House vs. Condo

I currently rent. My FI and I have been throwing around ideas on what to do next. I pay verrry reasonable rent but my location is going downhill fast. I will never have children who go to school in this neighborhood.

We can not afford a house on LI right now. MAYBE in 3-5 years. We are torn between staying where we are and saving as hard as we can and we still dont know if we will be able to afford a house..and have kids..and a dog and all the things we want. We also dont want to live solely to pay our mortgage each month. That thought alone scares me.

We are looking at a condo development that has a pool and u can have pets. If we decide to buy a condo we know that we will not be able to save for a house. Yet we can have the house "feel" --dog..pool..w/o the actual house..

I dont know what to do..Im just thinking out loud I guess. Did anyone go threw the same thing? How did you decide?

Message edited 3/22/2010 11:00:16 AM.

Re: House vs. Condo

we were in the same boat a few years back. we just waited unitl we could afford a house. I knew a condo was going to be to small for me, as I really wanted a house. and I knew we would not save much living in one, so we stayed where we were, saved as much as we could and just waiting until we could afford it.

Re: House vs. Condo

We just bought a condo out here in Dec.... Some are def cheaper than getting a house... We dont plan on staying here forever... As for saving up, we plan on putting more towards principal every month and increasing the payments every year so that we can have alot of it paid off in say... 10-15 yrs.... Then when you sell, you'll get a nice lump sum for your dream house...

I personally feel its better to own something/anything instead of "throwing away" money on rent... We did it for 1 1/2 years and it killed me every month to see the landlord fixing up their house with our money...

Re: House vs. Condo

we were in the same boat and choose a condo. Its great and we're happy, plus its "ours". We're in Holbrook. It has a pool & pets.

Re: House vs. Condo

We bought a townhouse (same idea as a condo) because we would rather own something and pay towards a mortgage instead of rent.
Can you get something on the smaller side that is affordable, yet you own it?

Re: House vs. Condo

we have a 2 bedroom 2 bath condo almost 1800 sq. feet which is larger than many of the houses we could afford and it was new construction when we purchased it in june 2008.

i do miss having either a basement or a garage but we are surviving and about to have a baby here. Even with all of his stuff, it doesnt feel small

eventually, we will sell and buy a house but we felt this was a great first step for us.


ETA - we have a dog and a cat and our complex has a pool, playground, gym, clubhouse etc!

Message edited 3/22/2010 9:12:15 PM.