House dreaming

[frausensei]

Ich traeume von einem Haus ... von unserem eigenen Haus, das wir endlich kaufen koennen, anstatt immer nur Miete zu zahlen. Erik und ich reden schon seit Jahren darueber, aber er hat immer Einwaende, von wegen es sei zu gefaehrlich: Was ist, wenn wir eine Hypothek aufnehmen und dann der eine oder andere von uns seine Arbeit (und damit das

Comments

[aryanhwy]

Yeah, this. I think Joel and I are getting a great deal with the house that we're renting. If anything major goes seriously wrong, we can call the landlady and let her deal with it, and in the meantime we've essentially been given cartblanche to do minor improvements (which makes Joel happy, because when things are done shoddily it bothers me and he knows how to fix them generally) and redecorate as we desire.

Of course, we do still hope to own someday, but for the time being, renting is pretty cushy.

[frausensei]

Fair enough. Personally, I would be really interested in learning how to take care of a house - partly because our current landlord isn't very good at it. Not that I know more than he does, but if I were living in a house that I owned, I'd *care* more than he does, and go to the trouble of learning how to fix it.

I'm not a fan of snow shoveling, it's true. But lately, driving by other people raking leaves in their yards, I wished we could have a yard so I could rake leaves too! (There is a yard here, but our downstairs neighbor uses a leaf blower instead.)

[arebekah]

I also own a condo and honestly, I never want a house for exactly the reasons mentioned by scout1222, along with not being interested in dealing with snow removal, gardening, etc...

Having a mortgage also ties one to a place. The mortgage is one of the things that keeps me where I am. Without a mortgage, I would have the option to get into a roommate situation again, which would greatly reduce my living costs and allow more flexibility with geographic locations for school/job options. I don't regret my condo, I love it, but it constricts my choices (along with my healthcare needs, my support network and some other factors).

[metallicearth]

This, too. I have two coworkers will nice houses who were trying to move...and couldn't. Both of them had their homes on the market for over two years, and never even got one offer. It's a good thing that it was a "want" to sell instead of "need" to sell for relocation purposes.

Another coworker that NEEDED to sell...she and her husband just stopped paying on their house, and waited until they were foreclosed upon, as they also put their house up, and had nothing happen for over a year.

[frausensei]

Fair enough ... but now is supposed to be the time to buy, because how much lower can things be expected to go? We keep hearing people on the news all the time, complaining about what desperate straits they are in due to being laid off, saying things like "We (almost) lost our home!" - and all I can think is, well, you're still better off than I am; I have never yet had the good fortune to own a home at all.

[sundra]

Das frage ich mich immer, wie kann man nicht ein eigenes Haus haben wollen? Ein Eigenheim ist doch etweas ganz wunderbares, und davon würde ich auch noch träumen wenn ich genau wüsste daß ich es mir nie leisten könnte. Irgendwann möchte ich auch hier raus, mein eigenes Haus haben, wo ich tun und lassen kann was ich will, wo ich laute Musik hören kann, mitten in der Nacht, wo ich Partys machen kann ohne daß sich jemand beschwert.
Allerdings gibts diesen Traum auch ganz häufig hier in Deutschland.

Darf ich fragen wie teuer Häuser bei euch sind? Ich habe da ja absolut keinerlei Erfahrung. Wenn sie günstiger sind, dann komm ich rüber :D

[frausensei]

Das ist eine sehr grosse Frage. Natürlich gibt es alle möglichen Preise, je nachdem, wo in Amerika und was für ein Haus du kaufen willst. Wir suchen eins mit drei Schlafzimmern und zwei Bädern. Hier in Minneapolis gibt's das so zwischen $100,000 und $300,000, glaube ich. Wir können nicht über $150,000 gehen.

[anonymous]

People above are so hitting on reasons I have. I do not have a family, it's just me..so perhaps that would be a bit different, but

[metallicearth]

People above are so hitting on reasons I have. I do not have a family, it's just me..so perhaps that would be a bit different, but

[frausensei]

Yes, since having Cecily my desire for a house has increased by orders of magnitude. I want a space that is just ours, that doesn't have some other people's family members coming over to visit and parking in the driveway (for example). I really, really want a garage. (This duplex has a two-car garage, but the space in it is taken up by the landlord (on the one hand) and our downstairs neighbors (in return for them taking care of the yard and shoveling the walks, etc). So our family has no access to a garage and, hence, we have to spend the whole winter scraping ice off our car windows every morning before work. Being able to park indoors shouldn't make such a big difference, but since being back here in the frozen North, it does.

[metallicearth]

Not that it's remotely hard to find a 2-car garage, but you'd be amazed how many houses here in the "frozen North" have only a 1-car or no garage. The house my Sister in law was living in in LaCrosse when she met my bro had NO garage, so they both parked outside. And now, their new house has a ONE car attached garage. Luckily the previous owners built another garage a bit down the driveway, so the other care can also be covered.

Good thing...when they have a quarter mile driveway that includes a hill that they'll have to clear off. Less car-scraping time to take away from snow-clearing time!