We rent, partly because of the high cost of child care!
Also we couldn't find a place that we liked on the budget that we can afford...
How about you: do you own or rent?
-
We rent. We live in the Bay Area and it's not as expensive as New York, but some areas are close.
-
We own. Rent prices in Raleigh and surrounding areas are really just as much as a mortgage payment, so it's totally worth it to own.
-
Like jbhops, we own because our mortgage payment is the same as a 2 bedroom apartment. We also live near a college campus, and rent there is even higher than our mortgage.
-
we rent for now. we won't buy a place until we know we're settling down in the area. we also own a place we can't sell so....
-
Technically the bank owns our house, haha, but we fall in the "own" category. We probably could have found a house that would work for similar or cheaper than it costs to rent, but we decided to break the bank and buy at the top of our budget, haha. So our mortgage is definitely more than our rent used to be, but we have so much more space to work with now and we know it's going to be our forever-home, so that's why we splurged.
-
We own a house. But even though its not a very big place, we will be staying there for YEARS! Ideally I want to pay off my morgage sooner than later.
-
We currently rent a 3br/2.5ba townhouse, but we will be seriously looking at homes to buy within the next 6 months or so.
-
We currently rent because we are hoping to relocate next year and then we plan on buying a townhouse.
-
We own our home. Our mortgage is more than a quarter less than our rent was, for a larger place in a better neighborhood (and free-standing rather than a big multi-unit building). Life in the frozen north does have a few benefits--many of them cost-of-living-related!
-
We rent right now, but we're looking to buy in the next year. We're renting an apartment in the neighborhood where we want to buy, just to feel it out, make sure we feel safe, etc.
-
We rent and we definitely still be renting for a while. We are planning on moving back to the east coast, about a year or two after we have our first kid. So it doesn't really make any sense to buy anything at this point.
-
We own, but we hate home ownership! We want to be able to move freely. Will probably sell in the next couple of years.
-
We own a condo, the mortgage is pretty comparable to paying rent but the HOA is killing us. We did get a good deal overall because we bought a foreclosure.
-
We own. I really wouldn't mind renting (because renting is more economical in the short-term, esp where I live), but my husband is Chinese and according to his culture, owning ALWAYS trumps renting. Because we had bought at the height of the housing boom (when interest rates were still high), we got a loan modification last year which brought our monthly payments down by ~$1,000/month.
That being said, we did NOT have babies in mind when we bought our 2-bedroom condo. The public schools are not that great here, and we're always feeling cramped with just one baby...I don't know how we're going to do it when BebeDeux arrives next month! We definitely plan on moving within the next few years, perhaps to where my parents live in the suburbs of NY where everything is more spacious and the public schools are excellent.
-
We own, like others said our mortgage payment is cheaper than it is to rent. We bought at the end of the housing bubble, so we will be staying in our place for quite sometime (at least 5 more years), good thing we can have two kids comfortably in our house (3 bed, 1.5 bath).
-
@crash806 - We also have a 3 bd/1.5 bath home. I was surprised at how many people told us we'd have to move somewhere larger when we have kids! (It's 3 stories incl finished basement, 1800 sq feet). We don't plan to live here forever anyway, but my thought always was that it was a good home for a young family!
-
We rent, and prefer to rent. Although it might be nice to own our own home, we like the freedom to move when we feel we need to upgrade or change locations. Our area is pretty pricey and we've seen too many close family members "stuck" in their current homes because of the poor market. Its also nice to have our landlord (who is wonderful) take care of issues that arise in our home.
-
We're renting, but hoping to buy a house when the lease is up.
-
We own our home in Brooklyn. we consciously decided that we wanted to ve home owners before bringing a baby into the equation. We purchased our house with a future baby in mind! It seems to be harder to buy a house after you already have a child since it's almost impossible to save a chunk of change towards downpayment.
-
We own a 2+ bdrm condo in Boston (technically Brookline). 1/3 of a house is all that we could afford in this area! We bought it 2.5 years ago and plan to stay in it at least another 2 years until we need a bigger space.
-
We own. I live in central IL (low cost of living!) and pretty much everyone I know owns their home.
-
We own because the cost to own is about the same as renting so why not gain equity also!!
-
We own. We just bought our house 18 months ago for a really good deal here is San Diego where we live. Yes, it only has one bathroom and the baby's stuff is everywhere but I'm grateful we have our own little place to live with a great big yard and awesome neighbors. It's like a little slice of 1950's Americana where we live. Everyone knows and helps everyone in our little hood.
-
We own a 1 bedroom condo in Boston but we couldn't sell when we wanted to move, so we have tenants and we rent a 3bd/2.5ba townhouse in the suburbs. It was supposed to be temporary until we could sell, but the market isn't going anywhere and we're determined not to take a loss. The place we're in is comfortable enough with plenty of space, even for guests, but we don't have a yard, garage, or good public schools and we live on one of the busiest roads in town. I can't wait to settle down (I even hesitate to hang pictures or decorate at all, and we seriously need new couches) but who knows when it will happen.
-
@nodakademic We are just shy of 1600 sq ft. also with a finished basement, and I feel like it's a good size! Well ask me again in 6 mths, when there will be a plethora of baby related gear around.
@dorytina What part of the Boston 'burbs are you located? I'm near the Rhode Island border.
-
We own. It didn't make sense for us to rent. We both have our careers/schools here and it was and still is a buyer's market. We love our home and it's defintiely spacious enough for at least 2 kids.
-
We own. We overpaid (a little) because we bought late last year, when prices were still going down. But we had been looking for over 2+ years, so we were ready to just get it over with. We love our place, though, and we're only the second owners (the original owners bought in 1954)!
-
We own a townhouse, 2 bed/2 bath. It's perfect for us because it means no mowing or shoveling
-
We own a 3 bed 1.5 bath house in the 'burbs of Boston. We plan on moving before we have kids in school, but we're currently underwater (owe more than it's worth) so we'll be here for a while longer at least!
-
We own. It was totally unplanned, but our apartment complex was about to charge rent for a small apartment that was more than a mortgage payment would be for a new, immacculate house. We looked at endless amounts of rental homes (since we wanted to move from an apartment to a house) but they were all old, falling apart, and really expensive.
The area that we bought is in newly developed land, and gave incentives for new buyers (like $0 down). The sellers paid all of the closing costs and paid us rent for a month while we took ownership of the house before they were ready to move. We couldn't pass up the offer. The mortgage is really affordable in comparison to our income, so we are able to swing all of the added costs of home ownership and have been able to put a lot away into our emergency fund in a short period of time. Couldn't be happier!
-
We own a town home. We just refinanced cutting our monthly payment in half. We would love to rent our townhouse and buy a home, unfortunately my husbands job is 45 minutes south of the city and we want to move east which would add to his commute. For now, we're staying put which is okay - for a couple of years!!!
-
Both. We built a house out in the mountains, a home to be our 'forever' home, but it's 2 hours away from our jobs. So we rent in the city.
-
we own. but i wish we didn't. our mortgage payment is pretty much double what we would pay for rent. because of that, we have to sacrifice other things... like vacations
-
We own and it never actually crossed my mind to rent. Better investment, I think, plus renting is just as expensive as our mortgage payment. We bought when Obama was giving out the tax credit, so that definitely helped with home improvements. The house we can grow in, but I'm not sure I want live here forever.
-
We rent. I always thought I would own by the time I was married, but that isn't the case. Now I'm hoping we own by the time we have our first child, but I'm okay if that doesn't end up happening either. DC area is just too pricey to buy right now!
-
We own... but housing here in the Bay Area (Peninsula) are outrageously high! We crossed our fingers and bought with the intention of it being an investment.
-
We own. We've owned our townhouse since 2007, and we're going to be ready to move into a larger home next spring.
We're fortunate to live in an area with an affordable cost of living, so buying a house made the most sense. Home rentals in our area are as much, if not more, than our mortgage payment.
-
We rent, but hope to own within the next couple of years. We have thought about getting a bigger place to rent, but the rent prices around here are crazy because of the college/university and it would make more sense to put the extra money into savings for a down payment. I really cannot wait until we buy a place though...I am so tired of renting!
-
We own a condo. We bought in 2007 when prices were still crazy high (we're in the SF Bay Area), so we'll be here for a while.
Subscribe to our newsletter
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
60 comments