But maybe I'll just sing about it

2005-05-24 - 10:49 p.m.

I've been thinking quite a bit recently about real estate. I feel a lot of pressure to by my own place. It's scary though because I know so little about everything.

Everyone tells me I need to buy a place because it will help with taxes. I can't help but wonder, though, how much will it help? I suppose they must know what they're talking about. And I should buy because then I won't be throwing money away on rent. Ok, I get that. On the other hand, I did one of those mortgage calculator things and it tells me that if I put a 20% down payment on an average-priced place in this area (which at the moment I can't even come close to affording, but let's just say for a moment that I could), then I'd have a monthly mortgage payment of about $1500. That's significantly more than I pay for rent now. Plus I'd have to take care of upkeep, both financially and physically.

But, they tell me, what I really want to do is to build equity. I'm so dumb. What's equity? I mean, I have a vague idea of what equity is but what exactly does having equity get me? I don't know.

Anyway, so I've been thinking that since I'm single, I really don't need to buy a house. I mean, a condo would do just fine, right? I haven't ruled out the idea of a house, but I'm definitely leaning towards a condo at this point. So I started looking on the internet for options. So far I've only looked within the city. I haven't looked down south in Renton or up north in Shoreline or anywhere on the East Side. Maybe these places would have cheaper houses I would like.

But the thing is, I'm starting to think I may have done myself a disservice by choosing to live where I live now. I like it too much. It's not perfect here of course, but this apartment is very spacious and has big windows. And I absolutely love the location. It really doesn't get much better than this. I mean, how much farther away could I live from work and still feel comfortable walking home by myself at midnight? Perhaps even where I am that's not the best idea, but still. And I love being able to walk to everything. I will be sad to move away to some place where I can't easily walk to the waterfront whenever the urge strikes.

That said, I still found myself drooling over one condo in particular. It's a two bedroom ground floor apartment with a large garden area out front. I think I've actually walked right by it once when I walked around Lake Union back in early January. In fact, I think I took this picture (which was posted in this entry) while standing directly in front of it (the condo would be off to the left in this picture). It's basically across the street from Lake Union. There's the condo, the street, and then the lake. The problem is, of course, that it's 2.5 miles from work. I could probably bike to work, which would be interesting, but I couldn't just walk to downtown on a whim. Although really, I'm not sure why I'm letting myself drool since I can't afford the down payment (I have enough in the bank to pay about a 6% down payment at the moment, which just won't cut it, I don't think) and by the time I can afford it this condo will be long gone from the market. Oh man, though, I definitely am drooling.

I don't even know how to go about getting started buying a house. Is it possible for me to save up enough money to seriously be on the market for my own place any time soon? A few of my friends have been buying houses but they've had their parents help them with the down payment (except DeenPo who's buying a very expensive house entirely on her own, but she's been working like a crazy person for three years and hardly spending anything). I'm sure my parents can't help me much financially. My brother maybe? One of my grandfathers perhaps? I don't know. I'm not sure I even want help that way, though. Maybe I'll get a chance to talk this over with my parents this weekend. They may not be able to help financially, but they do have some practical experience in the matter.

But then, even if I could afford a down payment, I still have a year-long lease on this place. And while I can afford a mortgage payment, I can't afford a mortgage payment and rent on this apartment. Although I did have the idea that since it's a two bedroom condo maybe I could rent out the other room for a little extra income for a while.

I don't know, I'm probably crazy to even think about it.