I am 28, have been renting apartments for about 7 years, and live in a high cost of living area. I am a teacher, have been on my job for 6 years and have a credit score in the 700s. I do have debts (student loans and credit cards) that I manage well. I am set to pay off the majority of my credit cards soon. And I am newly married.

My husband and I are currently renting a 1 bedroom apartment. When the lease is up in 8 months, we are definitely moving out. We are going back and forth over whether to rent or buy. The thing is….we don’t have a lot of money saved to put down but I can qualify for the FHA. And I am currently a teacher and see a lot of programs advertised for teachers getting mortgages.

Here’s my issue. Our new place as a rental will probably cost between 1600-2000 a month and that’s to downgrade our neighborhood. I don’t want to pay that to rent. If we buy a home, we may pay that or less for the mortgage.

The other situation is that the homes I feel comfortable choosing (around 0,000) are not in great areas. Some of the homes are situated in bad neighborhoods and some of the neighborhoods are kind of ok but not that good (at least not compared to where we live now). It’s like we would be going from a place that’s kind of upscale to one that doesn’t have a good reputation. I look at it as starting out and think it’s OK. My husband doesn’t seem to understand that there is nothing in our price range close to where we live now.

The things is… I make more money than my husband at the moment. My mom has told me that I should just make the choice as to where to live since it mostly hinges on me.

My husband wants a house but is absolutely resistant to living in a bad area or an area that he perceives as bad. He is from the Caribbean and has never lived in the "ghetto" in the U.S. Ever since his mom has brought him and his siblings here, she has worked hard to keep them out of the rough neighborhoods. As bad as this sounds, he doesn’t really want to live in an all black neighborhood—and we are black. I have no problem with being in a black community since I am a black woman but I don’t want to put a rift between us either. He wants to be in a place that has a diverse group of people.

Anyway, I’m looking at a home as an investment and don’t plan to live there the rest of my life- maybe for the next 6 -7 years until I upgrade. What would you do if you were me???

5 Responses to “Would you buy if you were me? And would you move to a "lesser" neighborhood in order to own?”

1. Common Sense Says:
   February 24th, 2011 at 1:57 pm

   Don’t be in such a rush to own…it really is over-rated. a 250K mortgage will cost a crapload more than 2000 a month in insurance, taxes, upkeep, etc etc.

2. Murzy Says:
   February 24th, 2011 at 1:57 pm

   the worst house in the best neighborhood is always better than the best house in the worst neighborhood

3. Sharon B Says:
   February 24th, 2011 at 1:57 pm

   I have a lot of info for you. First of all have you been pre-qualified by a professional mortgage loan officer who knows what they are doing? Really? Your payment should go up when you go from renting to owning and that should not be a problem because you will have an awesome tax write off. I know you feel you can not handle a larger payment, but condsider you can take more dependents on your income and get more cash in hand per month. At the end of the year you will not owe in taxes because of the write off. Turbo Tax has a program where you can put in the information and see what you can do monthly.

4. floppsy Says:
   February 24th, 2011 at 1:57 pm

   I would choose location as the most important factor in purchasing a home. You can buy a fixer-upper in a good location and fix it up. If you buy in the ghetto, it will always be the ghetto and most likely will get even worse with time.

5. brear renard Says:
   February 24th, 2011 at 1:57 pm

   You’ll find a couple of great tips on this topic. check out the tips over on http://www.loanresources.tk

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