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Rent got crazy...
I had a 3 bedroom apartment for $1,800/mo.
After extensive work from home prior and during covid, I banked $30,000 cash and bought a 3 bedroom house in 10/21.
My mortgage is just over $2,000/mo. counting insurance.
My old apartment is now $2,300/mo.
I refinanced during the pandemic and went from a 30 year to a 15 year and my mortgage didn’t change. If I tried to take out a mortgage now, it would be too expensive for me, just because of interest rates. It’s a terrible time for housing
I'm in the same exact boat. I'm glad we got lucky, but you shouldn't have to get lucky to fulfill basic needs like housing. Shits busted and I hope it gets better for others soon.
Exactly the same here, we were renting up until 2018 at 900$CAD/month. Our mortgage is 950$CAD/month and our old apartment is now 1200$CAD/month. All expenses included, it's s more expensive to rent than to own.
First time buyers can't hardly get a mortgage now unless you were stashing cash or staying at your parents' for a while.
"You will own nothing and fuck you it doesn't even matter if you're happy anymore you suckers can't do shit about it."
Just checked local rentals (Boston Metro West area), cheapest 3 bedroom here in my town is $2,400 a month with only hot water included. That particular complex is a roach infested pisshole.
The luxury apartments they insist on building around here are minimum $3,200 and go up to $3,500+ with again, only hot water included.
Cheapest 1 bedroom available on apartments.com is $1,800 (again only water included) and is a converted attic. You could also rent a room in some else's house for about $900-1,200 a month off Facebook marketplace.
It's fucking insanity
City governments are like “but developers pay us for the privilege of putting up the luxury buildings, win-win, right?!” and miss that it doesn’t house any of the population that needs it. I’d rather directly build public housing with my taxes.
I got a VA loan and didn't need a down payment. Only took a couple years for rent to surpass my mortgage, but I wouldn't have been able to save the down payment with ever increasing rent.
For profit lending has always been fucking shit up, that's why Christians forbid it for centuries. (But only if the borrower was Christian)
Of course wealthy Christians just didn't lend money rather than lend it interest free, but it was still better than letting an 18 year old sign up for 80k in debt it'll take their whole lives to pay back.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that a similar, perhaps in some ways better system exists to this day in the world of Islamic finance. It's far from perfect and has plenty of real-world flaws and downfalls, but it was cool to learn about the spirit and morality behind it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_banking_and_finance
I'm pretty sure Islam split when Christians still couldn't charge interest.
It'd be kind of neat how the Abrahamic religions evolved if there werent so many people killing each other because they support the exact same god in slightly different ways.
Lucky you.
I was paying $3k in rent (high COL area in Seattle) and banked 60k and bought a house with a $3k PITI. Even Stevens.
Now my PITI is $3400 with insurance and property tax hikes.
Now that apartment is renting for $2900.
Youre banking 3k+/month into your asset now instead of paying someone elses off. You are making money every month instead of losing it. That alone should make you grin at the price difference.
The deep level of stability and control you get with home ownership should keep that grin going.
The fact, the utter fact, that Seattle rents will return to outpacing your mortgage shortly is something that should make you don clown makeup to begin a Harlequin dance of joy that you own a home in such a high COL area.
Not really. I’m banking the better part of $3k a month into the interest I’m paying on the loan.
That said, I e gotten to do all the smart home shit I’ve ever wanted and lots of projects that have been really fun. And that puts a grin on my face.
Except for the fact that over the first 10 years of the loan, nearly 90% of that payment goes to interest. Amortization and front loaded interest is a bastard. With property tax and insurance, a $500k house will cost about $1.5MM over the life of the loan.
Not trying to dissuade anyone from home ownership, it’s just not as cut and dry as it may seem.