An option for me to buy a house has come up very suddenly and it seemed like a good idea at first - but I look at a mortgage and think “that’s 15 years I’ll spend paying back, at absolute minimum. Probably more like 25 years” - how can I possibly plan that far in advance?
So, how did you feel about getting a mortgage and seeing such a serious commitment stretch so far into the future? I’m mainly talking about the emotional side of things rather than financial
You’ll likely wind up paying significantly more in rent. When we bought our house in 2020, our mortgage was around $300 more than we were paying in rent. I think within 6 months or so, average rental prices for a similar home were significantly higher. By this point, even an apartment costs more to rent than our mortgage (PITI).
You always pay more for rent- because mortgage payments aren’t just lost to the void, they become equity value that you can then get back out by selling later, less cost of interest. The “real” cost of your house payment in a net-value sense is only the interest, actually.