If you really think owning would cost you double your rent you obviously live under a rock. You think landlords are losing money every month renting to you?

However, I moved to Florida in January and last week my apartment complex left me a note to tell me that my rent was going up 15% at the renewal. When I considered the fact that I would be paying in rent in Florida what my mother pays in MORTGAGE in Georgia, I couldn’t continue to rent.

So right now I have a contract on a house and am in the middle of negotiations on the house. It took a lot of work to avoid HOA’s with fees equal to 1/4 the mortgage each month, flood plain area, and rapacious mortgage lenders, but I’m still in the game. No one tells you that although the Fed keeps cutting the interest rate, the mortgage interest rate keeps climbing….Nasty little surprise. It’s taking all my savings but I would rather have the tax credits every year than continue to let me money just slip away.

Don’t feel bad. If you’re anything like me, something will happen that will force you to swallow your fears and jump in the home ownership pool.

It’s a personal choice, and if you are not ready for it, you are not.
But NOTHING can beat the feeling that comes with owning your own home, knowing it’s yours, having the mortgage paid off, and never having to pay a property payment again. It’s no landlord to evict you – it’ security – it’s sleeping at night. :) If you are ready to settle down, then I highly recommend it. If you are not, then you would feel it was a millstone around your neck. Whereas, I feel it is the best sleeping aid, relaxer, calmness ever invented :) Nothing gives me greater internal peace than knowing I am in my own home til I die. Settled. Content. Happy.

1. You could afford it – depending on where you chose to live. Here mortgage payments are the same or LESS than rent. My prior house payment with tax/ins was on $510. I paid off the house in 10 yrs. This house was mostly a rollover of the money, with $150/month for a small portion of a remodel/addition loan, that was paid off in 18 months. Now, only taxes and insurance, which on a monthly basis are under $100/month. Is your rent less than that? :)

2. It is a responsibility – and if you aren’t up to it, that’s that. But, being able to grow a huge garden of delicious food, and put in entirely edible landscaping are wonderful things that one cannot usually do with a rental. Or a condo or apt doesn’t require much upkeep.

3. No way out of that one … If you’re not ready, then you’re not ready. It’s wise to know one’s own self and follow one’s heart! No debate.

4. Have you looked at smaller homes and seen all they have to offer? Buying big is a LOT more upkeep.

5. There is less risk involved in OWNING :) No landlord to kick you out. No landlord to quit making his/her payments and you get evicted. There is security in having your own place, once the mortgage is paid off. I never buy worrying about resale – but about the payments being less than rent, and you have to live somewhere :)

6. My house insurance is $338 per year – I was paying $300 for renter’s. Not that much difference here – again, depends on your location.

7. You ARE paying property taxes…it’s just in the form of rent that your landlord uses to pay his/her property taxes. It comes out of the rent you pay.

8. What HOA? None here. None in most of the areas of my county. And why would you want to live in an HOA area anyway? Sure there are city and county ordinances, but those affect renters as well as buyers. And as a renter, you have to adhere to your landlord’s rules, which are sometimes more than an HOA would be. There are always rules…. sorry :(

What it boils down to is that you feel you are not ready nor willing. And it’s always wise to follow your gut feeling. Good luck!