“The Big Move” is a MarketWatch column that looks at real estate issues and breakdowns, from navigating to finding a new home to applying for a mortgage.
Do you have any questions about buying or selling a home? Want to know where your next move should be? Email Jacob Passy at TheBigMove@marketwatch.com.
I have been living in my house for 40 years. I live on 5.25 acres and I went to town to subdivide the land into a subdivision and made it pass.
I like the place where I live, but the house gets old and the kids are gone. I am a 58 year old nurse. I pay $ 800 a month in property taxes plus my mortgage, which together is $ 2,500 a month.
They offered me a pretty good amount to sell my house for $ 500,000 more than two years ago. I had another house that I liked and was going to buy, so I wanted to sell it. But the sale fell on my house, so I had to leave the house I wanted to buy.
There are no houses for sale now and I haven’t found anything I like. So I would have to rent until I found something. Should I do it? Or just wait until more houses hit the market and are sold when you find something? I probably won’t get that much, but the houses won’t be as expensive to buy either. Isn’t everything wrong?
It would be nice to spend money, go on vacation and not have to work so hard. But I also don’t want to get stuck in a rent paying as much as it was when I had my house and be unhappy because I rent g in a place I don’t want to live.
I love my home where I live! But property taxes are too expensive and I’m approaching retirement and I’m going to have to sell them. I still owe money at home and I won’t pay it before retirement unless I move.
Property costs are rising rapidly across the country, so you’re not alone in feeling burdened.
A recent study by real estate data firm Attom Data Solutions found that for an average home, home ownership was only affordable in 41% of counties across the country. In other words, in the other 59% of the county’s counties, the average family would have to spend more than a third of their home pay on housing expenses, including mortgage payments and property taxes. the property.
Many sellers are on the same boat as you. They would sell at heart rate: if they found a house to buy. The inventory of houses for sale is minimal and this creates a vicious cycle. Homeowners are reluctant to put their properties on the market because there is almost no guarantee that they will have a place to live once the sale is complete.
Renting may seem like a one-way ticket, but it’s not true. You don’t say where you live, but there’s a good chance the rent isn’t much cheaper. In fact, rents in suburban and rural areas have risen sharply amid the pandemic, as families have sought more space to live outside major cities. A separate report by Atom Data Solutions found that owning a three-bedroom house (at the average house price) is cheaper than renting a three-bedroom house in nearly two-thirds of the country.
Of course, there are other drawbacks to renting. You have no control over your future housing costs, so while you may be able to afford the rent for the first year, there is nothing to stop the landlord from earning it when you renovate. And when you have a house, you are building towards a valuable financial asset.
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A recent study found that owning a home is even more affordable than renting in nearly two-thirds of the U.S., despite rising house prices.
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With the rent, the money you invest will not be returned to you. Even if you have lower monthly costs, there are many things about what you do with these savings. Ideally, you should invest in it or save it for a rainy day and not spend it.
You’re not helpless, though. Given the low mortgage rates, although they have risen in recent weeks, I would suggest you see if refinancing was right for you. But considering the time you take home and the fact that you’re still working to pay off a mortgage, I guess you’ve refinanced a bit recently.
You don’t say what you did after you went to your local government to subdivide your land, but if I was sitting there, I would consider selling it. Having a mortgage, however, will not necessarily be an easy process.
When subdividing the land, you must obtain the written consent of the lender or mortgage administrator underlying the property, said Tom Trott, manager of a branch with Embrace Home Loans in Maryland.
“This requirement is found in most mortgages and in the standard writing language of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s trust,” Trott said. To sell a portion of the property, you need permission from your lender. But if it’s hard to come by, you still have options.
“Assuming they couldn’t get timely approval, another option would be to make the sale and refinance the remaining balance at once,” Trott said.
