owning a house

[theicecreamdan]

How much does it actually cost to own a house?

I'm getting ready to move out again with a different set of roommates and I'm starting to realize how pointless it is to pay rent. So I'm curious about how much it actually costs to get into a house, mortgage etc, and whether or not its possible for a group of college students to put together the money to take on such an endeavor.

I think if I were to actually figure out that most of the ownership is possible I might be able to get some money from family to get a down payment.

Im mostly curious about southern california, but I put this in off-topic because I would like to know about other areas as well.

[nistech]

i wonder if the house prices in OC ever gonna go down

[ALTRNTV]

^

I doubt it. I'm planning on getting an apartment in the OC next year. High rent prices here I come.

To the subject at hand, just be sure you'll be able to pay your monthly mortgage payments. My friends and I were going to rent a house, but I'm sure it's alot different owning one.

[redsuns3838]

ice cream dan, ur better off buying a house urself, putting # down and cramming ppl in there to rent it so that the house pays for itself or atleast u only hav 500 a month to pay on the mortgage after the rent is recieved. co-owning shit with other ppl sucks...cuz it can get messy later on.
a house for 700 large at 7% on a 30 yr loan, ur paying a lil over 2000 a month for the next 30 yrs. that aint that bad if ur renting 2-3 rooms out.


akademikone- prices in OC arent that high. i rent a room for 500 in a house. and my friend rents a room in a brand new remodeled house for 300. u get wut u pay for tho. 1800 a month gets u a double with a gated community and a garage, swimming pool, gym, in irvine. 300 gets u room in a house with no lease, no garage or gates, and located in the hood. just depend if u wanna be picky or not.

[ALTRNTV]

I want covered parking though in a gated apartment complex. Sorry to thread-jack, haha.

[SilviaNinja240]

When I used to live in San Francisco my neighbor sold his house for 1.6 million in the sunset. 2 story flat with 10 rooms total (unstairs and downstairs + bathrooms on both floors + garage), a typical house on the avanues.

I think the best bet is to learn to enjoy nature and move to like the dakotas and buy a 3 story, 30 room house for $300,000

[Edgar]

I just recently bought my condo here in Indy and I have 2 other roomies and its not that bad comes to be around 500 a person plus food.
I go out and eat alot so I spend a little more with the girl.
Real Estate is going up like crazy around here!

[Romeyo07]

Depending on your credit and house value will determine how much you will pay. That is probably 80% of the reason why I moved from Florida to Georgia. I can get the same house I would get in Florida for half the cost.

[rainier]

hey simoun, you wanan move to the OC? what about the Irvine/Santa Ana area? ill hook you up with a good price for a room in my condo. yeah? haha i wanna make some extra money anyways. you can take the other side of my garage. so ull be safe.



but back to the topic, i bought my condo for 300,000 from an aunt last year. and my neighbor sold her piece of shit condo for 42x,000. you better buy soon. this shit is still going up.

[ALTRNTV]

hey simoun, you wanan move to the OC? what about the Irvine/Santa Ana area? ill hook you up with a good price for a room in my condo. yeah? haha i wanna make some extra money anyways. you can take the other side of my garage. so ull be safe.

More like the Fullerton or Cerritos area. It's cool. Me and my friends are gonna get an apartment anyways. :coold:

[exitspeed]

I just bought my first home. Just closed on Fri as a matter of fact. It is a wise decision to buy a home. It's an asset not a liability like a new car or something. It will make you money in the long run. I'm in a really hot market here, though the homes here are less then in Cali and not quite as elaborate. But EVER buy a home with other people unless you are married to them. It's a bad move!

BTW I just bought a 3 bdrm, 2bath ,1800 sq ft ranch with an exposed basement on a half acre in a subdivsion in New Berlin WI for $225,000. I'm sure a home like this would be waay more in Cali, but I know a home like this would be waaay less in say GA.

[Ritz S14]

Ugh. Trying to buy a house in the Bayarea, with 20% down. Trying to get it done in 7 years.. haha Almost seems impossible. But I'll see what happens.

[theicecreamdan]

fuck... I need to get a down payment together, :-(

[axiomatik]

...
BTW I just bought a 3 bdrm, 2bath ,1800 sq ft ranch with an exposed basement on a half acre in a subdivsion in New Berlin WI for $225,000. I'm sure a home like this would be waay more in Cali, but I know a home like this would be waaay less in say GA.

Home prices in the midwest kick ass. This year I bought a brand new 2800 sq.ft. 4 bedroom/3 bath ranch with a finished, walkout basement, 3-car garage, etc. for just $225k. If I still lived in Phoenix, it would have cost twice as much.

But to get back on topic and stop bragging, credit score and amount you can put down make a big difference on your monthly payment. Put as much down as you can, and don't forget about closing costs. As mentioned above, do not buy with someone you're not married to because it's a legal mess, but make sure you trust your roommates to pay each month. I know a guy who was renting a 5 bedroom apartment here in Iowa City for $2000/mo (it was an awesome place, top floor of an old converted library, he had a massive dome over his living room), but he kept getting deadbeat roommates who didn't pay, leaving him to foot the rent.

Buying a house is a great idea, you build equity that can be used towards your next home, and the ineterest is tax-deductable (assuming you itemized deductions are greater than the standard deduction). Don't forget about the cost of maintenance, though.

[mixedwell]

im glad u guys brought this up. im looking to get into my 1st home by sometime next year. my mom is a teacher/realtor/loan officer. so she has lots of good advice. some advice to you so cali's (sorry dont know much bout out of state) you can get into a mentor program. u basically have mentally disabled patients living in ur house and government pays you a minimum of like $3,000/mo per head. 2 patients in your house and ur monthly payments are 0. Hire somebody to take care of them, pay them 1500 a month, (u know u can do find somebody for even less), they get free food, a free place to live. i know it sounds weird or even scary but its not for ever. lets say these "patients" are paying ur house for 2 or 3 years or watever, 0 cost to u monthly. in 2 or 3 years, ur equity has skyrocketed (thanks to so cal weather,demographics,inflation) and u can either refi or sell and move to a new home w/o the patients. theres more to it, but it can be done. look into it. good luck to all u guys tryin to find a place of ur own.

[Yoshi]

I bought my first house a year ago next month :)
I put nothing down, got a good APR still (yay for credit unions), on an 80/20. My biggest expendature was renting hte Uhaul. As long as you have good credit and low revolving debt, you should be able to get a house no prob (as long as you have a steady job). Go see a loan officer, they're always helpful, even if you're just in the prelim stages, they can pre-approve you for X amount of $, so you know the ballpark you can afford.

I figured I'd not be able to afford a house more than 120k or so, but you have a big advantage as a first time buyer with other loan options u don't get later in life. I was actually approved for almost twice that, so if u meet the pre-reqs above, you can get much more than you'd think, I sure did (but opted to find a happy medium so I could have some $ for car toys :P hehee). Get as much as you can while you can, before the bubble bursts.

[ZK]

I'd be happy to get a condo here in San Francisco. $500K buys you a 1 bedroom condo - this is no luxury place and doesn't include parking.

Saving up the 100K down.. now that's a feat.

[theicecreamdan]

they couldnt be that hard to take care of,,, but like when you can afford to take care of your own house, how do you get rid of them?

[240meowth]

ha ha! just covered this yesterday in my finance class.

average housing in LA county is 600k, it is a good idea to pay a 20% down payment or else you will have to buy some kind of insurance that the loan company requires you to buy. In an event where you can't pay the loan company gets all the money back, so basically this insurance dosn't benefit you what-so-ever.

Apprently interest rate just went up, and when we did the calculation in class yesterday it was better to go with a 30 year fixed loan than it is to go with a 5/1 ARM. But personally, if I can I'd do 15 year fixed, you save a shitload of money.


So, to simplify things, to afford a 500k home, you need to put 100k down, and the monthly payment would be in the high 3k's if you do a 15 year fixed, and low 3k's if you do a 30 year fixed, and mid 3k's if you do 5/1 ARM. All these calculation is done on a 2 point scale (baiscally you have to pay 2% of the total value in the end).

[axiomatik]

Mortgage companies have been a lot more lenient on the 20% down in recent years, you're much less likely to have to pay mortgage insurance anymore, cuz chances are, you won't be able to raise $100k. Yes, a 15-year fixed will save loads of money over the long run, and if you can swing the bigger payments, you'll end up with more equity, but if you're not planning on owning the house a real long time, just go with the 30-yr.

[chuy]

I bought one in Colorado right outside of Colorado Springs for $160,00 2car garage,2baths, 2bed, and a den ranch style house cant remeber how many feet I stayed there for 3 days and went to Iraq. Its far better to buy then rent my mortgage is $900 plus utilites I was paying 850 for 2bed,1bath and a car port.

Also you might get lucky and find one were someone is just trying to get out for cheap in the area. Something to look at though ask questions, your relator agent should be able to take care of a lot of stuff they get paid depending on the contract that you sign, only if you buy a house.