Girls who bought a starter home..then moved to a bigger house..

How hard was it financially? Dh and I will need to either move or add an extension to our house in order to prepare for children..It just really scares me that we will be stuck here because of how horrible the market is doing..I need advice..tia

Re: Girls who bought a starter home..then moved to a bigger house..

hmm.. well for us, we were in sort of a different situation.
we had a small rancher on a lot of land- and we had planned on staying there and adding a second floor eventually, before kids. BUT then, DHs parents ended up having to move-- so instead of staying where we were and spending the money and work adding a second floor, we just decided to buy their house from them it wasn't bad financially for us, because ILs owned their house fully, so basically they put the house in our name, and we pay them our "mortgage" every month. they also gave us a small price break on the house,too.
this all happened a couple years ago. with the way the market is now, i would just look at how much it would cost you to add on to your current house, vs. how much you could get for it if you sold it. if you're gonna loose a major amount of money, i would stay there and add on...

Re: Girls who bought a starter home..then moved to a bigger house..

Message edited 3/19/2009 1:26:40 PM.

Re: Girls who bought a starter home..then moved to a bigger house..

Maybe a little different but we bought knowing we would be there at least 10 years. Made it to 6 then bought a house twice the size. However our payments are the same since we put more money down on this house (20%). The first we put very little so our payments were more. So it doesn't phase us. Our taxes are slightly more since the house is over twice the size.

Re: Girls who bought a starter home..then moved to a bigger house..

we are on our second "starter" house, so it may be a bit different. We made a decent profit on the first house, so we are OK with taking a small loss on this second house.

You have to keep in mind that the larger houses are also lower in price, so with the low interest rates, you will save quite a bit on the larger house's loan if you sell now for a small loss, than if you wait for your house to go up in value and buyer the next house at a higher price as well. KWIM?

Re: Girls who bought a starter home..then moved to a bigger house..

I think that we are not going to invest in a larger home. For us its easier to Dormer. The economy SUCKS right now so unless you are going to move up into something that is larger for the same price I would just wait. The economy is just getting started and not in a good way. So if you have to put extra out of pocket and not equity $$ I would wait.

Re: Girls who bought a starter home..then moved to a bigger house..

thanks girls..I feel a little bit better...thankyou for the advice!

Re: Girls who bought a starter home..then moved to a bigger house..

The way I look at it... there are NEEDS... and WANTS.

I may WANT a bigger house. Doesn't mean it's financially wise to sell what I have and buy a new one. I refuse to make stupid financial decisions, regardless of the circumstances. That's how people get in trouble.

So I will make do with what I have and enjoy it as best as I can.