My fiancee and I just bought our first home, we close next week and we live in the Boston area...

COL here is definitely high if you want to live IN the city. We wanted to stay relatively close to the city and ended up buying our house where it is a 30 minute ride into the city by car and 20 minute ride by rail, since we both work in the city we wanted to be near a commuter rail and we are about a half mile walk from the station in our area where our house is located which is awesome. We got the house for 20K less than the asking price because of the current market conditions.

We bought a single family home on fenced in 0.50 acre of land, when all is said and done the mortgage payment is $200 more then what we were paying in rent so it was worth it to us. We only put $15K down (of our own money no help from parents) and our closing costs will be around $4,800 and we got a great interest rate because neither of us had debt and therefore we have great credit.

We don't have to pay PMI, sure we will have to pay taxes and homeowners insurance as well as a water bill in addtion to the ususal utilities of heat and electric but it was completely worth it for us to buy at this time.

Everyone's situation is unique nobody can say whether it is a good time to buy or to rent.

[prgrl22]

I bought a house in one of the outer boroughs of NYC last year. As a single person living in an area with an extremely high COL, it took a long time to scrape together enough money for a big enough down payment to afford the monthly mortgage payments. It also required that I live with my mom for a number of years so I could save as much as possible. I was also fortunate that I bought at a time when housing prices had dropped in my area approximately $100k over the course of the preceding year (also, because of the state of the housing market right now, I was able to negotiate the purchase price down nearly $50k). It was a difficult decision to make, since it was a huge financial investment, but for me it's worth it.

It's hard to say whether someone should buy or rent - it's a very personal decision based on the individual's situation, wants/needs, etc. I know many people who choose not to own property because of the time, money and responsibility it requires.

From a financial standpoint, owning generally is a better option in the long run since your mortgage payments help you build equity in the house which eventually translates into your net worth.

[winneythepooh7]

I also agree with the posters who said this is very much a personal decision, that is different from person to person.

I am friends with two different couples who live in my area, who are both married, with a ton of $$$ saved in the bank, who are choosing to reside in a "mother-daughter" kind of set-up in the family home to continue to save even more $$$ so they can choose to pay cash for the home of their dreams in an exclusive neighborhood on Long Island.

Everyone is different, and there shouldn't be "competition" and the "compare game" in this very life-altering decision.

I also am friends with a couple who are choosing to rent because they just don't want to deal with all the crap that comes along with being a home-owner. And there is LOTS!!!

[oldmanwinter]

I'm not in a major city, but I I'd like to buy some farmland. A 100 acre farm will set me back about $600,000. And probably another $200,000 to get a decent house on the property. The idea of dropping almost a million dollars on a place to live is scary. I've got some money saved up, but nowhere near that much.

Granted, as long as commodities remain as strong as they are the property will generate some income, but it still won't be enough to cover the mortgage on the place.

I could buy a nice house in town in the $200,000 range, but it doesn't pencil out unless I plan to live there for a long, long time, which I can't see happening. So, I guess I won't be owning any property for a while.

[SpaceMonkey]

I'll never buy property, no matter how expensive or inexpensive the city, unless I am confident that I will spend more than 7-10 years in the same area. At this point in my life, that is a long way off.

[Phoenix212]

I'll buy if I can make a business case for buying.

I don't project that this will happen anytime soon.

Currently I'm out of the market because I suspected that it would drop...

Property is so expensive. Where I live, it's about 350-400K for a mediocre studio apartment.

Cities I am talking about - LA, NYC, Boston, San Francisco

But is everything actually this expensive? Even in NYC, you can probably do better than that price. One development which is advertising on the subway starts in the $160's for a studio. Nor is it a bad neighborhood - it's in Queens, very close to the Roosevelt stop on the E/F/G/R/V and 7 train lines. Granted, if they're advertising on the subway, they might have trouble selling - but then their loss is your gain...

[wordsmith]

I'll never buy property, no matter how expensive or inexpensive the city, unless I am confident that I will spend more than 7-10 years in the same area. At this point in my life, that is a long way off.

Permanence (relative permanence, if not absolute) is big to me, as well. My parents bought and gutted and renovated their home as newlyweds in 1971, and it's where they live today, and where they'll live out their days, barring the necessity of nursing home care, etc. For me, home ownership is for when you're where you're going to be staying (for a good long while, if not lifelong, since living in one place lifelong isn't necessarily as feasible now as it was in my parents' day). I realize that most don't share this view, but it's mine.

[steph78]

Permanence (relative permanence, if not absolute) is big to me, as well. My parents bought and gutted and renovated their home as newlyweds in 1971, and it's where they live today, and where they'll live out their days, barring the necessity of nursing home care, etc. For me, home ownership is for when you're where you're going to be staying (for a good long while, if not lifelong, since living in one place lifelong isn't necessarily as feasible now as it was in my parents' day). I realize that most don't share this view, but it's mine.
I totally share this view. My parents have owned only two houses in their lives, and they were in the same town. One was their first home where they lived for 20-some years including my entire childhood and then they bought a big plot of land in the forest and built their dream home about 10 years ago (just about the time I left home for college, stinkers!) So my husband and I never bought property in Atlanta even though we were there for about 7 years because we always knew we'd be leaving as soon as he finished grad school, it just didn't feel right to buy knowing we wouldn't be staying long. Edit...oh, we were also dirt poor when we were both in grad school! I guess we could have done some sort of shady loan but it worked out better in the end to spend those years saving up a real downpayment.

[wordsmith]

Yeah. "Home" equals someplace I'll be staying for quite some time. At this point, I'm still comfortable in the relative transience of my life, and have no desire to shackle myself to that kind of commitment.

[callyna81]

I'd prefer to buy, because the rental market where I live is appalling (less than 1% vacancy rate). There are stories of 200 people turning up to a rental inspection in other cities not so far away.

But I'm priced out of the market, which is a shame - an apartment would be absolutely fine, I don't need a house

[erika36]

Where I live, there's no way I can afford to buy, unless I win the lottery or a million dollars happens to fall out of the sky and onto my head:heehee:

[gemma-dahl]

When I'm older, I'd like to move to the West Coast, where property is hella expensive. I have never wanted to own property and probably never will. The "tied to one place" and "constant maintenance" factors are just really, really unappealing.

If this were the 1950s, where you had one job for life and your gold watch, perhaps I'd re-consider. But there is just nothing about home ownership that appeals to me.

[wordsmith]

Being able to build on and make improvements appeals to me; it's the carpenter's daughter in me. But that's pretty much it, at this point, and that one perk doesn't weigh out the cons.

[stephly21]

Me and my fiance just moved a couple year ago from the midwest to the west coast where we definitely see things are more expensive out here, including homes. If we moved back to the midwest we could probably afford a house, but then again we would be back home surrounded by farmlands. We decided that even though we will be renting in this area for a while we would rather be in the area we are now because we enjoy the life we live here. It is all how you look at things. I want to eventually own some land but in the long run enjoying my life now is just as important to me as later in life. I wouldn't be able to enjoy myself if I moved back to the midwest.

[AshleyJordan]

I don't plan to buy right at this moment, because my rent is very low (splitting a cheap one-bedroom in a gentrifying neighborhood has its perks), and because I want to see where my career and the real estate market go over the past few years. However, I do definitely plan to buy in the next few years.

I nearly bought a couple of years ago, and am glad I didn't. While there were some very nice apartments that I could've afforded, I think that a big financial commitment like homeownership would've limited my options in other areas of my life (travel, career exploration, etc.,) and I think that having a few more years to do that is very helpful. Also, at the time I was looking, the difference between my rent and a mortgage payment would've have been minimal-- practically non-existent after the tax benefits. My housing is now much cheaper (see above,) and so any mortgage payment would be about 3* more than I'm paying in rent, even after the tax benefits. . .so for now it's better for me to save that $. In a year or two, who knows. My answer might be different.
:)

[gemma-dahl]

Being able to build on and make improvements appeals to me; it's the carpenter's daughter in me. But that's pretty much it, at this point, and that one perk doesn't weigh out the cons.

I wouldn't mind renovations myself; I love wordwork and am quite handy with it. I just dig the fact that if my toilet leaks, the landlord buys me a new one, that sort of thing.

[wordsmith]

I have zero interest in being responsible for maintenance, lawn care, snow removal, etc. myself, at this point. Although I would love to have a garden, without having to go quite a ways to a community garden.

[wordsmith]

but then again we would be back home surrounded by farmlands.

See, and to me, this is heaven. I've been a lot of places, seen a lot of things, but this type of setting is home.

[winneythepooh7]

We are fairly new homeowners and we just discovered a ton of MOLD growing in the basement. This is going to be FUN cleaning up this weekend. I am sure it's related to the humidity here, and living fairly close to the water, but it's not something I expected to wake up and discover practically overnight. We have to run to Home Depot later to buy a dehumidifier and the other general clean-up stuff. We also will have to consult a plumber and who knows who else.


Not to mention on top of the $$$$$ we have already budgeted renovating our Master bedroom already in progress. LOVE the unexpected expenses of being a homeowner!!!