Owning a home is an awesome feeling, let me tell you! Though we don’t own our home outright yet. Maybe we own a bedroom and a bit of the kitchen? Some grass in the yard? Like most people we had to take out a mortgage loan in order to buy our house. There are many different types of mortgage loans out there these days. We chose a 30-year, fixed rate mortgage.
Here’s what we considered in choosing a 30-year mortgage:
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The New York Times, in their Your Money section, recently ran an article titled In Defense of Home Ownership. In the article the author, Ron Lieber, takes to task the notion that now is a horrible time to buy a house. He mentions that despite the bad housing news we hear, stocks going nowhere, and unemployment not getting better, now can still be a good time to buy.
Here are his cases where home-buying can still make sense:
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Among the many responsibilities a home-owner can have is a lawn. For us, we’ve been pushing that responsibility on a landscaper who comes by once a week to mow the lawn, trim the edges, and weed the garden. But this will be the last week he comes because next week we’re going DIY – We’re going to do our lawn and garden ourselves!
Buying a home is a huge financial decision. Among the myriad decisions you need to make is deciding what type of mortgage loan to take out to finance your new home.
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We can officially say we are moved in! Ok, we were moved in a week ago but I didn’t have an internet connection until today (I’m not counting Starbucks) so I couldn’t say it.
Besides closing and becoming home owners, we’ve had to make sure everything here at the new place is all set up. This includes: gas, electricity, cable, phone, water, and more. We also have to register our daughter for school in the Fall. Do you know how many documents you need to register a child?!? Of course what you need is proof of residence but we don’t have any utility bills just yet. We managed to get the utilities to send us letters saying we will be using their services at our address.
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It’s done. We closed on our home this past Friday. We are now officially home owners!
I can’t believe it’s complete. It was only a few months ago that we started looking for a house. We fully expected to be moving into a new home in the Fall but here we are with the keys to a new place. When we sold our co-op last year the process took so long; perhaps about six months total. I kidded with my wife – “Watch, we’ll end up buying a home lightning quick!” I didn’t think that would actually happen!
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The First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit deadline is quickly approaching. Those who signed contracts by April 30, 2010 have until June 30, 2010 to close on the deal in order to qualify for the tax credit. To recap, the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit was initially extended in November 2009. At that time, the credit was also expanded for existing home owners as well. For first time home buyers the credit is $8,000 and for existing owners, buying new primary residences, the credit is $6,500.
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“What are these home costs?!?” you scream to yourself as you start your life in your new home. You went through your budget with a fine tooth comb, making sure you could afford the mortgage payments. You negotiated the house price and got a good interest rate on the mortgage. You know what your local taxes will be and you home insurance costs. You thought you were set. Then the OTHER costs rear their heads. You quickly realize that owning a home isn’t all about being able to pay the mortgage.
There are a number of other costs you need to consider before you buy a house:
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On November 6, 2009 The Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act was signed into law. This move has resulted in the extension or expansion of the first time home buyer credit which was enacted previously. In order to receive the first time home buyers tax credit you must first understand who qualifies and how you should proceed in order to get the most benefit from the tax credit. Here we look at two frequently asked questions regarding the first time home buyer credit.
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My wife was vacuuming the house. She notices that the vacuum isn’t picking up as well as it should (this has happened before and we had discovered that the hose was backed up). No big deal. Then we smell a real nasty smell of rubber burning. And the vacuum stopped picking up dirt. Oh no. “Great, we have to buy a new vacuum,” I say to my wife. “What did this one cost us? Around $150-$200? Maybe we can get a good deal with it being the holidays and stores are trying to get rid of their inventory,” I say, trying to find the silver lining. Just what we need though, another expense.
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