Bought my first home right at the end of low interest rates. I wasn’t planning on staying but I can’t afford to move now.
Yeah just to refinance my current mortgage with the current interest rates would raise my monthly expenses the cost of renting an apartment.
Any reason why you can’t rent out your current home and rent something else where you want to move to?
That way you could keep building equity with your low interest rates and sell when it makes more sense.
I know that requires being a landlord, but the current market also seems to require some creativity.
Sold high, bought low. New house went up 150k in 10 months. Refinanced at 2.7 and locked it in. It’s our forever home so I’m feeling pretty good about it. We took the profit from the last house and paid off all our debt and invested the rest into the new place.
This is to the letter what we did! Congratulations!
Bought in Dec of 2020. I guess we’re never moving…
Bought in May 2020. Same boat bud.
I know quite a few people in the same boat as you who have rented out their home with a low-interest mortgage and rent something else where they needed to go until it makes more sense to jump back in the market.
I think this a dilemma many, if not most, homeowners will face down the road. What to do with that mortgage from 2020-21.
We bought at what I thought was the peak, was sure we were overpaying, and mortgage as high as we can manage when tax & insurance figured in.
Since then, prices in the neighborhood have doubled, and houses are being torn down and replaced with two homes on the same lot, enormous houses small yards. Always crazy expensive ones.
I don’t like any of this. Don’t think it makes sense. The utility of a house can’t be more than the prevailing wage in an area can pay, so we’d all be better off with lower housing prices. Sure, our house is valued at 2x what we initially paid (we have since made improvements so maybe even more) but it does nothing for us. Same house. They are way over valued here.
Great rate. Glad I bought when I did.
I think I closed in December 2019
My house is literally one of a kind. On the national historic registry and also recognized by the city. Two cute bronze plaques attached to the front near the door. It’s a Tutor Revival that has been kept in its original state almost religiously.
It’s my favorite house I have ever seen so I’m lucky. Looking at it is just awe inspiring… It’s actually awesome
It sounds awesome but I would personally hate living in a home like that as you’re not allowed to do anything to it and any repairs have to be done in a specific (and more expensive) way. It’s like living in an HOA on steroids.
That’s not really the case. The street view is what is supposed to stay the same. But it isn’t really anything binding.
Bought in 2020 and locked in 2.65%. It’s a bit of a fixer upper due to the previous home owners’ neglect. About $60k in repairs and improvements so far has it feeling more and more like a home. The house value has risen more than I put into it.
My wife and I say almost weekly how bad we feel for others and how lucky we were. The timing was impeccable. Cashed out our 401k, used covid relief checks, and went from a 600sq ft cabin on family property to a 2k+ sq home we owned.
Super, super lucky.
You were extremely lucky with that interest. Congrats! What are you both planning/doing for retirement now? Are you going to try to max your contributions to make up for cashing out?
Absolutely lucky. Thanks!
We increased our contributions to what we can afford and went from $0 in 2020 to $52k now. Just keeping on keeping on.
Trying to pay down all other outstanding debt (car, solar loan) higher than what we can make back through other investments. My wife has a job that will match 7% after a vesting period, so we’re waiting for that nice bump to really figure things out from there.
Wife and I bought Nov 2021. Locked in at 3.25%. Bought a good house in a decent neighborhood. Feel great about it.
Stole the place.
I bought in Feb 2022 and holy shit did I sneak in at the end.
Bought mine in March of 2020. Equity on my house is now like $150k and my interest is 3%. Dont want to move but need a bigger house now.
Bought in 2019 at 3.75, refinanced to 2.5 in… 2020 or 2021.
It was supposed to be a 3 or 5 year home. Now, we can’t afford to sell it. It’s small, which was great at the time, but we need more space now. But there’s no room on the lot to add on.
The current plan is to build a shed and move my office into it if we need that room for anything.
Can you rent out your current home and rent something more suitable for yourself until it makes sense to jump back in the market?
Many homeowners are becoming “accidental landlords” these days because of this peculiar situation.
I probably could, but I don’t really want to be a landlord. Some moral feelings there, but honestly it’s more about the business/bureaucracy side of things. I just don’t want to deal with it.
I understand. If you don’t want to deal with the business side of things, you could have a property management company do it. They usually take 8-10 percent of the rental price. But then you don’t really have to do anything.
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Relieved, honestly. I feel terrible for my friends that are still in the hunt
It’s technically our second place and it’s bigger, newer, but needs a bit of updating.
It’s not everything we wanted and between closing costs, moving costs, the exhaustion of moving and adjusting to the move I don’t think we’re going to do it again before we’re priced out of the thing we want.
We were hedging against either a bigger market correction or a bigger price explosion. Instead we just got weird global stress and fatigue.
We bought in August of 2020 and paid a little less than the previous homeowner paid in 2013. Locked in at 2.75% interest on the mortgage and pay today about $500 more than we did for our apartment rent right before we bought.
The house we bought has two stories but would allow for single floor living as we age. We might move to something smaller when that time comes though.
All in all we feel pretty great and absolutely love our house! It’s on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River and we call it our treehouse.
