I just wanted to throw this out there for anyone currently, or potentially in the near future, buying a house.
Clicking on the link above will take you to an interactive New York Times article to help you figure out whether you should buy or rent right now.
You plug in numbers such as your current monthly rent and you can get an idea of how long you need to live in your house before the savings overcome what you pay in rent.
The general rule for the longest time has been to only buy a house if you plan on staying in it for at least 5 years.
I personally have been in my house for over 5 years now and I would have a hard time saying it was worth it over the option to rent.
Of course, we all know how hard the housing industry was hit when we entered the recession.
In any case, you should go to the website, plug in the numbers, and see what works for you…
My new rule for myself is that I will only buy a house if I plan on staying in it for a very long time. For me that would be 10 years or more.
Many factors go into this decision such as career ambitions, family planning, and just the general uncertainty of the future.
For most of recent history about the same number of people have owned homes as rented them. Whatever you choose you are practically in the majority! 😉
So use tools such as this one to aid you in the decision, then don’t look back. As long as you have thought things through, the decision should prove to be a beneficial one for you. And your life will be better for it…
To me, it’s all about what financial position you are in, if you are in a relatively good financial position most of the time I would say its best to just go ahead and buy. In the long run you are gonna be so much better off with purchasing a home as opposed to renting. Offcourse you can’t just buy any home.. you definitely gotta do your research and if you do it right, most of the time buying in my opinion is going to be better.
Till then,
Jean
Hi Jeremy, I actually like that calculator app that you linked to. For me though in my opinion if you are in a good financial position most of the time you’re gonna be better off buying a home. If you do the research properly, I believe in the long run especially you are going to be way better off by purchasing a home. I know times have been tough lately in the housing market but the prices of the houses are going to go back up again. And plus if you are buying a house you are paying for something that you own, and historically prices have always gone up!!
Till then,
Jean
PS: Sorry if this is a double comment, I tried leaving one before.. but it went to an error page.