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
Alternative: you can spend that same 15-25 years paying roughly the same monthly amount in rent at various places, and have exactly zero equity or assets to show for it at the end of the period. Zero zilch nada, the money is burned and gone forever.
Frame it in that sense and it’s a no brainer.
In the current market though either try to get a variable rate mortgage or be prepared to refinance it in a few years if/when interest rates cool down. the current rates suuuuuck.
In the UK, rent is substantially more than mortgage repayments.
Landlords will cry about their maintenance costs but I’ve never seen any maintenance that wasn’t the cheapest fix possible by a cowboy family friend.
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).