Just curious....

catlover67

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Do you rent or own?

How old were you when you got your first home?

My husband and I are nearing 40. I have lived in a (my parent's) home for most of my life until 37. I have had short stints in apartments but mostly have lived in a home. I live in apartment with my husband now. We simply cannot afford a home (I am a certified teacher who JUST graduated and don't have a job yet, and my hubby makes in the low 20's) and I don't know if at our age it is even worth it to try anymore.

Would you choose to buy a home even in your 40's if it was your first home?

How many choose to stay renting because it is "easier"?
 

arlyn

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We own, my fiance' bought the place when he was 22, it's a condo though.
Our first land/house we will be moving into in July.
He is 30, I'm 37.

I am simply not cut out for living in anything other than a house.
Neighbors annoy me too much, too disrespectful, and too random.
 

rosiemac

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I've owned a home since i was 22, then when i left my husband we sold our marital home and i bought my own house at 41.

I prefer to own because i only pay £184.00 per month for my mortgage, but if i was to rent, the same house would cost me nearly £500.00 per month


Plus at the end of it it's mine once it's paid off
 

sar

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I rent! It's not particularly by choice as I'd prefer to own! As I am starting my own business, my money is being ploughed into that - I do save too though!

It's difficult for young first time buyers to buy in this area as it is though, everything that they built with first time buyers in mind (price location etc) get snapped up very quickly for buy to let!


It's a vicious circle really!!
 

AbbysMom

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Wow, It was way too early to do that math in my head
My husband and I were 28 when we bought our first home.

With the prices of homes now, particularly in my area, I can't imagine how a first time home buyer could actually afford a home.

It is all personal preference and affordibility. Are you currently unhappy in your apartment. Do you want to "own" something? Can you afford a home? Being 37 myself, I don't think you are that old, although some of our younger members will probably disagree with me and think we are old fogies.
 

sar

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Originally Posted by rosiemac

I prefer to own because i only pay £184.00 per month for my mortgage, but if i was to rent, the same house would cost me nearly £500.00 per month


Plus at the end of it it's mine once it's paid off
I agree! renting is pretty much dead money! From the money I pay monthly, what do I get at the end of the day? Nothing


If I could get a mortgage, I certainly would - in order to lower monthly outgoing and also give me the chance to make a profit and enjoy my home fully!
 

phenomsmom

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Well There wasn't an option for 19 so I put 21. We started building our home when I was 19. It was finished and we moved in when I was 20. I know we started young but I wanted to have something to show for the money you put into your residence. To me renting is throwing your money away for something that will never be yours.
 

fatkitties

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We own our house. Hubby was 28 when we bought this house. We're planning on selling in the next year or two and buying a place out in the country with more room for animals, as we're stuffed to the brim here! LOL!

Amber
 

rosiemac

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Originally Posted by Sar

I agree! renting is pretty much dead money! From the money I pay monthly, what do I get at the end of the day? Nothing


If I could get a mortgage, I certainly would - in order to lower monthly outgoing and also give me the chance to make a profit and enjoy my home fully!
I'm sure you'll get on the housing ladder one day Sarah
You've plenty years ahead of you yet.
 

alaynna

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My husband and I got our first home last March...so we have been in our house about 1 year....I was 20 and my husband had just turned 22.....we got it about 3 months after we got married. We luckily got into the deal while it was just first being built so we were able to choose everything.
 

driven

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I'm 21 and Tara is 18 and we currently are buying our home. We are a little different situation though. Her dad is the manager of the mobile home court we are living in. It started that we were just looking around some of the empty houses for fun but then we fell in love with one of them that is right by the office. It's nice because he's had some burglary problems and we can kind of keep an eye on it. We were lucky though and he bought the house and now we are just paying him back every month. I love our house though and wouldn't want anything bigger or smaller right now.
 

gailc

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We had a hard time finding a house to buy when we started looking. We worked about 40 miles away from each other and wanted a house about halfway between jobs and in the country with some acreage. It took well over a year to find our house. When moved in September 1st 1987. Neil was 31 and I was 30.
We are also lucky as we paid our mortgage off 14 1/2 yrs after buying this place. That was a goal of ours. We also got lucky several yrs ago and bought the 2 acres next to us so we now have about 5 1/4 acres!!
 

fwan

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i plan to buy one when im 25, if the money is available, the apartments here which are 3 1/2 rooms are only 60,000 euros and in australia a unit (from what i remember was only 140,000$ which IMO is cheap, of course its probably risen.
I need to get a job!
 

katiemae1277

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Well, its kind of a house-I've owned my mobile home/trailer since I was 22. I really like the trailer as its mine, I can have as many cats as I want, I have a little yard and a deck, nobody below me, nobody above me and on either side I have seniors, so no loud music there! only problem is I live about an hour from work, I really wish I lived closer. In the future I would like to buy a condo but that won't be happening antime soon as my credit was destroyed in the divorce
I'm giving it probably 5 years or so
 

cagnes

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I've always owned. Where I live there isn't much to rent out there. I was married at 17 & we bought a trailer. When I was 20 my Grandmother gave us an old small fix-up house that we totally remodeled. We scrimped & saved for years and when I was 29 we built the house we're in today.


40 is definitely not too old to buy a house! If & when you can afford it, I think that you should do it... just think you can be renting for another 40 + years. Hopefully you haven't even reached the half-way point of your life!
 

laureen227

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i bought my house in August of 1999. i am also a teacher, single, never married - & it took that long before i could afford to own. now, my house payment is lower than rent on a comparable space would be, & i'm building equity. BTW - i was born in 1958.
 

ashleyjade

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I've always been of the mentality that you're only as old as you let yourself feel. You're not to old to buy a house. You're never to old to buy a house. My mom got divorced 2 years ago, and now she's going to buy a house, and she's almost 45. Keep looking! It's a huge feeling of accomplishment when you walk into a home that you OWN. I bought my house when i was 21, but got married at 19, so i was really young.

-Jade
 

babyharley

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We currently rent
. There is no way that we could afford to own our own home right now - We don't have to pay a lot of our utilities (they pay water, sewer - we pay heat, electric) so its a good thing - but we plan on getting our own home after we save up some money
 
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