To Buy or Not To Buy
July 10th, 2007
Saturday we made a quick one-day turnaround trip up to Oklahoma City to look for a house to rent. We’d decided to rent so we could take time to make sure that we like the city, Jim likes his job, and we have time to find a neighborhood that is convenient for work and activities. We also thought we’d stop giving our money to Lowe’s so much. What we didn’t know was that the OKC house rental situation is awful.
- $725 would get you a 3 bedroom with 1 bathroom that stunk of cat pee
- $800 would get you a place that had great space, but was last updated in 1970, carpets and appliances included
- $850 would get you a house that needs a new pier in the foundation, and is cracked from floor to ceiling in the living room, plus the hot water constantly runs in the bathtub
Now you Californians and New Yorkers might think that these prices are great, but they are not down here! You can pay a mortgage on a good house here with those sorts of monthly payments. So, we crunched some numbers, and it looks like we’re better off buying again.
So, we’re buying again.
Lowe’s rejoices.
You have to take property taxes and closing costs into account though. Not to mention the 6% realtor fee when you sell it.
If it were me, I’d expand your budget a bit, or look at apartments. $800/mo doesn’t pay for much of an owned house either when you factor everything in. Unless houses are just way cheaper in OK than they are here
Oh, absolutely. This has been an agonizing decision. We’ve probably over-analyzed it at this point.
We didn’t just look at the monthly mortgage payment. I didn’t get into the nitty-gritty details in my post, but we have an extensive spreadsheet that looks at closing costs, insurance, property taxes (which are about 40% of Dallas’), maintenance (aka Lowe’s), realtor fees to get out in a year if needed, tax benefits, and more that I can’t remember off the top of my head. It still is just about even in the end.
Apartments aren’t a good option for us with all our pets (including the noisy parrot). We need a yard for the dog.
Houses are slightly cheaper there than in the DFW area. I should note, though, that we are looking slightly higher than $800/mo. We found an almost perfect rental house at $1000/mo. Unfortunately, it was so nice it didn’t allow pets.
Glad to hear you’re taking everything into account. I hate moving, and having done it recently I don’t envy you this task. So good luck!
Hey, how close to campus are you guys wanting to be? I was going to suggest maybe Edmond, but you’ve probably looked out there. Or North OKC; the last time I was there, it looked like the homes were newer…
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I’ve only been in my house 4 days and the people at Lowe’s know my name. I must look that pittiful. Hey maybe I’ll meet a HANDYMAN wink wink, nudge nudge. Buy something stick it out for atleast two years and you may break even. My fingers are crossed for you.