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April 01, 2005
Buy v. Rent Saga Continues
God I wish our real estate decision could be as easy (and as well documented) as finslippy's: They got home from suburb-shopping and realized that -- oops! -- it's just too expensive. End of suburb v. city decision-making agony.
Not so for us. Yesterday I was all set to buy. I played around with our financial data in Excel and we made fun of the mortgage broker guy's super clean-cut photo (which appears on the cover of a little guide-to-real-estate book, an about-the-firm sheet, AND on the actual CD that came with the whole package -- he looks earnest in the photo and the photo is EVERYWHERE).
Today I was rent, rent, rent all the way. No way are we buying anything. What if we want to move to Vermont and grow asparagus? What if we want to spend six months upstate doing nothing? Plus, a friend sent a way-too-charming photo of a house in Portland, OR. On top of that, NPR mentioned something about gardening this morning and after the Macy's show I have garden-envy. So today I'm all about saving oodles of cash while renting a one-bedroom in the Slope for another year. The closing costs alone would be 20k if we bought. I mean, what moron would pay that?
Tomorrow I'll probably be gung-ho about buying again. Everyone with advice says to buy, but all the research we've done suggests renting. I read an article somewhere recently about people who are missing the little part of the brain (something right behind your nose) responsible for decision making. Clearly, that part of my brain is damaged, or was never there in the first place. We'll see whether this weekend's open house generates offers, as our brokers promise, and we're forced to make up our minds.
Posted by csageday at April 1, 2005 12:31 AM