Here's a spinoff on the house downsizing question. Does anyone feel like they've gotten in over their heads with mortgage/property taxes/upkeep on their home? Are those payments keeping you from doing other things in life like you want to do, such as travel or eat out? Is the bigger house not all it's cracked up to be?

We are not house poor and planned it that way. 9 years ago when we were looking for a home a few months before we got married, we planned on buying a home that we could afford on my DH's salary alone. I was working full time then so we were approved for alot more. We had our first child 3 years later and I cut down my hours to one day a week, and noiw with 3 kids I work a weekend a month. We still live in the same house and we were able to refinance in 2002 to a 15 year loan at 5.375%. Our house is 1600 sf and we have a 300sf playroom in the basement we just finished last year. We still can afford a much larger home because my DH is making alot more $ now, but we are very happy with the house and space we have.

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We had put ourselves into the house poor catagory with our last house and I told dh I didn't want to do it again this time. Guess what? We are there again. We can afford the house and the bills, but there is nothing left over to play with.

We put a budgeted amount into a separate checking account for bills so we never have a problem with them, but with what is left over after gas and groceries we only have $200 for anything else for the next two weeks. That includes dr. visits, entertainment, clothing, anything other than actual bills. I know we did it to ourselves and we have discussed selling and buying less expensive, but I really want to keep the kids in the same school. We wouldn't be able to find a cheaper house right here.

When will we get smart about money?

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~Jodi~

I feel that way right now. I know it is just because we just moved, but.... This house is not bigger than our previous one,but it is in a more urban area. The mortgage is more than 400 a month more than our previous house (almost 2x as much!) The utilities are more and we are having to finish the basement, have electrical work done and put a fence in!! I know once we get all that stuff done, it will be fine, but right now, since I have yet to find a job, it is killing us!!!

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~Happiness is a large family~

yes we are. We bought a house, it is a 2 family house 2006 June. We are paying about 50% of our income each month on the mortgage/taxes/insurance. We live in a great school district, with a lot of amenities and good quality of life.
we are waiting for DH's family to emigrate to the USA, once they are here, they will be living with us and helping us with the mortgage and bills, everything will be split three ways then. Till then we are hanging by a very tight string. Each month is very tight. It should end in about 2-3 months.
We did buy the house at 330,000 with 20% down and it is valued for 485,000 right now, so it is a definate investment. just a little tough investment.

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We buy things we dont need,
with money we dont have,
in order to impress people
we dont like?
(Ramsey, D)

Oh gosh no...we're very careful about that...we've been very lucky though, Dh has always made a really good living and we've always been able to find what we wanted. We just bought a new house and the amt of money that we got approved for, for the loan, was just insane. It's easy to see how folks get in trouble...

Well, YES! But its unavoidable less than a year ago we downsized and bought a house that is 700$ a month less than our old one. Its a great house and We are happy hear but due to other changes in our life out morgage is now 50% of dh's take home. If we hadnt down sized we probably would have lost our old home by now. We moved hear with the thoughts that we were going to have all this extra money now but as it turns out we are just keeping ourselves afloat.

Thank goodness no. But, we were smart and a little bit lucky, too. When we moved here, the housing prices were very, very low so we bought our brick, 2200 sf home for just a little more than what we sold our older, smaller, not as nice home in Georgia for.

If we were to transfer today, we might be slightly house poor because of increased home owners insurance and the house itself would be more than double now (just 5 years later). We would have bought a smaller home to avoid such a situation though.

So, we planned for it and we were also lucky.

I didn't think we would be, atleast the realtor had us convinced we wouldn't be(on paper) then surprise, on the day of closing we get told they miscalculated the amount of our taxes and Insurance (all included in the mortgage) and it would be $150 more per month than we were originally told. I should have walked out of that bank,i know i felt like my stomach had dropped, but dh insisted we go thru with it, that it will be okay. We get by, it's a definite struggle sometimes!! We atleast got a good interest rate( 5.6% fixed rate). I wasn't prepared for the higher heating costs, though i knew going from a tiny 2 bedroom to a 4 bedroom house would cost more to heat. I was also in for a shock how much it costs to run an electric dryer/stove/hot water heater,since the last house was all gas powered. Yes, we could easily sell and downsize if things got so bad, BUT, the cost of houses has climbed so fast since we bought this place that we are better off staying put until the kids graduate high school and move out, then we can go back to a smaller place. Even the most run down shack around here costs more than what we bought this house for!

I am afraid dh and I are about to get ourselves into that situation. Dh and I are about to buy a $110,000 piece of property. It wil be tight for a while. Dh makes good money but it varies as he is an independent contractor so who knows how much he will be bringing in. I make decent money too so with the 2 of us it will be fine. My concern is that we are wanting to start a family before long and I am not going to want to work then. That is what worries me.
As long as we can get some other things paid off before then we'll be fine. If we can get my car and the Rhino paid off (not to mention credit cards) before I stop working then we'll have more than enough to pay the house payment then. So that is our goal to pay down as much as we can before then.
In reality it would be better to buy the land after we have paid off some bills but dh is afraid that it won't be there and the guy is already wanting to raise the price, but won't as long as we buy it now. It's dh's dream to live here so we are going to make it work!