Decision-making

[talyen]

I wish I were a bit better at it.

Do I stay in the area that I like for its liberalism, convenience, and walkability, even though it's going to be harder to find a home I can afford because it's more expensive (home values are quite stable right now)? And the assigned grade school is quite horrible and I'll have only a few years to convince the few nearby parents to stop sending their kids to the great nearby private schools using vouchers, and to work for the improvement of the public school.

Or do I move to a neighborhood slightly farther away, quite popular right now with a pretty good new school, where the home values are improving even in this market, but without some of the neighborhood features such as grocery stores and walking to work and libraries and such things?

Or do I rent a 2br apartment in my neighborhood and keep saving up money while I work toward adopting?

This last seems financially stupid and yet has a lot of appeal when I can't make up my mind. I really don't want to leave my neighborhood, having finally come to terms with living in Cincinnati. This decision-making stuff is for the ... birds ... dogs ... other people than me. I suck at it.

Comments

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

You're planning to adopt. If you buy a house now, I'd think that good schools would be high on the requirements list.

Convincing parents to stop sending their kids to great nearby private schools seems like more of a long shot than you'd want to risk the quality of your own child's education on. Working to help a good school become a great school is a lot more likely to be within reach than working to make a quite horrible school into a good or great school.

Setting yourself up to have to move again within a few years seems more financially unwise than continuing to rent for a few years.

What makes continuing to rent financially stupid when it leaves you in a neighborhood you like for your current lifestyle and you are undecided about where you really want to buy?

[talyen.livejournal.com]

If I continue to rent, I still have to move ... I don't have enough bedrooms for kids. (and btw, wow, you're a good rememberer!)

So I am thinking about renting here, or moving here once I find something, or moving there. All requiring a move. Houses being much more expensive than renting (nearly double rent), and good investments presumably.

There are too many factors and none of them except the ease of walking to stores and the school have any priority for me, so making a decision seems impossible for me.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

When do you get one or more kids? Having a house you own then makes sense. Living in the neighborhood you like now makes sense until the kids are in the picture...and nearing the timing to go to school. (Which depends on their age(s) when you get them.

The house is going to be primarily where you live. Its investment value is secondary to that, and the path to realizing the earnings from that investment is often not a smooth one. Pulling equity out involves borrowing (and paying interest on the loan); the only real way to get the earnings requires selling. From an investment standpoint, you end up with a lot more financial flexibility if you invest the difference between renting and buying until the time that you need the house. (It's also a good measure of your ability to handle the financial burden of the mortgage.

I've been very much pro-home ownership all of my life, and the decision to buy rather than rent certainly served me well when it came to sell Toad Hall. But, then, I'm also horrible at saving and investing, so the house investment served me in that regard, too. But I've also come to learn that there are times that renting is the better financial decision, especially for 1-5 year periods of time (or so).

The issue I see right now is that the neighborhood you've settled into and enjoy living in is suboptimal for your future plans -- how much house you can buy there is limited due to high prices and the school sucks. That makes it sound like a great neighborhood to rent in for as long as renting works for you. Buying and settling into what will be your family home when you have kids is something I'd think best done before the kids arrive...and maybe even soon, if buying now will help you feel more settled, and more like your life is on track and moving forward.

Yes, you're right, there are lots of factors. But you've wisely identified which ones have priority for you. Right now, the two neighborhoods you're comparing each offer just one of your two top priorities. Are there any neighborhoods within your price range that offer both? Or is it only a choice of one or the other? The deal is, schools become much more of an issue when you have kids who will be going to them. So if you really do have to chose schools or walk to stores, I'd recommend pushing off buying until you're very close to the time the schools will be used.