House or family - what is your choice?

Well ideally we would've been in a home before we had kids... We're still young, me being 20 and DF being 24 in May.

However, it's not happened like that and that's OK.

We have been looking at what's on the market for a whlie now as we would definitely like to be in our own home sooner as opposed to later.

We've lucky enough to have the luxury of DFs parents wanting to help out by either paying half and we pay the other, or the most likely: they buy the house and we 'rent to buy' from them.

As is, we're on a fairly low single income, renting a 2 bedroom unit for $300 a week and we do struggle quite a bit, but at the end of the day if we were in our own home, we would be FAR far worse.

It's really hard to try work out what to do. Df has his heart set on owning his own home, and so do I... But at this present point in time, I'm just loving having my little baby girl. Sure the place we're in is small and cramped, but we're coping

Yep that sounds right Paws. Our mortgage is for $280K and is $575 a week. With the interest rates rising, we have had to change it so we are paying interest only, otherwise it was going up by $230 a month.
Obviously it would depend on how much of the $375K of the house cost is mortgaged. I think u would have to have a pretty hefty deposit to be able to be loaned that much.




Edited by Kellz

we 'only' pat $470 pw for a 270k mortgage. we really wanted to buy a house before considering children as now we can choose when we leave, not someone else. we do struggle, but I don't mind having to work part-time and going back to work earlier tan planned (still will be when #2 is 18mos old) to have security.

We chose Isabelle ... especially as we knew we wanted one of us to stay home with her there is no way I could service a mortgage, rates etc etc  in Auckland on my income (and I earn a pretty decent wage!)

Yep thats what we did!! Lol! Well not exactly work our a**es off, did plently of fun things too .

But with the interest rates rising and high house prices its only going to get less and less affordlable to our your own home.



Edited by Kellz

Yeah pretty sure it was 100% which is what we would have to have...no deposit, too much debt...*sigh*

We're ok with it though...helps having great landlords!!

We have always had great landlords too, and cheap rent. When we got pregnant and first had Michaela we were paying $200 pw in a nice suburb only 10 mins drive from central wgtn. We moved in almost 6 years ago, before we got married and although it was small townhouse and more suitable to a couple than to a young family we stayed there until last nov. We're now in a 3 bedroom family home with a fully fenced section for $300 pw (and it's only 20 mins drive from central wgtn in a lovely family friendly suburb).

One factor in my decision to have more children now rather than own a house is based on the fact that I can buy a house at any age but there comes a time when I will no longer be able to conceive children. I'll quote Emma again by saying "you don't regret the children you have, only the ones you don't have".

I actually don't think it's all that important to own my own home. It scares me to think people are paying so much towards their mortgages and the bank pockets most of it - sure I'm paying all my rent to someone elses mortgage but I am paying a small fraction each week compared to what I'd be paying on a mortgage for a similar home.

Another consideration is the freedom that we have to take off. If we decide we want to move somewhere else in NZ or overseas all we have to do is give notice (or wait till the end of our tenancy) and leave.

Finally where we can afford to buy or build is so far from the city we either need to find new jobs closer to the location or we will have to spend hours travelling to and from work - time we would rather spend with our lovely daughter.

Fortunately we haven't had to make that choice. DH was already a (part) homeowner when I met him, but we have since moved on to owning our current home together and plan to have more children. I am not 100% sure what our mortgage payments are a fortnight, but we have also forecasted that once I am in fulltime employment (by the end of this year) we will be totally debt free in just under seven years. Can't argue with that!

Yep, there's so many factors. On our current incomes, there's no way one of us would be able to stay at home with the kids, or even just work part-time. My income goes towards the mortgage and the groceries, and we live off DP's wages. We are also making extra payments to reduce the term of the mortgage by at least 9 years and possibly more if interest rates go down.

MrsMojo - I agree in part to your comment re. the bank pocketing most the mortgage payments. Although rent payments are smaller, what do you get out of it at the end of the day? Sure, only $30 of our weekly mortgage payment actually pays off the principal (at the moment) BUT that figure is going to keep rising and less and less of it will go into the "Bank's" pocket. And at the end of the day, we have our very own home to show for it, it's not "dead money" I guess. I look at it, that if we had kept renting we would still be paying $300 a week, which is $15,600 a year, to someone else and at the end of the day, we couldn't renovate, or redecorate, and we would be at the mercy of the landlords....no "security" as such. But that's just how I think of it.

We had Andrew first and then after finding out that a woman we know was on the DPB and was going to get a house of her own we looked into it and DH's parents offered to help us with the deposit. We were very lucky to get our place when we did. We got it cheap ($174K), and the mortgage payments are about $550 a fortnight. We had hassles when we got the house thou it was rented and the tennents refused to move out and the rental agency had to get bailifs in and everything, it was a mess, I was a mess and poor DH was changing the locks on the doors at 9pm at night when we finally got the house .

But to answer the question I think a house is important, it is security and when you have children it is damn hard to save for a deposit. I know a couple that is a few years older than me who have 2 children as well and they are struggling to get a deposit together to buy a house (doesn't help that they burn 20% of their wages on smokes a week).