We paid down a lot on our mortgage in the last year and refinanced so I feel more insulated right now. With the markets going the way they are, I feel like it was a good investment move - who knows in the long term but I also need to feel comfortable.
We were a couple years out from being paid off on our Halifax house when we moved to Seattle and then took on an insane mortgage in Seattle. It’s all worked out but is always my #1 concern - because of the cost of living in Seattle and mostly the mortgage, if I lost my job, I feel we’d need to immediately put the house up for sale and leave.
Good job! TONS of people use their mortgages as revolving door loans just borrowing against their house over and over again to finance things, never actually getting ahead. I know plenty of people that are the same age as me that still have 20+ years on their mortgage
You're pretty privileged in that regard though; you've never had to move, or had concerns of outgrowing your existing home, right?
Not personally. I don't think not moving is an advantage though. Know a few peeps that have moved many times and made enough profit along the way to be mortgage free long before me
I made the decision to renew for a 10 year fixed this past summer. I mean i got the "don't do it talk" from some who tried to talk my wife out of it saying "what if the rates go lower and you want to switch to variable? Then you will need to pay a penalty to get out" But my gut feeling was the rates have been historically low for so long and the inflation was becoming visibly acute so the banks are going to knock it up. Knowing I am only going to pay $1210 a month for the next 10 years gives me a sense of control over my finances. I live nearly paycheck to paycheck like many
you can usually renew almost 6 months early with no penalty so you should have hopped on that. The writing was on the wall months ago that rates are getting jacked
It wasn't that simple, not a straight up renewal, I am refinancing some equity used for renos, and sadly reno's needed for an appraisal were slow going with a 16 month old and a full-time demanding job.
we just locked in our variable. of course i would have liked to have done it earlier, but better late than never. 509k is the average house price as of last week, expected to be 580-590 by fourth quarter
Not many houses actually go on the market in our immediate neighborhood (about a 10 block radius) - one just went on last week for $1.2 million and sold for $1.6 million (USD). Smaller than our place but I would see better location. It's so tempting to put our place on the market and just head to NS to our cottage outside Bridgewater and semi-retire for a while. If I didn't have 2 kids heading into University soon...
do what most parents do and let them fend for themselves. enjoy what you've earned - tips from a non-parent
That's going to get harder and harder to do moving forward considering how jacked rent is getting. Its close to throwing kids into homelessness these days in Halifax.
I’m just going to tell my kid tall tales about “universities” and spending tens of thousands of dollars on feline gender studies degrees as my family and I traverse the post apocalyptic nuclear fallout landscape to migrate to warmer climates while avoiding the bands of regional warlords and cannibals
lol. if my kids want to take a trade up like electrician, Carpentry, plumbing, ill support them to the end. If they tell me they want to major in Liberal arts and humanities, im zipping my wallet shut and they can go try to earn enough to support that waste of money. I still have nearly a decade before I need to worry about this shit I hope.
We just landed a house and got it under asking. We were the only ones who were putting an offer down - so we got to set the conditions for the most part. Super lucky
Preach it brother It's like they don't even know you, are you even trying? Do you want me to talk to them? I couldn't let my parents foot the bill for all of my learnin. I worked summers and during high school to save for post secondary education.
bones are good. it was decorated in 84 when it was built and perfectly preserved through the last 38 years haha, so super dated. but on an acre of land in fall river so we'll be nice and close to the both inlaws and parents
If it's the house in thinking of, we almost built a place just behind it but went with another part of Fall River. It's a great neighborhood out here. Very quiet and peaceful, but still handy to everything.
We are on the landing path in Hammonds Plains but they are still high enough that it doesn't disrupt us. It's never bothered me. We considered a piece of land on Miller lake but this place came up first.
