>>36258
You can get a good house for less than that in most areas.
Now, am I 100% satisfied with my house and the city I live in?
No, absolutely not.
But it's human nature to always want something "more" and something "better".
At the end of the day though….I'm happy.
I live in a very good suburban neighborhood, but in a city that is overall crime ridden. Lots of poverty in other areas, gang activity, and the heroin epidemic has hit especially hard here.
But like I said, the area I live in is nice and it's safe.
I paid $225k for my house.
I spent 7 years saving up a good down payment.
It's a 3 bedroom, 2 floor, 1300sq foot home on a 8000sq foot lot. Driveway and detached garage.
Structurally the house is in great shape.
The interior is slightly outdated, having been redone in the mid 90's but everything is in good shape. To be honest, that doesn't even bother me. So, I've got a kitchen with honey oak cabinets, my counters aren't granite, and the house was built in 1951 so obviously it's not "open concept". But so what? I don't even get the open concept obsession. If I'm watching TV in my living room I don't want to see the dirty dishes in my kitchen out of the corner of my eye. And the "out of style" honey oak cabinets I have are in great shape and were extremely popular and very expensive when they were put in during the 90's. Will I have to upgrade them eventually? Sure. I'm not in a rush though, because anything I put in now will be out of style just like my current cabinets by the time I'm 50.
At the end of the day though, I'm paying 750 a month for my mortgage. And that's escrow. I get hit with fucking $3k+ in property taxes because I live in the "good" part of the city.
Of course, like I said, I saved up a decent chunk of change for a down payment because I lived at home from 20 to 27 with no rent and was making 33k a year at 20, up to 39k by the time I bought the house.
I know not everyone is that lucky.
I'll always advocate buying over renting though. The pros outweigh the cons.
Even if you can't save enough for a traditional mortgage, get an FHA. Sure, your monthly payments will be higher with PMI, etc…..but you're only going to need 3.5% down.