Buying a Home in USA

Not true in every case.

Our monthly mortgage payment (including association fees) is lower than the rental value. If I had rented similar unit in our community, I would have paid atleast $200 dollars more. Actually, I came to our present community looking for a rental unit (due to school district), then doing the math we found buying better than renting here. PS: We brought when housing market was doing bad.

 

Some of the common monthly costs for a home ownership are:
1. Homeowners Insurance
2. Utilities (Electricity, Water, Gas, Garbage)
3. If your house is located within a community you have to pay Homeowner Association fee called HOA
4. If you have a lawn you have to maintain that.
5. During winter if you get snow you have to clean the pathways.

These are the typical cost. Do not pay a huge down payment pay only 20% down.

 

OP you got a lot of great info here. I bought a home 5 years ago as a single gal and it was a very smooth process. We are getting ready to put our current home on the market as we are ready to move up but this time my husband is helping me realize my dream of going the whole nine yards of buying a piece of land and hiring architects and building a forever home. I have been researching and talking to a lot of architects and builders and learned a lot about the building process- from roofing to siding to house plans to everything in between.

But coming to buying a first home, some things to keep in mind:

1. Be conservative and buy a home that you are super comfortable paying for. And have at least 20% down. In addition, also keep in mind you need to bring money for closing costs.

2. Location location location- Great school district and quite street with easy access to work and other amenities. Must for home to hold value and for resale.

3. Many joys of home ownership but some costs too- Real estate taxes, insurance, upkeep- yard , repairs etc. Buy hey, you get some of the interest back when you file your taxes

4. Find a good agent who can guide you. The agent will walk you through the necessary steps- home inspection, termite and radon inspection etc, putting in an offer including comparatives so you can come up with fair price because if you low ball, most sellers will not entertain further offers from you.

Hope that helps.

 

Here are some of personal experiences and thoughts:

1. I am by nature not a fan of large homes because of the maintenance and up keep. I am more attracted to small simple cute homes with just enough rooms but a nice garden. Today we live in a townhome.

2. We live in Chicago weather which means round the year maintenance - mow your lawn in summer, rake your leaves in fall, and plow your snow in winter. Both of us have hectic jobs and we decided we would not be able to do this, hence a townhome with paid monthly maintenance.

3. Some lessons we learnt AFTER buying the house is the whopping property area taxes depending on where you buy and the zillion maintenance fees. Many forget these costs when they buy a house, especially do not study the taxes in the area they are buying.

4. Initially, I was very excited to furnish my townhome - felt like a blank canvas. Typical male that he is, my husband was least enthusiastic and was just calculating mortgage payments and refinance plans. We used to have fights, arguments, tears, heated debates and today after some years, I finally have a nice looking furnished townhome.

5. But the irony is in all these years we may have had a max of 1 visitor. The maintenance guys comment on my table cloth or curtains - thats it. No one to enjoy this with, no one to share, no one to compliment. So finally, i am tired of appreciating my own table cloths and curtains.

6. Then, we have no kids, no pets, so just two of us in a townhome - as we are getting older we are starting to feel that there is "too much distance between us" in the home - since the living area is so big. We think if this were an apartment there would be more proximity, more sharing, more conversation. We cannot but help feel that the place may be a bit too big for the two of us.

7. If you have read this forum, you see many women complaining of how quiet and lonely it is here in the US. Now, it is even more so when you live in a home unless you have friendly neighbors who mingle with you. We don't. So I cannot but help feel that if I were in an apartment I am sure I would have at the very least made some Hi-Bye acquaintances or familiar faces - here not even that.

8. Now for the most important point - we eventually talk of going back to India. So of late, we have been feeling that all our money is going towards these mortgage payments, if we lived in a simple one or two bedroom apartment we would have more savings to invest in India as well as set aside to retire in India.

9. With both of us having hectic careers, career-oriented, and ambitious, being rooted and tied down with a mortgage can have its disadvantages in that relocation becomes difficult. In fact, I compromised and took up a job here since he could not move because of his job and mortgage. Definitely something to think about because in our younger years we tend to be more ambitious and move around a lot.

Hope any of this helps.

 

exactly said.... with house I guess being our own we plan to buy this and that and finally end up buying a lot more than allowed...

 

cj1980, good decision, it is wise to be cash rich and house poor than house rich cash poor..

 

Of course I wouldn't dream of saying this is the case everywhere. A lot depends on the neighborhood, school system, proximity to roads/railway, etc. We initially thought it is better to buy a home instead of renting, thinking the mortgage will be the same/less than our rent. Having talked to a lot of friends who are homeowners, we came to know that the cost of home ownership is not just the mortgage + condo fees! Utilities, repairs, maintenance, property taxes, insurance, 'setting up' the home, and so on came into play and we discovered that we would actually end up paying $300-$400 more than a rental home. In addition, selling a home also incurs a high closing cost, which didn't make it a great investment option either!

Our neighborhood is one of the safest around and has excellent schools...therefore a premium on real estate. We have decided to wait a bit and watch the market, cushion ourselves with some liquid cash, and then see how it goes

 

The real-estate industry in US is same like in India, there is lot of fraud. Buying a plat in US is different from India. A builder cannot sell a plat if the plat does not have all the utilities and access roads done so your builder might be right but he might also want to sell what he has now and sell the phase 3 later. If you get an agent and ask the agent to contact the builder then you might get a fair answer from the builder.

 

Building a home is fun if you like doing it, get as much money as allowance from the builder and do not go for a construction loan if possible, ask the builder to build the house and buy the house from the builder when it is completed.