Oh absolutely, Nutty. I didn't mean to say otherwise. I was going straight back to Gus's assertion last night. He was saying it was financially smarter to rent and save, and buy outright (I think) than to mortgage. I dispute that where a house is concerned. I'm less sure that I would dispute it, where a condo is concerned--that is to say, if you did end up making out on the condo in the long run, I think it would still be less than you could make out on a single family home.
Condos are, I think, generally a little more sensitive to the market than houses are. I don't think investment is the reason to buy a home (house or condo) that you're going to occupy, either. It might be one of the reasons, depending on how you rank the intangibles.
I'm never going to own a house, am I?
Hey, if it's any consolation, our plan is to buy a building that can be converted to a theater and build an apartment somewhere in the building. I don't think we'll ever own a house-house either.
You could probably own one in Eastern Washington now. The question is, will you own a house in a place you'd actaully want to live?
They were starting at about $650K then.
It would be hard to find a house for sale at that price in my zip code. There are some houses that cost that much or more, but very few. Probably all of them are the gated golf community or on large acreages.
I could get a condo in my neighborhood that's about the size of my current apartment (~550 sq. ft.) for ~150k. Which isn't that bad, considering it's a nice, established, middle-class neighborhood that's a 15 minute drive from RTP (ie, where many of the jobs are). So you might think that I'd be a fool a) not to buy and b) to be job hunting elsewhere.
But then, if I mention to you that I'm trying to get back into teaching for the considerable increase in salary that would entail . . .
I think I shall live in a Zeppelin and roam the earth.
I hear you can get a hydrogen filled one cheap.
Make sure it's filled with helium!
I am very pro people buying places together - with friends and shit. Iknow some friends in CO who did it. They had a contract drawn up between them wehere the other one would be offered right of first refusal should either want to sell and it allowed them both to build up equity until they could each afford their own place. Certainly not the plan for everyone (and not a situation that co-op board like mine would go for), but it worked for them and I thought it was a great alternative.
Make sure it's filled with helium!
And then phone us regularly.
