House Poor

Ucsdryder

Ucsdryder

WKR
Joined
Jan 24, 2015
Messages
7,884
Do you consider yourself house poor? Or have you been house poor? Do you regret it? Would you do it again? Any gotcha things to think about other than the obvious?
 
Yes, no. A little bit according to my budget but we wanted something nice. We would need to increase our household income by 70% if we bought it again today so I guess we’re house rich?
 
A house is just a box to live in. Some boxes are way betters than others, and in way better parts of the warehouse but it’s just a box.

If you’re buying with two incomes, make sure you can cover it with just one.

My wife and I could live in a much nicer box, but we put a ton of money away for retirement, and college fund for the kid each month, we buy whatever we want (within reason), and are able to travel way more than we deserve. We drive paid off Toyotas that won’t be replaced until the wheels fall off of them.


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Sort of fell into the house poor category… wife wanted it bad, it’s on 6 acres 5 min from town… unreal views…
double the size of our old place with a barn… but it’s a fixer upper 🙄 things are a bit tight, but not crazy. She has a business loan ending in a few years which will free up about our new mortgage every month which will be sweet, will be in the market to refi in a year or two hopefully (Kevin warsh willing) . Went from pretty maxed out on space and equity to what I believe is a really cool spot, with killer views and I can shoot on the property, maybe even tag a PLO buck if one slips up in Nov. all I know is that they are making any more land these days so I’m glad to have my little chunk.

It kind of sucks not being able to just busy random RS Bs at a whim haha but I have everything I need for hunting and then some. Plus our kids are super young so it doesn’t feel like we are sacrificing vacations or other ways we would spend extra money, we are both still investing and working, it’s kind of scary signing the line for a big note but very little in life is final
 
I'm opposite. 51k left on mortgage @ 2.25%. No reason to pay it off with investments trumping that. I too am looking for a new house. Unfortunately where I live, an acre of dirt 3-400k. I'm torn on building a custom or just buying a bigger house. Either way, it's alot of money. I'd have to burn majority of my savings to get my payment where I'd be comfy. Having a mortgage I can pay each month by working 1 day OT has been eye opening. Not having any space for toys has helped me save a ton of money. SxS and trailer plus 3 vehicles and my current house is maxed out.
 
I consider myself the opposite. My father always told me to never be “house rich and cash poor”, which is the opposite of your context.

My wife and I bought the minimum house that we could live in forever. It was about 60% of our budget. It’s been a great decision. I’ll be able to have it paid off in about 5 years total. I wanted absolutely as little maintenance as possible so I could spend as much time as possible traveling and hunting. My house is not my recreational space.

Don’t forget, the bigger the house, the more furniture you have to buy, and the more that utilities cost.
 
What is considered house poor? I have never been what I would consider house poor. And I couldn't ever talk myself into it either. My wife and I rented until we were 28. Bought 11yrs ago. 2000sqft on 3 acres for $107,000 @ 4%. Worth $180,000 today and will have paid off in 9yrs
 
KsRancher said:
What is considered house poor? I have never been what I would consider house poor. And I couldn't ever talk myself into it either. My wife and I rented until we were 28. Bought 11yrs ago. 2000sqft on 3 acres for $107,000 @ 4%. Worth $180,000 today and will have paid off in 9yrs
Click to expand...
Two meanings in my mind. First one being that you made a bad financial decision. The second being that the median home price and income is out of balance in your area. If you’re in the second example you could move but circumstances can make that very difficult.
 
Live in a great neighborhood in a nice house. The itch to get out of town keeps growing. I grew up with horses, Herefords, chickens and a pond full or largemouth and catfish. I want that for the kids and it’ll be uncomfortable. The smart thing would be to finish off the current 3% mortgage, but then the kids will be graduated and never experience what I did.

It’s really going to hurt, but we can swing it and back it up with investments if the shit hits the fan. At least on paper that how I see it… thus the question for people that have done it!
 
My parents were what I would call house poor. The monthly payment was so high that we couldn’t do anything else. We didn’t go on vacations, we didn’t have cable, we didn’t go out to eat ever, but we had a decent house on a bayou. So growing up I could go fishing out my back door, go kayaking, fixed up an old John boat as I got older, etc. It was a great way to grow up. If given that situation where you could be “house poor” in a great place to live and your quality of life would be better. Then yes, I would do that. If you had to stretch yourself to be house poor in suburbia, where you hated it, I would give that a long thought.
 
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