Should I buy a condo/house instead of renting?

[ms244]

So, having finally escaped NJ, I am looking for a place to live. Thanks to all that responded to my 100 year old house thread, but I missed out on the place by about 3 hours.

Looking at the local mid-western housing market, I've come to realize, that even in my poor graduate student state, I might be able to afford my own piece of real estate.

My take home income is about $1700/month. I've seen some houses and condos in the $70-90K range. I can do a down payment of 10% on that (ie 7-9k in cash). Thing is, I don't have any credit history. I don't buy anything on credit (except for some school loans).

A decent one bedroom apartment here is near $450-500 month plus utilities.

Is this a good idea? I'm going to talk to a loan officer at my local bank tomorrow, any thoughts?

 

[Joffrey]

I'm not going to bother with assessing your finances for you. If you can afford a house (mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance), have confidence in the housing market, and plan to stick around for a while (3+ year) then I say go ahead with buying the house/condo.

There is nothing wrong with renting if you need to more money, or if the market in your area is sh*t, or you plan on moving relatively soon.

Keep in mind if you buy the house and realize you need to move a few years later, you can always rent it out instead of selling.

 

[gdl203]

Originally Posted by ms244

I've seen some houses and condos in the $70-90K range.
If I may ask - where do you live? I didn't know such inexpensive real estate existed anywhere in the US...

To answer your question, if a comparable apartment actually costs only 150 to 180x monthly rent, then I'd say yes, you should absolutely consider buying instead of renting

To give you an idea, buying a comparable apartment would cost me 300 to 400x monthly rent in New York City

 

[ms244]

I'm in Columbia, MO home of the many tigers that seem to inhabit the mid-west.

I just moved here from Jersey, and the housing market isn't too different then NY (say Long Island). Its a shock, people with pay less then mine have their own place (unlike in NJ where 27 year old college grads making 60K still live at home with their parents and G35s).

At this point I'm not planning on staying more then 3 or 4 years (unless I get a job offer here which is rather unlikely). Upon further investigation, the 60-70K houses are, shall we say, in need of a little TLC. But a nice condo can be had for about 100K and a nice home for 125K and up.

At this point I'm considering renting for a year and saving up for a place to fix up and sell for profit. I'm not sure I can close on a place in 45 days (when I have to move out of my current arrangements). For example, hardwood floors are relatively easy to put and an increase the value of a house a good bit.