Any update on your thoughts? I'm also 27 and starting to think about buying in the greater Boston area. Price range would be ~$600k for ~1500 sqft and hopefully 1-2 car garage. I live alone in a small apartment for $1700 and my girlfriend lives in a smaller apartment with a roommate for $1350. We could put down 5% and pay PMI for the maximum amount of time and still come out ahead right now, let alone in the future as rent prices increase.
The only thing that makes me hesitate is we may move away from the area in 2-4 years, at least temporarily. My idea is that we wouldn't sell the house, since property here is scarce and valuable and IMO always will be, but we will rent it out while we're off on some adventure living somewhere else and keep it to move back into later.
Its one thing to own and another thing to landlord. Can this property pull rents that pay the expenses and even make you some money? Do you have a good lease and maybe a lawyer to review it? Are you ready to deal with tenant emergencies, from afar? Do you have a reliable plumber and other good tradesmen that you can call on? Are you able to evict someone even in the worst of circumstances e.g. a family with children at xmas? Do you understand all the tax implications surrounding this situation?
Any update on your thoughts? I'm also 27 and starting to think about buying in the greater Boston area. Price range would be ~$600k for ~1500 sqft and hopefully 1-2 car garage. I live alone in a small apartment for $1700 and my girlfriend lives in a smaller apartment with a roommate for $1350. We could put down 5% and pay PMI for the maximum amount of time and still come out ahead right now, let alone in the future as rent prices increase.
The only thing that makes me hesitate is we may move away from the area in 2-4 years, at least temporarily. My idea is that we wouldn't sell the house, since property here is scarce and valuable and IMO always will be, but we will rent it out while we're off on some adventure living somewhere else and keep it to move back into later.
My thoughts remain the same so far. Im saving for the biggest purchase of my life, which most likely at this time is a house. Property values are going up by a good amount here and houses are getting more pricier by the day. $77k is alot of money to throw down, but i want to move forward with it because i hope it it will pay off (no pun intended) I just hope im not making the wrong decision, and i feel like im not.
OP is going to buy a 3500 custom home, all for himself? I would look into something that could become investment rental property for when he finally meets someone and they decide to buy a place together.
Typically people buy a house in a specific area for good schools. That's ultimately what drives a lot of families to be where they are. In my opinion, if you don't have this motivating factor, you're better off waiting until you do. Because obviously it's not just the cost of the house you're paying... closing costs, interest, home maintenance & upgrades, and of course taxes from here on out. You don't want to be facing the decision to move again when it comes time to put kids in school, if you can help it.
Also keep in mind the avg number of years a family spends in one house is 7-8 years. We had no plan to move, but it turns out we moved from our starter house after 7 years. Kids came and we moved because of schools & storage space. Like many, we only bought the starter house because we were starting our lives together and had to move out of our parents'. If your SO isn't a factor either, I would suggest you save your money until later.
You mention marriage and kids soon, but you only mention your money. Wouldn't you have even more money combined at that point to make a better decision especially for future-proofing (ie. bigger house and better school district)? It sounds like you want to jump on this now because it's a good deal and [prices are going up by the day]. This is not the way to make such a big decision especially if you're not up against the wall to do so.