An option for me to buy a house has come up very suddenly and it seemed like a good idea at first - but I look at a mortgage and think “that’s 15 years I’ll spend paying back, at absolute minimum. Probably more like 25 years” - how can I possibly plan that far in advance?
So, how did you feel about getting a mortgage and seeing such a serious commitment stretch so far into the future? I’m mainly talking about the emotional side of things rather than financial
I bought 2.5 years ago so its still pretty fresh. It was very scary but I knew it was the right lifestyle choice for me. I had lived in my city for 5 years at the time and felt pretty confident (still do) that I want to stay local long term. Just like in all American cities, rents were rising fast.
It felt like I was overpaying at the time because of how much housing prices had risen the 5 years before, but a few months after closing I felt relieved and validated when interest rates jumped to 6%.
The good news is you don’t need to. You can do the math to discover how many years you need to own a property in your local area to break even against renting: https://www.nerdwallet.com/mortgages/rent-vs-buy-calculator
You can always sell a house you still have a mortgage on and use your equity to buy something else: https://www.zillow.com/learn/what-happens-when-you-sell-a-house-with-a-mortgage/ The downside to selling a house isn’t the mortgage paperwork, its paying all the fees to brokers and banks to market the property and process the sale.
And finding somewhere to live in the inbetween if the times dont line up can be costly.