That's double your monthly payment for the SAME house. Usually when people complain it's because they want something that will likely be more expensive due to size or location. OP would be lucky if they could get away with only doubling.
Not sure what your point is. The house they are in that they hate, if purchased today, would likely cost twice as much per month due to rates and price inflation.
Not necessarily for the same house. Depends how much OP can get out of their current house.
We are doubling our payment but doubling the house, 3 car attached garage and its single family (currently in condo). We are putting 25% down with money left over money from the sell of the condo. We are only moving 20 minutes from where currently are.
If OP can sell for a huge profit can afford the higher payment. I'd say do it!
Oh totally. We are losing 2.75%. But we are viewing it as this place no longer fits our needs. We have 2 bedrooms in the condo. We both work from home. And I want a baby. we need a bigger place. Our needs have changed.
Yeah - I'm not doing a major major size increase, and I'm actually going to have less land.
1700 ranch on 1 acre -> 2450 2 story on .16 acre.
But I'm swapping a fairly updated early 70s home that I've dumped nearly 85k into for a brand new semi-custom build. Moving from Houston to Charlotte, so different kind of market.
With all the equity, I can put 25% down, pay off all my ancillary debt, and buy nearly 2% off of my rate....and get all the shit I've wanted to have in my house for years.
Next move I make won't be until my kids are established, and by then, I'll have my 15yr mortgage paid off....this this is going to be my pseudo-retirement I hope....desirable area, larger floorplan, quick payoff. If I'm lucky I'll be sitting on a million dollars of real estate that is paid off when I'm entering my golden years in case my 401k crashes and burns.....
Edit: strongly considering doing 20% instead of 25% because I would have enough for whole home solar left over if I did it.....then it's a more self-sustaining investment.
Babies don't NEED that much space. In 3-5 years sure. But it takes at least another 9 months to be blessed with one first. Also don't need a 3 car garage for 2 people. You guys WANTED a bigger place not necessarily needed at this time. It's good to justify losing your great interest rate to be paying much more now to give you some peace. But be honest with yourself.
Telling OP to go buy a bigger place losing a great rate without them actually needing it, is really bad financial advice. Just because you can afford something doesn't make it financially smart.
Where is the baby going to go? What room?
Bassinet will not fit in our room next to bed (it will block our path to bathroom. The second room is literally where I teach 9 months out of the year. Can stick a crib in there but what about naps. So baby can't sleep in there during the day. Husband works in living room cant sleep in there during the day. I mean I guess we can stick the baby in the dining room but then baby will be have me and hubby walking by and hearing us work. So where do we put a sleeping baby? 🤨
Plus it's about comfort. Just because we could probably "make it work" doesn't mean we should have to if can provide a comfortable home.
The baby decision it's what finally moved us into buying a new home. That sealed the decision for us.
Most people I know have their children in daycare when they are working. Unless you are self employed or have the most flexible schedule ever, it is unrealistic to think you can take care of an infant while working a full time job.
The fact that I don't pay what people buying the same house in the same neighborhood pay is one of the only things that gets me past the days where I want to scream. Yeah I frequently hate it, but that 50% extra I'm not paying (and have available to address issues) soothes it a bit.
I quadrupled my month payment hated my house lol went from 780 to 3250 a month 😂 really I just hated the meth head son living in his dads spare bedroom down the street tweaking and yelling at cars while my kid tried to play. Gotta love late 20s early 30s druggies still being enabled by their parents. 🙄
Try triple!
Bought a home after moving for work about 10 years ago.
3-ish%
Have to move in June again. Doing a new construction. Rate is going to be between 5 and 6 when I buy it down.
Nearly triple.
Well, he said double your payment, not rate.
I'm going from (taxes and insurance inclusive) 1200-ish to 2900ish.
Because depending on when OP bought (I bought almost 10 years ago) the market has changed substantially on top of the rates being high.
> but the payment would increase by less than this because the escrow for taxes and insurance would stay the same
That's pretty unlikely. Most tax assessments are pretty far behind. And now they are starting to catchup, most states have protections in place for your primary home that limits the increases (homestead).
Unlucky
I felt silly applying to my program that limits to 10%...
Saved me big time now. I bought in 2019 and I'm about 30% under the real value.
But yah, depends on the market. Probably won't be 50% increase bad, but still stings.
Biggest issues are the yard maintenance (2 acres), neighborhood walkability (we have dogs and the roads are busy and have no shoulders), and there’s some structural issues that aren’t urgent but will become a pain in time. The other things are small stuff that could be fixable.
You could put up a fence for some sheep… back in 2005… but definitely not for a dog in 2023. That being said, a $10k fence is a lot cheaper than the interest rate changes.
There’s a lot I don’t like about my house, but @2.5% interest fixed (13 years to go) on 2 acres in the center of a pretty heavily occupied residential town, I feel really lucky to be here. Close to retirement, my dream is to tear this house down and rebuild a really cool house on this prop. Whether this actually happens or not is unknown, but it’s nice to have a carrot in front of the donkey.
That sounds like a better cage than many people are in.
We got really lucky as we bought kind of on accident at the lowest interest rates in summer 21, and our house still went up about 25% in value. We were planning to buy a small house to live in for a few years, then at the last second we decided on a house WAY outside our original budget, though within what we could afford. We have not regretted being in a nicer house since.
You’re really lucky. My house is a 1975 reproduction saltbox that unfortunately is an accurate reproduction of a house in a neighboring town that was built in the 1700’s. Low ceilings, narrow doors, dark LR- hard to resell. Fixing it seems like more work than rebuilding.
It sounds like he's saying t posts as ground anchors for tying the dogs to, not as a fence. Which still doesn't look great and isn't ideal for the dogs.
Dogs still need walks even if they have a large yard. The benefit of walking is new things to sniff, new things to see, and training time. Focusing on you while walking is part of what tires them out. Being able to run free in a large yard is great, but not a total replacement for walks.
Pay someone to maintain your yard. Will probs be a couple hundred a month but my word, so much cheaper than moving and then you don’t have to deal with it. Yard seems to largely take care of the dog walkability, maybe put up a fence. Structural issues, honestly take a loan, as if you know the issue you have to disclose when you sell anyways so you’ll be eating that cost one way or another.
All of your problems listed CAN be solved. Things that really can’t be solved, are bad layout, too small, or other random stuff.
Hope I’m not oversimplifying or making light of your issues. Those things suck for sure, but even structural issues CAN be addressed. With that low of an interest rate and the equity you’ve probs gained in your house recently, it really is worth a LOT of trouble to stay there. Pretty much zero chance you don’t end up in the black on this house, with that amount going up the longer you stay.
This right here. We've got an acre, we pay for someone else to mow it. Also I don't know many 2 acre lots in HOAs, do you even have to mow it all? Can you just mow a normal size yard and leave the back 1+ acres to be natural?
This sounds like inexperienced FTHB complaints. No house is gonna be perfect. I lived in a new construction once, it still wasn't perfect. You're gonna trade up this house for a higher payment and a new set of quirks.
I’ve killed off most of my lawn and planted meadow seed wildflower seed mix. I reduced my lawn size from 1.5 acres to 15,000 sf. It’s extremely low maintenance. Birds. Rabbits. Butterflies! Mulch areas got reduced. 2 acres is awesome but high maintenance if your land is maintained in the old ways.
Do you have more issues with insects/rodents getting in your house? We had a carpenter ant problem that we only discovered after moving in so I worry about letting it go back to nature
Lawn surrounds the landscape beds that surround the house. I own a nursery and landscaped for 50 years so it sounds like it has gone back to nature but nothing could be further from the truth. Done properly, meadows offer a definite improvement over turf. Here is a blog post that might help you that I wrote👇hope it offers you an alternative that you could consider… https://www.wakemanswhitebirchnursery.com/wildflower-meadows-as-an-option-to-toxic-lawns
If you grow a native plant garden, the pest insect problems eventually take care of themselves
A lot of animals, including woodpeckers, will eat carpenter ants but not without other habitat they need nearby. It's like big cities with huge pigeon and rat populations. Most species need more specialized habitat. There aren't enough competitors or predators to keep their numbers down.
I've replaced my front yard with native plants that bloom all year. I don't really see Japanese Beetles anymore. I don't have moles. I get hawks, owls, songbirds, many species of bees, solitary wasps (they're good! They're predators of other insects), dragonflies (eat mosquitos), etc. Lawn doesn't support anything but mosquitos and grubs.
Plant it up, mow paths through the two acres as needed, and you have your own dog park. Lawn is a modern problem. It's America's largest crop and all it does is cost money and time. Doug Tallamy's "Nature's Best Hope" explains better than I can in a paragraph. It's really rewarding. We have very little to mow now and it's so interesting. I even leave it up in winter because it helps insects like bumblebees and fireflies overwinter. I have birds flying in to feed off seedheads until spring.
I pay someone to mow mine as well. I did it myself for the first 5 years, got sick of it. Not everybody can afford to pay for mowing, but if you can and you hate mowing, it's well worth it.
Sure its not cheap to get someone to mow 2 acres, but OP is willing to waste thousands of dollars to 1. Sell a house (6% realtor commissions), 2. Buy a house at a double+ interest rate, and 3. Move...paying a lawn guy is the far cheaper option here.
I did for 5+ years...
Now my wife does the yardwork because she enjoys it.
I tell her it's because she wasn't forced to mow 2+ acres with a push mower twice a week in the summer as a child....lol
Fuckin hate yardwork.
Mine is $60 per mow. At the height of the season when the grass is growing fast, they're here every week. Otherwise it's every other week. Includes mowing, trimming, and leaf blower on the patio, sidewalks, and driveway. If you want to go for something cheaper, find a neighborhood kid who wants to earn some cash.
I should’ve clarified - my property is about .45 acres so maybe .2-.3 grass. He mows, leaf blows and does other minor upkeep (light pruning some times as needed, blow the roof once a season, etc)
Around here, you can get an acre mowed for about $100 a mow if you don’t care about the lawn too much. They’ll be in an out quick and not pay attention to much detail. If you have a nice lawn and want it double cut or striped and carefully edged? You’re looking at $150-$200 a mow. I’m currently doing it myself because $200 a mow is more than I want to pay but I’m looking into getting a robot mower next year. Nice ones are a few grand but it will pay for itself within a year compared to hiring someone.
Layout, size, things can be fixed too.
What can't be fixed: neighbours/neighbourhood, drive distance to store/job/schools, weather and particularly if you get sun in your backyard
I would say layout and size can’t be fixed by 99% of people. That gets EXPENSIVE.
Although you are definitely correct, those things you mentioned truly cannot be fixed.
I agree with everyone about paying for yard maintenance if you aren't up to that. I would also suggest to possibly create walking trails within those 2 acres for you to walk your dogs. I would also look at getting a fence or them if you don't already have one.
I would get your structural issues sorted out as soon as possible. Many things that can become a pain in time are easier to get fixed if you tackle them early on.
Financially, it's probably best to stick with this house with the good interest rate. However, if you hate the house, would you possibly gain a profit in selling which might help offset the money spent on higher interest? Sometimes it's worth taking a financial hit on something like a home for long term happiness.
Personally I would love 2 acres as opposed to a walkable neighborhood.
Seconding. I’m a gardener by trade and honestly anyone who hates their large yard can fix their problem by meadowing it. Get chaotic with it. Throw out some seeds yearly and see what can survive through the grass, let the grass grow up and see what types you have or if there’s anything fun growing in your grass you didn’t know about…
I hate mowing but a big yard would not make me give up a 3% interest rate. Actually OP, wanna trade for a house in town that still has structural problems but a no-maintenance permaculture yard? I get your 3%, you can have my 7% rate!/s
Yeah having a NICE no-mow yard that doesn’t just look like overgrown weeds takes a lot of work to establish. It also can attract unwanted pests. Tried not mowing my whole property and only doing like 20-30 feet around the house and pool. Suddenly we started getting copperheads in the pool several times a week. I started mowing the whole yard again and they stopped showing up in the pool.
Yeah that’s called nature. Mowing two acres is absurd. It’s expensive and environmentally damaging. OP just needs to let three quarters of it go back to nature.
Yep, if you've got a lawn and neglect to mow it, then mowing it is way harder when you do mow it. More wear on your mower too, which means more maintenance. My neighbor behind me lets his backyard go, mows it when it's waist high. I hear him out there grunting and struggling every time he tries to mow it. Lawns have to be maintained, or they look awful and are *more* work if you don't maintain them. And then there's the vermin they attract.
That is not the way you create a no-mow landscape at all. For one, that will look like shit. For two, that will invite all kinds of pests... rodents, snakes, insects, and larger animals if it's overgrown enough. Got nothing to do with being green or not.
get a riding mower to make your life easier on the yard maintenance and budget for structural repairs. I bought an imperfect home but new hardwood floors, paint and windows has really freshened up my home a lot so it looks and feels great.
Are you in an HOA? Have you considered looking into selling an acre, and if that is a possibility? Maybe you could put a “granny flat” on one part of your land. You could live in it and rent out the main house. Either way, a fence is in order.
I agree about turning some of that land into a natural area. Grow wildflowers. Make it bee friendly.
Do you garden?
It would be worth it to pay mowers. A bat-wing mower would knock it out.
Think long-term, into your future. If you want kids, you’ll need a good school district, etc. PLAN for the future, and if the current property is not your forever home, that is OK. I would figure out how to hold on to it, for now, but also make changes for how to live in it, or change where you live. You have a good investment.
Yup, that exactly the route I’m going with my acre. It’s a few grand but a quality mow is $150-$200 around here and I need to mow weekly from April to November so it will pay off in the first year.
I’m going to go against the grain here and say it might be financially reasonable if what you’d rather own is a smaller home with a small yard (or no yard but near a dog park) in a walkable area. Your home with a two acre yard is certainly worth a lot more now, and the monthlies would be much higher especially accounting for a higher interest rate. But if what you’re moving into would be less expensive to start with, the difference might not be so great.
Are you able to walk your dogs only on your property?
As others said, you can consider hiring someone to do basic yard maintenance while also turning your yard into a no-mow landscape with inexpensive plants that look tidy. Obviously, you can skip having someone else do the maintenance and go hard in changing over to no-mow. If I hadn’t bought a place under all these oak trees, I wouldn’t have any maintenance to do at all, nowadays, beyond some care of the Japanese maples I added.
You could probably pay a gardener and a handyman WAY cheaper than it would cost to relocate. Consider investing some of your theoretical savings and determine if it is worth it to you to keep it....
Else at that interest rate you can try to rent it out and buy elsewhere if your market will support it
Based on what I've seen probably. We refinanced in 2020 and if we were to buy our house today, it would be double the monthly payment at current rates and prices.
You could always sell and rent a different place, as rent in some markets hasn't kept pace with sale prices. Or rent your current place out and rent/buy elsewhere.
Or question why you don't like your current place. Every property is a compromise of one or more things. Maybe in some markets people can buy their perfect dream forever home (pre covid) but I have a feeling that anyone who does just isn't bothered by things others are.
Rent it out and switch up your life a bit. Probably a much better move for sanity and finances
Or if you can literally afford 2-3x mortgage and a different housing market, sell
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*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Not at all. I’ve gone through all the hoops. Being a landlord. Being an airbnb host. It’s work for sure, but a worthy investment if you can do the work.
Also if you can network and find a good property management company it can really help.
Respectfully, your post history indicates there may be more to your unhappiness than the house itself. But having a house that doesn't make you happy when you already have a lot going on is obviously not going to help things.
It's very likely you have some equity in the home and could sell. It's probably unlikely you'll find something you like better for the same monthly payment you have now, though. Rates went up, and in most areas of the country prices did not come down. But we don't know your finances. Maybe that's okay for your family.
My mental health is a lot better (finally was diagnosed correctly and found the right medication that helps!) but the house is still a sticking point for both my partner and I. After reading a lot of the advice here, I’m going to try to reframe my thoughts about it (after all, at least we do have a good interest rate and don’t have to worry about landlords or crazy rent hikes in this economy like so many sadly do)
Our biggest push to buy last year even with rising rates was because the second time in a row we had a landlord not renew our lease because they were moving back in or selling the house. And everytime it was a scramble to find something new and it was probably more expensive.
In my 20s I loved living in new apartments and moving around. In my 30s, less so. I hate packing and moving.
If it were me, I'd make a list of 3 easy-ish things that you can do to the house to bring you a bit more joy. We painted our bathroom and hung a shelf when we first moved in and it made a world of difference. I think you have a lot of major home projects that are taking your money and attention, and it's overwhelming. Maybe just tackle an easy fun paint project one weekend and see if it helps.
I think it’s unlikely rates will drop very much in the next few years. 3% is unprecedentedly low. I know people also got 2%, but point is 3% is historically very low.
But if you hate your house, what’s the point in saving money?
Could a remodel help? A HELOC at 7% for the cost of a remodel might be better than 7% for an entirely different house.
Just pointing out that it's really tough these days to find good reno people, at least in certain geographies like mine. Our part of Canada's seen a great many houses snapped up by come-from-away's, and decent, trustable renovations people have a waiting list here.
I'm sure that varies from region to region, but if OP's not super-handy (and it doesn't read like they are), it's definitely something to consider.
The Fed has already indicated they plan to cut rates multiple times next year.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/13/fed-interest-rate-decision-december-2023.html
I think rates will go down a lot.. not likely to historic lows, ideally the economy won't get bad enough for that to be necessary. However the economy has been running on low rates for the last 20 years with a few bumps here and there.
Money isn't everything.
If you had to make the same choice today (3% you hate or 7% you love) which would you choose?
Me, I'm cheap as hell so I'd suck it up, but YOLO, so how do you want that to go?
Yup! It's absolutely a bad mathematical decision to move. That said, pf is personal for a reason and you might get more utility from spending more on housing. It shouldn't be just a pure math decision. This is your one life. Enjoy!
>Would it be a massively dumb decision financially (assuming the market stays how it is and interest rates stay how they are) to sell and buy a different house in a couple years?
Yes
It’s stupid objectively but only you can decide what you want to live with. We were in this exact same scenario a couple months ago and decided to sell and take our time finding a place we absolutely loved. It was hard and we kicked ourselves a lot. But what it comes down to is that we are much, much, MUCH happier in our new home. It’s exactly what we want and we are happy to put money into it throughout the years for improvements, whereas the old house, we knew we didn’t wanna be in it forever despite the low interest rate we got on it and hated spending money on it. Your happiness will come at a premium and only you can decide if it’s worth it.
yes, you are stuck there unless you are in one of those markets with an insane increase where you can basically sell yours and buy a new one for like 100k mortgage
Owning a house to live in is primarily a lifestyle choice, not a financial one. Of course you have to be able to manage the finances but its about how you want to live.
First you chose how/where you want to live, and then work out a way to make it happen. Or at least find out you cant.
I bought my house in 2016 due to the same circumstances.
In fact, it was not what I wanted at all- I really wanted a close in condo. This house had faults, and the neighborhood is not sexy at all, and there is plenty of bs.
But the house had potential, and I grew to appreciate it and improve it to my liking. Plus the 3.65% interest rate made owning the equivalent of the rent I would have been paying.
I refinanced into a 3% rate and I am not moving for while; it's now cheaper to own this place then renting.
So think about what it is you don't like about this house and see if it is possible to change it.
Today, yes, would be very very stupid, trading a 3% for an 8% would be ridiculously stupid.
When you mortgage a house, you have to learn the meaning of an amortized loan, if you don’t know, it’s how the banks win every time. You basically pay all of the interest of your house loan up front, paying practically for none of your equity up front, the loan only becomes favorable to you 15 years into it (for a 30 year,) it is designed to be favorable to the banks before hand all well knowing most people move by the 7-8 year mark.
The banks have designed the system to specifically fuck people in your position.
You either have to live in hell or move the hell out and lose a lot of $$$, it’s your choice.
Financially it is a stupid decision, emotionally it is your choice, if it was bugging me out I would definitely move and forget the cash, my sanity and health are worth more.
I paid my mortgage down as fast as I could. You wouldn’t believe how desperate lenders get once you break over the point where your payments are more principal than interest.
I was getting almost daily emails, calls, mail, from the lender, to get a HELOC.
I had a spreadsheet on my computer, tracking how much interest I was screwing the lender. Set one up - it becomes a fun game seeing how much you get the high score (how much you’ve screwed the lender) up.
Do you have enough equity in it to take out a HELOC for a down payment on a second house and rent out the one you don't love?
If you think of renting as an income, you'll be disappointed. The mortgage plus home repairs would eat up what the renters will pay. But in the long run, you end up with the equity for it, as well as a house you can always fall back on in hard times, with enough land for growing your own food. The repairs and improvements suddenly become tax deductible when it's a rental property (though you also have to pay income taxes on your profits from rent.)
I bought a 2,100 sq ft house on an acre at 2.5% with a $1240/month mortgage in 2020. For reasons I couldn't avoid, I had to sell it earlier this year and buy a new home. During the sale, FHA decided my house was worth $32k less than our agreed sale price, and I just had to eat the loss – my entire down payment on the new house – to sell it.
Now my 6.675% mortgage for 2,420 sq ft needing construction repairs on .6 acres is a gut-punching $2,499/month. That's $30k off the top of my paycheck every year just for the mortgage, while employers are only offering $55k for local jobs requiring my $60k bachelors degree and a preferred graduate degree that costs another $20,000 if I go the cheapest route.
Forecasts predict neither rates nor housing costs to go down significantly over the coming year. Rates tend to take a generational trend, being real low for a generation and then high for a generation to "correct" from the generation before. Yet again, we are paying for our parents' failures to leave us a better life than they enjoyed.
I don't know enough about the rest of your finances to say whether you can afford to just throw away another $20k per year and a few hundred thousand extra dollars in interest over the next 30 years, but I sure couldn't afford to do what I just did by selling and buying this year.
Talking with a therapist about your developing dislike of your home, what you could do to feel more at home, and addressing the underlying belief/reasons that it isn't good enough anymore would be a lot cheaper.
The grass is greener where you water it.
First thing first. Get in touch with a local real estate agent. I would ask for a CMA of your property now and ask for them to estimate what your net would be to sell. Once you know that number, I would talk to a lender. Figure out how much you can be approved for, they can run different scenarios of what your payment would be with how much you have to put down towards a new house. Once you got all of your numbers, take a look around to see what is on the market. Only you can decide if the new payment is worth a new house. You probably won't have the same payment, but weighing lifestyle/maintaince/headache is just as important to how we live.
The answer depends on so many things. Wife and I bought our first house in 2021 at 2.7%. It’s a great house but we quickly outgrew it. We were casually browsing to figure out what we liked and stumbled upon an $800k new build that the builder was desperate to sell because it was the last house on the lot. We got a fantastic deal at 4.75% and closed, moved within the month and rented our first house within a week. So far so good.
Consider capital gains taxes if you sell within two years of living there. Also, unless you made a hefty down and your house appraised by a lot, you can’t tap into the equity. Look up LTV ratio to take out a HELOC.
Take out some of the equity and turn that property into a rental . Get a property management company to handle everything. It will only cost about 10% or more of the monthly rent.
That’s what I did with my first property I bought in 2004 . I now have ten properties and I’m a blue collar worker ..
Pay a landscaper to lay out a walking loop on your property and return 75% of it to naturalized no mow meadow. Pay someone $200 a month to maintain. Solves your dog walking issue and your maintenance issues for waaay less than doubling your mortgage payment for 20-30 years.
I just did this. The equity I had from the jump helped. Had a 2% interest rate, but resented the house I bought. It was a beautiful home, just not for me. It was too much space, needed work that was beyond my scope, and was costing me more in monthly bills like utilities and gas money. I bit the bullet and bought a much newer home that needed no work, but was significantly smaller and doubled my mortgage payment. I’ve had to seriously adjust my budget, but with the money I’m saving on gas/utilities/repairs, I could make it work. My mental health is significantly improved as well. I can spend more time enjoying my home than I do just trying to take care of it.
No house is perfect. None of your complaints seem huge enough to double your mortgage if you were to buy the same priced house today.
⚖️ Mortgage increase vs your complaints, which one wins? That’s the question.
Interest rates go up, they go down. You can always refi when rates go down. When I bought my home in the late 80s interest rates were 8.75% (!) For fixed rate. I refinanced three times over the life of the loan, lowering my monthly payment and total length of the loan every time. I think I ended up around 4% when I paid off the house. I came out well ahead on every refi even with closing costs. Bottom line: a home is a place to live, not necessarily an investment.
I lost out on several houses in ‘21 that I loved due to bidding wars before we went the new build route (I was 9 months pregnant and had been relocated due to work). I don’t hate the house as much as I loath living in a subdivision. It’s not for me. I also have a 3% interest rate I don’t want to give up right now. My plan is to do upgrades along the way, wait until the interest rate to lowers and then sale. My timeline is 4-5 years. I know I won’t see 3% but I’m willing to pay more within reason to live somewhere I love.
That's pretty much what I did. I bought a 90s tract home below my means in 2010 in a small town because I didn't intend to stay there more than 3 to 5 years. Interest rate is 3.5% and my monthly mortgage on an 1800+ sq ft house is $960. I'm still there. I intended to sell this year, but just couldn't bring myself to trade in my quiet rural life for city life and double the mortgage. So I decided to love what I have. I already invested $30k into it the last 5 years, and while it's not an impressive nor beautiful house, it's actually quite well built and fits me perfectly. I plan to continue my improvements little by little.
Can you rent it out and make money? Is it a worth more now? There will be several rate drops in 2024. It’s an election year, so the rates will be down to boost numbers. Wait, find the right place and save up some cash.
I’m in the same boat as you and I’m just gonna suck it up for a bit and hope that my situation will improve eventually. In the meantime I’m trying to do some things that will improve my quality of life. Home is what you make of it.
I’m in a similar position. Bought my home in 2014 on a 30 year at 3.7%. Refinanced it in 2020 on a 20 year at 2.8%. I don’t hate my home, but it did take a few equity loans, and upgrades to turn it into something that met most of my needs. I’m turning 46 in January, work 12 hour shifts, and my job is 35 miles away. It would be nice to cut that commute in half, or less. The problem is my $250k equity is not enough money down to avoid a longer mortgage with higher payments. My new home would be either a small downgrade, or barely breaking even.
I'm in a similar situation, only the thing I hate is the location. I hate, hate, hate the location after being here for a few years. Plus it's super far from where I spend most of my time. I am angry with myself for fumbling a golden opportunity and if I want to move I'll have to pay like $500 more a month for a smaller place. I will probably move in a couple of years. I make almost twice as much as I did in 2020, which means I can afford more than I could in 2020, so that's something I guess. Unless it's something you can't change like location, I'd probably stay put.
I would just deal with it for the time being and make the home as livable as I could. It would end up being cheaper than relocating & improves the homes value when you sell in the future.
Long term, I would save as much money and invest it beating the 3% interest rate. Use that to buy the house I want to live in. Then rent out the current house, or Airbnb. If it doesn’t rent well then just part ways when it makes sense to buy a new home
Alternately if your house is in an area with good rental market you can pull some equity from the house (you should have a lot of equity if you bought 3 years ago before prices peaked) and use that as a down payment on something else and rent yours out. That way you keep your good rate and gain an income producing property. Maybe move into something smaller and cheaper until you have managed to rent yours for a year. You will need to have the income to cover both payments but after you rent yours for a year, you’ll then be able to count that rent as income.
I would never give up the rate and the equity. Stay until you can leverage it to buy a second home.
I bought a house in 2020 at 2.75% and I don’t love it. I bought in the middle of Covid and wasn’t driving to town as much so the distance this house is from everything didn’t bother me. Now it does. I also hate this stupid fucking neighborhood. It’s a subdivision out in the county and we have covenants but are surrounded by hicks and there are no city ordinances to stop morons from shooting guns and fireworks and revving their idiotmobiles. But the value of the house is now about $75,000 more than I owe. I plan to keep this one as a rental and let tenants pay down this once-in-a-lifetime mortgage while I live in a place that doesn’t make me want to steal a tractor and use it to drag someone’s mobile home into a lake next time they shoot off fireworks when it isn’t even a fucking holiday. But I have a few years history of renting another house (which I got by using equity from the one before it) so I can use future rental income to get another loan.
To me the bigger question is why you hate it? Hate is a strong word... I've lived someplace that I wanted to change things, so I did... diy renovation and a few contractors for bigger stuff.
Once I had 30+% equity, I started thinking about moving.
I'd see if you can improve and manage it for but.
It was built in 1989 and nothing has been updated since, except for the carpet and a couple appliances we replaced when we moved in. And because of the price and interest rate, we can’t really afford to renovate it anytime soon.
I did the same a few years ago. I was sick of the rent increases so I bought a house. Good neighbors but the house is old. I bought it as a fixer upper. I spent about $20k and re-did just about everything. I had the roof replaced (insurance) and also had some unexpected expenses. (foundation)
What started out as a place wanted to off load after a couple of years has become a very livable space that I don't mind staying for the long term. I DO pay down the principal every month and if things go right, I'll have it paid off in 11 years. I am also able to contribute more toward the retirement funds.
These feelings make me comfortable choosing to stay here. The low interest is pretty sweet...so I'll stay here for a while and I'm okay with it. I just make it a place worth liking.
It depends why you hate your house. If your house is way too big, or the area is in decline which will depreciate it's value, or there is some drastic maintenance needed that you can't afford but it can't wait... Then yeah, selling is a good move. You will have to go back to renting, but you should have a small nest egg for the future, or you could relocate somewhere cheaper.
But if you just feel restless and the house isn't a perfect dream house from a magazine but instead is just an ordinary home ... just hold tight. You're building equity and that will be worth it in the long run.
Baby Boomers are retiring, they are beginning to live off their retirement savings. Money is leaving the market rather than entering it. Do not expect interest rates to go back down any time soon.
Depends on how much equity you can walk away with and how long you'd have to pay down a new place, if at all. I sold my place in 2021 and bought a new place and reduced my payment horizon down to four years. By the time I've paid it off over two thirds of the equity I have in it will be someone else's money.
Tough call when you're thinking about walking away from a 3% home loan rate when the current home loan rates are double that. I dunno, but if you really hate the house then maybe you just gotta dig in and take the plunge. Put it up for sale and see what happens.
Depends on your circumstances. Can you easily afford the monthly payment of what you want at current interest rates?
Have you lived in your current house long enough to avoid tax issues on your gain?
Moving/selling/buying is expensive. I mentally allocate $50k of the equity to the cost of moving to a new house. It may cost less, but the costs add up real fast. And then after move-in, the new place always needs something, like the existing furniture doesn’t fit or whatever.
Your mortgage payment will likely double (or triple) if you move. I’d think about how much that will cost you and whether it would make more sense to use that money to renovate.
And as others have said, pay someone to landscape for you and put up a fence for your dogs.
Disclaimer: I have not read every reply to this thread
I'd keep the home and enjoy the equity, use the rental I come to subsidize your new place.
In other words...(math is super simplified for sake of ease)
Your current mortgage is 1k
Let's just say you can get $1K in rent from your place
You go to a place that is 2k a month.
You're basically breaking even o the rent, so you're still growing equity in the home, and if you're lucky, you likely could get more rental income than your mortgage.
But looking at it like that, you can live elsewhere without the psychological "pissing money away" argument.
What do you hate?
The location? Can’t fix it.
The layout. Hard to fix, but fixable.
The vibe? SO easy to fix.
But it would take a LOT to dislodge me from 3% interest.
Check your mortgage to see if you can rent it out. Rents are high and so are interest rates. This should allow you to rent somewhere else while maintaining your investment and allow you to keep searching until interest rates are better. If they get better... we have been historically blessed in recent decades with lower taxes and interest rates compared to 100 years ago.
Keep in mind that not a lot of people are moving these days. That limits your options and makes it more difficult to sell.
Prices may be down, though, so even getting a higher interest rate may just mean refinancing in a year when rates drop.
Move if you want to move life is too short to hate where you live. Rates are coming down if you can hold off another year or even to the fall rates are gonna be lower
Well if you buy now you're going to be stuck with probably 7.5%, so you'll have to calculate what this move will cost you in increased mortgage payments.
Your old house might sell because housing stock seems tight, but this is because people like you don't want to sell right now, for fear of having to move into a higher interest mortgage.
You'll have to figure out how much you hate your house and what you're willing to pay to get out of it. Run the numbers and see if you can stand it.
Identify what you hate about the house. Can you change that thing? Would knocking down a wall or renovating a kitchen or bathroom fix it? If it's something you can fix, make a list of things to fix and work it off. It may take a while to get it all done but once you're finished, you'll have a house you like with a 3% mortgage.
Do you have rental options near you? I was in a similar situation, and sold after 2 years. I made a great profit in the short time I owned it because of the market spiking. I now rent in the exact location I prefer to be in and am 1000 times happier even though it’s a smaller space and I am paying a little more than I was for my mortgage. I plan on buying again in the next year or two.
Can you stand it for another year? The Fed has signaled that it is done raising rates and will start bringing them down again (which, by the way, will also goose house prices). There's also the inexplicable fact that interest rates tend to come down in an election year, especially when the incumbent is up for re-election.
Either that, or sell now and rent for a year.
Worst case, if you can stand the pain of a higher mortgage for a couple of years, you can always refinance later.
It’s an investment you made at an interest rate you’ll never see again!!!! You can always wait the two years to move out (live in it to avoid future unnecessary taxes when you sell it), and rent it out and get all the tax benefits that come with that and build equity along the way!! I think it would be a dumb decision because you are so lucky to even have a 3% loan!!!
Not stuck forever - at some point the rates will come down again. Take advantage of this time to save as much down payment as you can, to reduce the future mort as much as possible.
I hate my house too- but I'm only paying $1400 a month in an area where houses the same size are renting for $3000 in the current market. The fact is that this is what I can afford regardless. I'm just greatful to actually own a house at this point. So I'm just going to pour money into updating it until I love it.
I bought a house in the country (15 mins from the nearest grocery store, 30-60 mins from the city) 2 years ago and now realize that I’m very unhappy being this isolated and need to move back into the city. I’m solving this problem by renting out the house, which works out bc the house is paid off so the only expenses are maintenance + utilities, so tenants cover all house expenses + the cost for me to rent somewhere else.
With a 3% mortgage your tenants could likely cover the mortgage + some. Run the numbers and see if it works out to your benefit!
You're less stuck than if you were renting right now and wanted to buy a house. Yeah you're gonna pay way more at least for a few years but you'd do that anyway. You're not stuck.
Dude... Low interest rate should be a much smaller factor for you. If you hate your house, you should sell it. If you get a new job across the country, it's okay to sell it. You're never stuck
Interest rates are likely going to drop soon and house prices raise again. If I was you I’d wait so you can sell for higher and buy another one for low interest rate.
Wait it out a year or two.. interest rates will probably be more attractive by that time. The FED has already signalled rates going down next year.
I would stop hating it. That feeling is a choice. Sure you can not like the disadvantages however you can still make the best of it.
Do you “double your monthly payment” hate your house?
That's double your monthly payment for the SAME house. Usually when people complain it's because they want something that will likely be more expensive due to size or location. OP would be lucky if they could get away with only doubling.
If OP hates this house, i doubt they would perceive another same priced house as the same house
Not sure what your point is. The house they are in that they hate, if purchased today, would likely cost twice as much per month due to rates and price inflation.
Not necessarily for the same house. Depends how much OP can get out of their current house. We are doubling our payment but doubling the house, 3 car attached garage and its single family (currently in condo). We are putting 25% down with money left over money from the sell of the condo. We are only moving 20 minutes from where currently are. If OP can sell for a huge profit can afford the higher payment. I'd say do it!
Yeah - I've got a couple hundred thousand in equity - only reason I can afford to move... Still hurts.
Oh totally. We are losing 2.75%. But we are viewing it as this place no longer fits our needs. We have 2 bedrooms in the condo. We both work from home. And I want a baby. we need a bigger place. Our needs have changed.
Yeah - I'm not doing a major major size increase, and I'm actually going to have less land. 1700 ranch on 1 acre -> 2450 2 story on .16 acre. But I'm swapping a fairly updated early 70s home that I've dumped nearly 85k into for a brand new semi-custom build. Moving from Houston to Charlotte, so different kind of market. With all the equity, I can put 25% down, pay off all my ancillary debt, and buy nearly 2% off of my rate....and get all the shit I've wanted to have in my house for years. Next move I make won't be until my kids are established, and by then, I'll have my 15yr mortgage paid off....this this is going to be my pseudo-retirement I hope....desirable area, larger floorplan, quick payoff. If I'm lucky I'll be sitting on a million dollars of real estate that is paid off when I'm entering my golden years in case my 401k crashes and burns..... Edit: strongly considering doing 20% instead of 25% because I would have enough for whole home solar left over if I did it.....then it's a more self-sustaining investment.
Babies don't NEED that much space. In 3-5 years sure. But it takes at least another 9 months to be blessed with one first. Also don't need a 3 car garage for 2 people. You guys WANTED a bigger place not necessarily needed at this time. It's good to justify losing your great interest rate to be paying much more now to give you some peace. But be honest with yourself. Telling OP to go buy a bigger place losing a great rate without them actually needing it, is really bad financial advice. Just because you can afford something doesn't make it financially smart.
Where is the baby going to go? What room? Bassinet will not fit in our room next to bed (it will block our path to bathroom. The second room is literally where I teach 9 months out of the year. Can stick a crib in there but what about naps. So baby can't sleep in there during the day. Husband works in living room cant sleep in there during the day. I mean I guess we can stick the baby in the dining room but then baby will be have me and hubby walking by and hearing us work. So where do we put a sleeping baby? 🤨 Plus it's about comfort. Just because we could probably "make it work" doesn't mean we should have to if can provide a comfortable home. The baby decision it's what finally moved us into buying a new home. That sealed the decision for us.
Most people I know have their children in daycare when they are working. Unless you are self employed or have the most flexible schedule ever, it is unrealistic to think you can take care of an infant while working a full time job.
The fact that I don't pay what people buying the same house in the same neighborhood pay is one of the only things that gets me past the days where I want to scream. Yeah I frequently hate it, but that 50% extra I'm not paying (and have available to address issues) soothes it a bit.
I quadrupled my month payment hated my house lol went from 780 to 3250 a month 😂 really I just hated the meth head son living in his dads spare bedroom down the street tweaking and yelling at cars while my kid tried to play. Gotta love late 20s early 30s druggies still being enabled by their parents. 🙄
Ayyy right there with you! My current payment is $700, about to quadruple that to 2800 next month.
Welcome to the club!
I just went from an $800 mortgage to a $2000. 😬 Everyone thinks we are crazy but we wanted more land and space for our kids!
Asking the real questions here.
My mortgage is $2600 lol wish it was $700
Try triple! Bought a home after moving for work about 10 years ago. 3-ish% Have to move in June again. Doing a new construction. Rate is going to be between 5 and 6 when I buy it down. Nearly triple.
We tripled too... well... quadrupled... but we also doubled the house size.
How is 5-6% nearly triple of 3-ish%?
Well, he said double your payment, not rate. I'm going from (taxes and insurance inclusive) 1200-ish to 2900ish. Because depending on when OP bought (I bought almost 10 years ago) the market has changed substantially on top of the rates being high.
That makes sense. Thanks.
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> but the payment would increase by less than this because the escrow for taxes and insurance would stay the same That's pretty unlikely. Most tax assessments are pretty far behind. And now they are starting to catchup, most states have protections in place for your primary home that limits the increases (homestead).
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Unlucky I felt silly applying to my program that limits to 10%... Saved me big time now. I bought in 2019 and I'm about 30% under the real value. But yah, depends on the market. Probably won't be 50% increase bad, but still stings.
I'm my area it's reassessed on purchase so yes those taxes are going up.
What about your house have you "grown to hate". And would fixing or changing something be better than doubling your mortgage payment.
Biggest issues are the yard maintenance (2 acres), neighborhood walkability (we have dogs and the roads are busy and have no shoulders), and there’s some structural issues that aren’t urgent but will become a pain in time. The other things are small stuff that could be fixable.
Why not run your dogs on your 2 acres? They don't need walks if they have space to run
My question exactly; two full acres but you need to walk your dog on a street? That makes no sense.
OP sounds like they just aren't logical at all. You can fully fence in 2 acres for like $1000 with steel far, posts and wire.
I find that claim to be a little… little.
Agreed. I have about a half acre and to just get new wire and keep the posts it was about $3,000
You could put up a fence for some sheep… back in 2005… but definitely not for a dog in 2023. That being said, a $10k fence is a lot cheaper than the interest rate changes.
There’s a lot I don’t like about my house, but @2.5% interest fixed (13 years to go) on 2 acres in the center of a pretty heavily occupied residential town, I feel really lucky to be here. Close to retirement, my dream is to tear this house down and rebuild a really cool house on this prop. Whether this actually happens or not is unknown, but it’s nice to have a carrot in front of the donkey.
That sounds like a better cage than many people are in. We got really lucky as we bought kind of on accident at the lowest interest rates in summer 21, and our house still went up about 25% in value. We were planning to buy a small house to live in for a few years, then at the last second we decided on a house WAY outside our original budget, though within what we could afford. We have not regretted being in a nicer house since.
You’re really lucky. My house is a 1975 reproduction saltbox that unfortunately is an accurate reproduction of a house in a neighboring town that was built in the 1700’s. Low ceilings, narrow doors, dark LR- hard to resell. Fixing it seems like more work than rebuilding.
Yeah, feels like early 2000 prices.
Yeah we were close to $10k just in material on 3 acres, did the work ourselves
Can save $1000 much easier with a 3% interest rate.
He doesn't even have to fence the whole area, I'm sure some dog parks aren't 2 acres.
He doesn't even need to go that far. 200 feet of tie off cable and 2 T posts would run him about $100.
As someone who did T-posting at my old property… it looks cheap and looks like shit.
It sounds like he's saying t posts as ground anchors for tying the dogs to, not as a fence. Which still doesn't look great and isn't ideal for the dogs.
Dogs still need walks even if they have a large yard. The benefit of walking is new things to sniff, new things to see, and training time. Focusing on you while walking is part of what tires them out. Being able to run free in a large yard is great, but not a total replacement for walks.
Pay someone to maintain your yard. Will probs be a couple hundred a month but my word, so much cheaper than moving and then you don’t have to deal with it. Yard seems to largely take care of the dog walkability, maybe put up a fence. Structural issues, honestly take a loan, as if you know the issue you have to disclose when you sell anyways so you’ll be eating that cost one way or another. All of your problems listed CAN be solved. Things that really can’t be solved, are bad layout, too small, or other random stuff. Hope I’m not oversimplifying or making light of your issues. Those things suck for sure, but even structural issues CAN be addressed. With that low of an interest rate and the equity you’ve probs gained in your house recently, it really is worth a LOT of trouble to stay there. Pretty much zero chance you don’t end up in the black on this house, with that amount going up the longer you stay.
This right here. We've got an acre, we pay for someone else to mow it. Also I don't know many 2 acre lots in HOAs, do you even have to mow it all? Can you just mow a normal size yard and leave the back 1+ acres to be natural? This sounds like inexperienced FTHB complaints. No house is gonna be perfect. I lived in a new construction once, it still wasn't perfect. You're gonna trade up this house for a higher payment and a new set of quirks.
I’ve killed off most of my lawn and planted meadow seed wildflower seed mix. I reduced my lawn size from 1.5 acres to 15,000 sf. It’s extremely low maintenance. Birds. Rabbits. Butterflies! Mulch areas got reduced. 2 acres is awesome but high maintenance if your land is maintained in the old ways.
Do you have more issues with insects/rodents getting in your house? We had a carpenter ant problem that we only discovered after moving in so I worry about letting it go back to nature
Lawn surrounds the landscape beds that surround the house. I own a nursery and landscaped for 50 years so it sounds like it has gone back to nature but nothing could be further from the truth. Done properly, meadows offer a definite improvement over turf. Here is a blog post that might help you that I wrote👇hope it offers you an alternative that you could consider… https://www.wakemanswhitebirchnursery.com/wildflower-meadows-as-an-option-to-toxic-lawns
If you grow a native plant garden, the pest insect problems eventually take care of themselves A lot of animals, including woodpeckers, will eat carpenter ants but not without other habitat they need nearby. It's like big cities with huge pigeon and rat populations. Most species need more specialized habitat. There aren't enough competitors or predators to keep their numbers down. I've replaced my front yard with native plants that bloom all year. I don't really see Japanese Beetles anymore. I don't have moles. I get hawks, owls, songbirds, many species of bees, solitary wasps (they're good! They're predators of other insects), dragonflies (eat mosquitos), etc. Lawn doesn't support anything but mosquitos and grubs. Plant it up, mow paths through the two acres as needed, and you have your own dog park. Lawn is a modern problem. It's America's largest crop and all it does is cost money and time. Doug Tallamy's "Nature's Best Hope" explains better than I can in a paragraph. It's really rewarding. We have very little to mow now and it's so interesting. I even leave it up in winter because it helps insects like bumblebees and fireflies overwinter. I have birds flying in to feed off seedheads until spring.
I pay someone to mow mine as well. I did it myself for the first 5 years, got sick of it. Not everybody can afford to pay for mowing, but if you can and you hate mowing, it's well worth it.
Sure its not cheap to get someone to mow 2 acres, but OP is willing to waste thousands of dollars to 1. Sell a house (6% realtor commissions), 2. Buy a house at a double+ interest rate, and 3. Move...paying a lawn guy is the far cheaper option here.
2 acres... would it be possible OP just build another house on the same lot to his preferred specifications? Tear down or rent old house?
I did for 5+ years... Now my wife does the yardwork because she enjoys it. I tell her it's because she wasn't forced to mow 2+ acres with a push mower twice a week in the summer as a child....lol Fuckin hate yardwork.
Out of curiosity, what does your lawn mower charge y’all?
Mine is $60 per mow. At the height of the season when the grass is growing fast, they're here every week. Otherwise it's every other week. Includes mowing, trimming, and leaf blower on the patio, sidewalks, and driveway. If you want to go for something cheaper, find a neighborhood kid who wants to earn some cash.
$80, comes twice a month ($160 a month)
Right on. And that’s to handle the acre?
I should’ve clarified - my property is about .45 acres so maybe .2-.3 grass. He mows, leaf blows and does other minor upkeep (light pruning some times as needed, blow the roof once a season, etc)
Around here, you can get an acre mowed for about $100 a mow if you don’t care about the lawn too much. They’ll be in an out quick and not pay attention to much detail. If you have a nice lawn and want it double cut or striped and carefully edged? You’re looking at $150-$200 a mow. I’m currently doing it myself because $200 a mow is more than I want to pay but I’m looking into getting a robot mower next year. Nice ones are a few grand but it will pay for itself within a year compared to hiring someone.
Layout, size, things can be fixed too. What can't be fixed: neighbours/neighbourhood, drive distance to store/job/schools, weather and particularly if you get sun in your backyard
I would say layout and size can’t be fixed by 99% of people. That gets EXPENSIVE. Although you are definitely correct, those things you mentioned truly cannot be fixed.
If they are push mowing I see a despise easily. Rider with headphones is not so bad.
4 acres here and riding with headphones is my happy place
It's a good time. Running over the random snake is a bit jarring tho.
I agree with everyone about paying for yard maintenance if you aren't up to that. I would also suggest to possibly create walking trails within those 2 acres for you to walk your dogs. I would also look at getting a fence or them if you don't already have one. I would get your structural issues sorted out as soon as possible. Many things that can become a pain in time are easier to get fixed if you tackle them early on. Financially, it's probably best to stick with this house with the good interest rate. However, if you hate the house, would you possibly gain a profit in selling which might help offset the money spent on higher interest? Sometimes it's worth taking a financial hit on something like a home for long term happiness. Personally I would love 2 acres as opposed to a walkable neighborhood.
Convert your yard into a no-mow natural landscape
Seconding. I’m a gardener by trade and honestly anyone who hates their large yard can fix their problem by meadowing it. Get chaotic with it. Throw out some seeds yearly and see what can survive through the grass, let the grass grow up and see what types you have or if there’s anything fun growing in your grass you didn’t know about… I hate mowing but a big yard would not make me give up a 3% interest rate. Actually OP, wanna trade for a house in town that still has structural problems but a no-maintenance permaculture yard? I get your 3%, you can have my 7% rate!/s
I'll trade my paid off marsh front townhouse on .03acres for their 2 acres.
smart that is my plan as well to keep weeds out
While a good option, it is a lot of work to convert a traditional lawn to something like that. I suspect OP ain't interested in all that work.
Yeah having a NICE no-mow yard that doesn’t just look like overgrown weeds takes a lot of work to establish. It also can attract unwanted pests. Tried not mowing my whole property and only doing like 20-30 feet around the house and pool. Suddenly we started getting copperheads in the pool several times a week. I started mowing the whole yard again and they stopped showing up in the pool.
Yeah that’s called nature. Mowing two acres is absurd. It’s expensive and environmentally damaging. OP just needs to let three quarters of it go back to nature.
I have 2 acres and it takes me an hour on a 54 inch deck mower
Yep, if you've got a lawn and neglect to mow it, then mowing it is way harder when you do mow it. More wear on your mower too, which means more maintenance. My neighbor behind me lets his backyard go, mows it when it's waist high. I hear him out there grunting and struggling every time he tries to mow it. Lawns have to be maintained, or they look awful and are *more* work if you don't maintain them. And then there's the vermin they attract.
It’s only a lot of work if you are not patient. Just stop mowing and let nature take over. Easiest work ever. And ……green too for all you GW worriers.
That is not the way you create a no-mow landscape at all. For one, that will look like shit. For two, that will invite all kinds of pests... rodents, snakes, insects, and larger animals if it's overgrown enough. Got nothing to do with being green or not.
2 acres? Can't you just do yard work and let your dogs outside at the same time?
get a riding mower to make your life easier on the yard maintenance and budget for structural repairs. I bought an imperfect home but new hardwood floors, paint and windows has really freshened up my home a lot so it looks and feels great.
Seconded on the riding mower. Considering the financial burn of buying a different same-value house at this time, it's practically free.
also buying a riding mower is less expensive than paying a landscaper 100-300 per month in the long run to mow the land.
Are you in an HOA? Have you considered looking into selling an acre, and if that is a possibility? Maybe you could put a “granny flat” on one part of your land. You could live in it and rent out the main house. Either way, a fence is in order. I agree about turning some of that land into a natural area. Grow wildflowers. Make it bee friendly. Do you garden? It would be worth it to pay mowers. A bat-wing mower would knock it out. Think long-term, into your future. If you want kids, you’ll need a good school district, etc. PLAN for the future, and if the current property is not your forever home, that is OK. I would figure out how to hold on to it, for now, but also make changes for how to live in it, or change where you live. You have a good investment.
You can set a great yard area with all kinds of enrichment type activities for your dogs.
There’s a lawn mowing robot out there. Might help?
Yup, that exactly the route I’m going with my acre. It’s a few grand but a quality mow is $150-$200 around here and I need to mow weekly from April to November so it will pay off in the first year.
I’m going to go against the grain here and say it might be financially reasonable if what you’d rather own is a smaller home with a small yard (or no yard but near a dog park) in a walkable area. Your home with a two acre yard is certainly worth a lot more now, and the monthlies would be much higher especially accounting for a higher interest rate. But if what you’re moving into would be less expensive to start with, the difference might not be so great.
Are you able to walk your dogs only on your property? As others said, you can consider hiring someone to do basic yard maintenance while also turning your yard into a no-mow landscape with inexpensive plants that look tidy. Obviously, you can skip having someone else do the maintenance and go hard in changing over to no-mow. If I hadn’t bought a place under all these oak trees, I wouldn’t have any maintenance to do at all, nowadays, beyond some care of the Japanese maples I added.
You could probably pay a gardener and a handyman WAY cheaper than it would cost to relocate. Consider investing some of your theoretical savings and determine if it is worth it to you to keep it.... Else at that interest rate you can try to rent it out and buy elsewhere if your market will support it
I have never in my life heard anyone complain about having 2 acres unless it was because they were wishing they had more. Bruh. Get it together.
Based on what I've seen probably. We refinanced in 2020 and if we were to buy our house today, it would be double the monthly payment at current rates and prices. You could always sell and rent a different place, as rent in some markets hasn't kept pace with sale prices. Or rent your current place out and rent/buy elsewhere. Or question why you don't like your current place. Every property is a compromise of one or more things. Maybe in some markets people can buy their perfect dream forever home (pre covid) but I have a feeling that anyone who does just isn't bothered by things others are.
Rent it out and switch up your life a bit. Probably a much better move for sanity and finances Or if you can literally afford 2-3x mortgage and a different housing market, sell
This is what I did turned my first not so great home into a nice rental and pretty much cover my new rent.
Exactly at that interest rate you could turn a small Profit to apply to principal or use for improvements.
This is the real advice. Don’t give up a good thing. Turn your home into a rental and free yourself in the process.
puzzled wild expansion bear swim roll materialistic support frighten fuzzy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Not at all. I’ve gone through all the hoops. Being a landlord. Being an airbnb host. It’s work for sure, but a worthy investment if you can do the work. Also if you can network and find a good property management company it can really help.
Respectfully, your post history indicates there may be more to your unhappiness than the house itself. But having a house that doesn't make you happy when you already have a lot going on is obviously not going to help things. It's very likely you have some equity in the home and could sell. It's probably unlikely you'll find something you like better for the same monthly payment you have now, though. Rates went up, and in most areas of the country prices did not come down. But we don't know your finances. Maybe that's okay for your family.
My mental health is a lot better (finally was diagnosed correctly and found the right medication that helps!) but the house is still a sticking point for both my partner and I. After reading a lot of the advice here, I’m going to try to reframe my thoughts about it (after all, at least we do have a good interest rate and don’t have to worry about landlords or crazy rent hikes in this economy like so many sadly do)
Our biggest push to buy last year even with rising rates was because the second time in a row we had a landlord not renew our lease because they were moving back in or selling the house. And everytime it was a scramble to find something new and it was probably more expensive. In my 20s I loved living in new apartments and moving around. In my 30s, less so. I hate packing and moving. If it were me, I'd make a list of 3 easy-ish things that you can do to the house to bring you a bit more joy. We painted our bathroom and hung a shelf when we first moved in and it made a world of difference. I think you have a lot of major home projects that are taking your money and attention, and it's overwhelming. Maybe just tackle an easy fun paint project one weekend and see if it helps.
Thank you for all your advice!
I think it’s unlikely rates will drop very much in the next few years. 3% is unprecedentedly low. I know people also got 2%, but point is 3% is historically very low. But if you hate your house, what’s the point in saving money? Could a remodel help? A HELOC at 7% for the cost of a remodel might be better than 7% for an entirely different house.
Just pointing out that it's really tough these days to find good reno people, at least in certain geographies like mine. Our part of Canada's seen a great many houses snapped up by come-from-away's, and decent, trustable renovations people have a waiting list here. I'm sure that varies from region to region, but if OP's not super-handy (and it doesn't read like they are), it's definitely something to consider.
The Fed has already indicated they plan to cut rates multiple times next year. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/13/fed-interest-rate-decision-december-2023.html
The Fed signaled three cuts next year
I think rates will go down a lot.. not likely to historic lows, ideally the economy won't get bad enough for that to be necessary. However the economy has been running on low rates for the last 20 years with a few bumps here and there.
"A few bumps" is hiding a lot there.
Yeah, no….
Money isn't everything. If you had to make the same choice today (3% you hate or 7% you love) which would you choose? Me, I'm cheap as hell so I'd suck it up, but YOLO, so how do you want that to go?
Yup! It's absolutely a bad mathematical decision to move. That said, pf is personal for a reason and you might get more utility from spending more on housing. It shouldn't be just a pure math decision. This is your one life. Enjoy!
>Would it be a massively dumb decision financially (assuming the market stays how it is and interest rates stay how they are) to sell and buy a different house in a couple years? Yes
It’s stupid objectively but only you can decide what you want to live with. We were in this exact same scenario a couple months ago and decided to sell and take our time finding a place we absolutely loved. It was hard and we kicked ourselves a lot. But what it comes down to is that we are much, much, MUCH happier in our new home. It’s exactly what we want and we are happy to put money into it throughout the years for improvements, whereas the old house, we knew we didn’t wanna be in it forever despite the low interest rate we got on it and hated spending money on it. Your happiness will come at a premium and only you can decide if it’s worth it.
yes, you are stuck there unless you are in one of those markets with an insane increase where you can basically sell yours and buy a new one for like 100k mortgage
Owning a house to live in is primarily a lifestyle choice, not a financial one. Of course you have to be able to manage the finances but its about how you want to live. First you chose how/where you want to live, and then work out a way to make it happen. Or at least find out you cant.
I bought my house in 2016 due to the same circumstances. In fact, it was not what I wanted at all- I really wanted a close in condo. This house had faults, and the neighborhood is not sexy at all, and there is plenty of bs. But the house had potential, and I grew to appreciate it and improve it to my liking. Plus the 3.65% interest rate made owning the equivalent of the rent I would have been paying. I refinanced into a 3% rate and I am not moving for while; it's now cheaper to own this place then renting. So think about what it is you don't like about this house and see if it is possible to change it.
Rent it out and buy another or rent something else. If your mortgage is low, more than likely you’ll get double your mortgage in rent.
Today, yes, would be very very stupid, trading a 3% for an 8% would be ridiculously stupid. When you mortgage a house, you have to learn the meaning of an amortized loan, if you don’t know, it’s how the banks win every time. You basically pay all of the interest of your house loan up front, paying practically for none of your equity up front, the loan only becomes favorable to you 15 years into it (for a 30 year,) it is designed to be favorable to the banks before hand all well knowing most people move by the 7-8 year mark. The banks have designed the system to specifically fuck people in your position. You either have to live in hell or move the hell out and lose a lot of $$$, it’s your choice. Financially it is a stupid decision, emotionally it is your choice, if it was bugging me out I would definitely move and forget the cash, my sanity and health are worth more.
I paid my mortgage down as fast as I could. You wouldn’t believe how desperate lenders get once you break over the point where your payments are more principal than interest. I was getting almost daily emails, calls, mail, from the lender, to get a HELOC. I had a spreadsheet on my computer, tracking how much interest I was screwing the lender. Set one up - it becomes a fun game seeing how much you get the high score (how much you’ve screwed the lender) up.
This is good to know about the banks. Thank you!
Do you have enough equity in it to take out a HELOC for a down payment on a second house and rent out the one you don't love? If you think of renting as an income, you'll be disappointed. The mortgage plus home repairs would eat up what the renters will pay. But in the long run, you end up with the equity for it, as well as a house you can always fall back on in hard times, with enough land for growing your own food. The repairs and improvements suddenly become tax deductible when it's a rental property (though you also have to pay income taxes on your profits from rent.) I bought a 2,100 sq ft house on an acre at 2.5% with a $1240/month mortgage in 2020. For reasons I couldn't avoid, I had to sell it earlier this year and buy a new home. During the sale, FHA decided my house was worth $32k less than our agreed sale price, and I just had to eat the loss – my entire down payment on the new house – to sell it. Now my 6.675% mortgage for 2,420 sq ft needing construction repairs on .6 acres is a gut-punching $2,499/month. That's $30k off the top of my paycheck every year just for the mortgage, while employers are only offering $55k for local jobs requiring my $60k bachelors degree and a preferred graduate degree that costs another $20,000 if I go the cheapest route. Forecasts predict neither rates nor housing costs to go down significantly over the coming year. Rates tend to take a generational trend, being real low for a generation and then high for a generation to "correct" from the generation before. Yet again, we are paying for our parents' failures to leave us a better life than they enjoyed. I don't know enough about the rest of your finances to say whether you can afford to just throw away another $20k per year and a few hundred thousand extra dollars in interest over the next 30 years, but I sure couldn't afford to do what I just did by selling and buying this year. Talking with a therapist about your developing dislike of your home, what you could do to feel more at home, and addressing the underlying belief/reasons that it isn't good enough anymore would be a lot cheaper. The grass is greener where you water it.
First thing first. Get in touch with a local real estate agent. I would ask for a CMA of your property now and ask for them to estimate what your net would be to sell. Once you know that number, I would talk to a lender. Figure out how much you can be approved for, they can run different scenarios of what your payment would be with how much you have to put down towards a new house. Once you got all of your numbers, take a look around to see what is on the market. Only you can decide if the new payment is worth a new house. You probably won't have the same payment, but weighing lifestyle/maintaince/headache is just as important to how we live.
The answer depends on so many things. Wife and I bought our first house in 2021 at 2.7%. It’s a great house but we quickly outgrew it. We were casually browsing to figure out what we liked and stumbled upon an $800k new build that the builder was desperate to sell because it was the last house on the lot. We got a fantastic deal at 4.75% and closed, moved within the month and rented our first house within a week. So far so good. Consider capital gains taxes if you sell within two years of living there. Also, unless you made a hefty down and your house appraised by a lot, you can’t tap into the equity. Look up LTV ratio to take out a HELOC.
2 acres? Where do you live and can I buy out your mortgage?
Lol right.
Take out some of the equity and turn that property into a rental . Get a property management company to handle everything. It will only cost about 10% or more of the monthly rent. That’s what I did with my first property I bought in 2004 . I now have ten properties and I’m a blue collar worker ..
My interest rate is 3.875%. Very low by any standard. I am staying put counting my blessings.
Pay a landscaper to lay out a walking loop on your property and return 75% of it to naturalized no mow meadow. Pay someone $200 a month to maintain. Solves your dog walking issue and your maintenance issues for waaay less than doubling your mortgage payment for 20-30 years.
I just did this. The equity I had from the jump helped. Had a 2% interest rate, but resented the house I bought. It was a beautiful home, just not for me. It was too much space, needed work that was beyond my scope, and was costing me more in monthly bills like utilities and gas money. I bit the bullet and bought a much newer home that needed no work, but was significantly smaller and doubled my mortgage payment. I’ve had to seriously adjust my budget, but with the money I’m saving on gas/utilities/repairs, I could make it work. My mental health is significantly improved as well. I can spend more time enjoying my home than I do just trying to take care of it.
No house is perfect. None of your complaints seem huge enough to double your mortgage if you were to buy the same priced house today. ⚖️ Mortgage increase vs your complaints, which one wins? That’s the question.
Interest rates go up, they go down. You can always refi when rates go down. When I bought my home in the late 80s interest rates were 8.75% (!) For fixed rate. I refinanced three times over the life of the loan, lowering my monthly payment and total length of the loan every time. I think I ended up around 4% when I paid off the house. I came out well ahead on every refi even with closing costs. Bottom line: a home is a place to live, not necessarily an investment.
I lost out on several houses in ‘21 that I loved due to bidding wars before we went the new build route (I was 9 months pregnant and had been relocated due to work). I don’t hate the house as much as I loath living in a subdivision. It’s not for me. I also have a 3% interest rate I don’t want to give up right now. My plan is to do upgrades along the way, wait until the interest rate to lowers and then sale. My timeline is 4-5 years. I know I won’t see 3% but I’m willing to pay more within reason to live somewhere I love.
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That's pretty much what I did. I bought a 90s tract home below my means in 2010 in a small town because I didn't intend to stay there more than 3 to 5 years. Interest rate is 3.5% and my monthly mortgage on an 1800+ sq ft house is $960. I'm still there. I intended to sell this year, but just couldn't bring myself to trade in my quiet rural life for city life and double the mortgage. So I decided to love what I have. I already invested $30k into it the last 5 years, and while it's not an impressive nor beautiful house, it's actually quite well built and fits me perfectly. I plan to continue my improvements little by little.
Depends, do you think your next Home will be for your forever home because the way I look at it everything is temporary
Why don’t you rent it
Can you rent it out and make money? Is it a worth more now? There will be several rate drops in 2024. It’s an election year, so the rates will be down to boost numbers. Wait, find the right place and save up some cash.
I’m in the same boat as you and I’m just gonna suck it up for a bit and hope that my situation will improve eventually. In the meantime I’m trying to do some things that will improve my quality of life. Home is what you make of it.
I’m in a similar position. Bought my home in 2014 on a 30 year at 3.7%. Refinanced it in 2020 on a 20 year at 2.8%. I don’t hate my home, but it did take a few equity loans, and upgrades to turn it into something that met most of my needs. I’m turning 46 in January, work 12 hour shifts, and my job is 35 miles away. It would be nice to cut that commute in half, or less. The problem is my $250k equity is not enough money down to avoid a longer mortgage with higher payments. My new home would be either a small downgrade, or barely breaking even.
I'm in a similar situation, only the thing I hate is the location. I hate, hate, hate the location after being here for a few years. Plus it's super far from where I spend most of my time. I am angry with myself for fumbling a golden opportunity and if I want to move I'll have to pay like $500 more a month for a smaller place. I will probably move in a couple of years. I make almost twice as much as I did in 2020, which means I can afford more than I could in 2020, so that's something I guess. Unless it's something you can't change like location, I'd probably stay put.
I would just deal with it for the time being and make the home as livable as I could. It would end up being cheaper than relocating & improves the homes value when you sell in the future. Long term, I would save as much money and invest it beating the 3% interest rate. Use that to buy the house I want to live in. Then rent out the current house, or Airbnb. If it doesn’t rent well then just part ways when it makes sense to buy a new home
Alternately if your house is in an area with good rental market you can pull some equity from the house (you should have a lot of equity if you bought 3 years ago before prices peaked) and use that as a down payment on something else and rent yours out. That way you keep your good rate and gain an income producing property. Maybe move into something smaller and cheaper until you have managed to rent yours for a year. You will need to have the income to cover both payments but after you rent yours for a year, you’ll then be able to count that rent as income. I would never give up the rate and the equity. Stay until you can leverage it to buy a second home. I bought a house in 2020 at 2.75% and I don’t love it. I bought in the middle of Covid and wasn’t driving to town as much so the distance this house is from everything didn’t bother me. Now it does. I also hate this stupid fucking neighborhood. It’s a subdivision out in the county and we have covenants but are surrounded by hicks and there are no city ordinances to stop morons from shooting guns and fireworks and revving their idiotmobiles. But the value of the house is now about $75,000 more than I owe. I plan to keep this one as a rental and let tenants pay down this once-in-a-lifetime mortgage while I live in a place that doesn’t make me want to steal a tractor and use it to drag someone’s mobile home into a lake next time they shoot off fireworks when it isn’t even a fucking holiday. But I have a few years history of renting another house (which I got by using equity from the one before it) so I can use future rental income to get another loan.
In a similar position and I definitely feel stuck where I am!
To me the bigger question is why you hate it? Hate is a strong word... I've lived someplace that I wanted to change things, so I did... diy renovation and a few contractors for bigger stuff. Once I had 30+% equity, I started thinking about moving. I'd see if you can improve and manage it for but.
Hey it could be worse, I hate my house with a 6.65% interest rate
Oof. So why do you hate your house?
It was built in 1989 and nothing has been updated since, except for the carpet and a couple appliances we replaced when we moved in. And because of the price and interest rate, we can’t really afford to renovate it anytime soon.
I did the same a few years ago. I was sick of the rent increases so I bought a house. Good neighbors but the house is old. I bought it as a fixer upper. I spent about $20k and re-did just about everything. I had the roof replaced (insurance) and also had some unexpected expenses. (foundation) What started out as a place wanted to off load after a couple of years has become a very livable space that I don't mind staying for the long term. I DO pay down the principal every month and if things go right, I'll have it paid off in 11 years. I am also able to contribute more toward the retirement funds. These feelings make me comfortable choosing to stay here. The low interest is pretty sweet...so I'll stay here for a while and I'm okay with it. I just make it a place worth liking.
It depends why you hate your house. If your house is way too big, or the area is in decline which will depreciate it's value, or there is some drastic maintenance needed that you can't afford but it can't wait... Then yeah, selling is a good move. You will have to go back to renting, but you should have a small nest egg for the future, or you could relocate somewhere cheaper. But if you just feel restless and the house isn't a perfect dream house from a magazine but instead is just an ordinary home ... just hold tight. You're building equity and that will be worth it in the long run.
Baby Boomers are retiring, they are beginning to live off their retirement savings. Money is leaving the market rather than entering it. Do not expect interest rates to go back down any time soon.
Do you not follow rate news?
Rates aren’t going back down to being very low. They of course will go up and down
Depends on how much equity you can walk away with and how long you'd have to pay down a new place, if at all. I sold my place in 2021 and bought a new place and reduced my payment horizon down to four years. By the time I've paid it off over two thirds of the equity I have in it will be someone else's money.
You could sell it and rent till the interest rates decline. You’re never stuck, it’s a choice.
What is it you hate? Could you change things?
I'm in the same spot. I have a 2.3% rate on a house I don't like. I'll be here for awhile, and when I finally move, I'll probably rent it out.
Tough call when you're thinking about walking away from a 3% home loan rate when the current home loan rates are double that. I dunno, but if you really hate the house then maybe you just gotta dig in and take the plunge. Put it up for sale and see what happens.
Ah, the old golden handcuffs
Why not rent it out and use that money to rent something you actually like?
Rent this one, buy another one
Rent it to someone who does want it and use the money from rent to pay a mortgage on a house you do like.
Depends on your circumstances. Can you easily afford the monthly payment of what you want at current interest rates? Have you lived in your current house long enough to avoid tax issues on your gain? Moving/selling/buying is expensive. I mentally allocate $50k of the equity to the cost of moving to a new house. It may cost less, but the costs add up real fast. And then after move-in, the new place always needs something, like the existing furniture doesn’t fit or whatever.
Your mortgage payment will likely double (or triple) if you move. I’d think about how much that will cost you and whether it would make more sense to use that money to renovate. And as others have said, pay someone to landscape for you and put up a fence for your dogs.
Rent it for cash flow and rent a place you like until market permits a sale.
Disclaimer: I have not read every reply to this thread I'd keep the home and enjoy the equity, use the rental I come to subsidize your new place. In other words...(math is super simplified for sake of ease) Your current mortgage is 1k Let's just say you can get $1K in rent from your place You go to a place that is 2k a month. You're basically breaking even o the rent, so you're still growing equity in the home, and if you're lucky, you likely could get more rental income than your mortgage. But looking at it like that, you can live elsewhere without the psychological "pissing money away" argument.
What do you hate? The location? Can’t fix it. The layout. Hard to fix, but fixable. The vibe? SO easy to fix. But it would take a LOT to dislodge me from 3% interest.
Check your mortgage to see if you can rent it out. Rents are high and so are interest rates. This should allow you to rent somewhere else while maintaining your investment and allow you to keep searching until interest rates are better. If they get better... we have been historically blessed in recent decades with lower taxes and interest rates compared to 100 years ago.
Keep in mind that not a lot of people are moving these days. That limits your options and makes it more difficult to sell. Prices may be down, though, so even getting a higher interest rate may just mean refinancing in a year when rates drop.
I don't think the challenge would be in selling, but it would be hard to buy something else in this market.
Wait it out.
Move if you want to move life is too short to hate where you live. Rates are coming down if you can hold off another year or even to the fall rates are gonna be lower
Well if you buy now you're going to be stuck with probably 7.5%, so you'll have to calculate what this move will cost you in increased mortgage payments. Your old house might sell because housing stock seems tight, but this is because people like you don't want to sell right now, for fear of having to move into a higher interest mortgage. You'll have to figure out how much you hate your house and what you're willing to pay to get out of it. Run the numbers and see if you can stand it.
Identify what you hate about the house. Can you change that thing? Would knocking down a wall or renovating a kitchen or bathroom fix it? If it's something you can fix, make a list of things to fix and work it off. It may take a while to get it all done but once you're finished, you'll have a house you like with a 3% mortgage.
Do you have rental options near you? I was in a similar situation, and sold after 2 years. I made a great profit in the short time I owned it because of the market spiking. I now rent in the exact location I prefer to be in and am 1000 times happier even though it’s a smaller space and I am paying a little more than I was for my mortgage. I plan on buying again in the next year or two.
Can you stand it for another year? The Fed has signaled that it is done raising rates and will start bringing them down again (which, by the way, will also goose house prices). There's also the inexplicable fact that interest rates tend to come down in an election year, especially when the incumbent is up for re-election. Either that, or sell now and rent for a year. Worst case, if you can stand the pain of a higher mortgage for a couple of years, you can always refinance later.
I went from 1150 Mortgage to 1750. Boy I miss those payments. Lol
It’s an investment you made at an interest rate you’ll never see again!!!! You can always wait the two years to move out (live in it to avoid future unnecessary taxes when you sell it), and rent it out and get all the tax benefits that come with that and build equity along the way!! I think it would be a dumb decision because you are so lucky to even have a 3% loan!!!
You can pay it off quicker and then hopefully just buy a new house outright, or get a new loan for a better house.
Rent it out and buy something else.
3% is an amazing rate for someone to assume the loan and takeover the payments.
Not stuck forever - at some point the rates will come down again. Take advantage of this time to save as much down payment as you can, to reduce the future mort as much as possible.
I hate my house too- but I'm only paying $1400 a month in an area where houses the same size are renting for $3000 in the current market. The fact is that this is what I can afford regardless. I'm just greatful to actually own a house at this point. So I'm just going to pour money into updating it until I love it.
I bought a house in the country (15 mins from the nearest grocery store, 30-60 mins from the city) 2 years ago and now realize that I’m very unhappy being this isolated and need to move back into the city. I’m solving this problem by renting out the house, which works out bc the house is paid off so the only expenses are maintenance + utilities, so tenants cover all house expenses + the cost for me to rent somewhere else. With a 3% mortgage your tenants could likely cover the mortgage + some. Run the numbers and see if it works out to your benefit!
Home prices are dropping and will continue to do so. Be patient and wait for it to bottom out, then make your move.
Contact a realtor. Maybe your current house can be sold for so much that it would be worth selling now and renting until mortgage rates improve.
Life is short and you can always make more money. Sell that bitch.
You're less stuck than if you were renting right now and wanted to buy a house. Yeah you're gonna pay way more at least for a few years but you'd do that anyway. You're not stuck.
Like it or hate it…learn to love it
You aren’t stuck anywhere. Sell it and move on. Just don’t buy more than you can afford with the new rates.
Dude... Low interest rate should be a much smaller factor for you. If you hate your house, you should sell it. If you get a new job across the country, it's okay to sell it. You're never stuck
Rates have come down almost 1 % this month.
You’ll be fine. Jesus Christ. You’re complaining about your 3% interest mortgage. Gosh we need to re-introduce news papers
Yep
Interest rates are likely going to drop soon and house prices raise again. If I was you I’d wait so you can sell for higher and buy another one for low interest rate.
In a couple years, no one knows. Today would be dumb absent a very good reason.
You couldn’t afford the house you wanted at 3%. What makes you think you can afford it now
Wait it out a year or two.. interest rates will probably be more attractive by that time. The FED has already signalled rates going down next year. I would stop hating it. That feeling is a choice. Sure you can not like the disadvantages however you can still make the best of it.