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SonOfMcGee t1_j2e6j7h wrote

Reply to comment by killaho69 in Wanting to make sure I can afford the houses that I'm looking at. by killaho69

I live in Northern NJ. My brother in semi-rural Michigan bought a house a while back and my wife was like, “Why didn’t he just rent a nice place. Seems more suitable for his lifestyle.”
I had to explain that in much of the middle of the country you simply cannot “rent a nice place”. Almost everyone owns their homes, even in trailer parks. And rentals are almost all low-quality homes for low-income folks to rent out of necessity.
Based on your initial post I’d say to go for it with the higher-priced place. It’s at the tippy-top of your budget but as a new build there’s a good chance it won’t need major maintenance (roof, AC, etc) for a while. Though I wouldn’t count on “just refinancing when rates go down”. There’s no telling if and when that will happen.

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killaho69 OP t1_j2eulxq wrote

Yeah you're right. Like both of the small towns near me have apartments for like $600-700/mo but the parking lot and breeze ways smell like weed 24/7, drug deals in the parking lot, etc. I wouldn't want to leave my daughter or my valuables home alone. Jump to the closest real city and apartments start turning into $1500+ real quick. Home rentals are absurd.

And yeah that's why I never mentioned in my post a goal to refi. Sure, it will be great if I can, but nothing I would bank on or build my budget around.

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