Buy a small ~$350k home full cash or have a 230k Mortgage on a $530k home?

[777hamie]

@thezman lol thanks! Healthy (small in nicu, but healthy) baby girl!

 

[sarah90]

@derek1933 If you don’t have a mortgage you can definitely support a family of 3 on 60k, depending on where you live

 

[ifelove007]

@derek1933 I feel like we’re living on different planets (or in different states, perhaps). We support our family of three on less than 60k, while investing in our child’s education.

 

[mosfet]

@jwinder Buy only as much home as you think you'll need.

I have a family of four in a 1900 sq foot house, even though I could have gotten a loan for something much bigger. Zero regrets.

 

[anhall]

@mosfet I’m still in my 20s with no kids but based on my parents’ experience, once the kids are out of the house, you can easily find yourself left with too much house and not enough bodies to fill it up. Of course it’s the house your kids grew up in so there’s a lot of sentimental value, which makes it hard to downsize, even though it’s probably a good idea.

 

[anons]

@anhall Not to mention when the parents are older and one dies, too big of a house can simply be too much for one elderly person to take care of.

 

[anhall]

@anons Yes exactly that as well as the 50% of divorces leading to the same thing

 

[keith123456]

@mosfet I did this and regretted it. In 2015, I bought a 255k house instead of a 500k house that would have been better long term. Ended up needing to move, which cost $$$ between realtor, movers, etc. Well the 500k house was was now 800 and interest rates doubled. I'm much happier now but I regret not doing it right the first time.

 

[hintofasian]

@keith123456 Same. I actually looked at the house next to the one I currently own in 2021. I could she gotten it for like 100k less than my current home and 2.1% interest. I went with a much Smaller home thinking the houses on this neighborhood were comically large. Ended up buying this house for… more than that… and at 8% interest

 

[mosfet]

@keith123456 fair. i should perhaps have clarified how seriously i meant the "only as much you think you'll need" part. I knew we were never having more than 2 kids, that i wanted to make it easy to tell people they could not stay over since we didn't have room, and that even if i worked from home (which i do) i would never need a separate office, so the 3/2 with an extra laundry room was exactly the right amount of house.

a few times over the years the mrs has been like "Oh if only we had an extra room family could stay at our house" and in my head i pump my first and pat myself on the back lol

 

[mb74]

@mosfet Yep. I've never lived in a house over 1500 square feet and currently have four adults and two large dogs in one slightly smaller than that. I can't even imagine going much bigger, for one thing I'd have to spend money to put furniture in that extra footage. Totally not worth it for me.

 

[mosfet]

@mb74 hah yeah i've always thought about it like "Why would i want to have to furnish/clean/air condition MORE space". plus having a smaller house keeps me from accumulating too much junk

my first house was 1300 sq ft. that got us through baby #1 but once #2 was on the way we realized it wasn't going to work since we also had 5 pets.

 

[saskia]

@mosfet Checking in with 3900 sqft family of 4 one dog AMA

 

[mosfet]

@saskia how are you not just constantly dusting??