An option for me to buy a house has come up very suddenly and it seemed like a good idea at first - but I look at a mortgage and think “that’s 15 years I’ll spend paying back, at absolute minimum. Probably more like 25 years” - how can I possibly plan that far in advance?
So, how did you feel about getting a mortgage and seeing such a serious commitment stretch so far into the future? I’m mainly talking about the emotional side of things rather than financial
Yes! Probably more like 25 (or even 30 years)…at the same glorious fixed payment for that entire time! How many dozen times has your prior housing payment, rent, gone up? Now, it doesn’t. The bank will never ask more from you on principal and interest in the future than it does on that very first mortgage statement.
When I bought my first house I was paying $800/month in rent at an apartment and the mortgage payment was $1000/month. I sold that house 17 years later with the last mortgage payment still being only $1000/month. I checked back on my old apartment to see what the rent was: $1400 for the same apartment I used to pay only $800/month for.
Also, you’re not forced to keep that house you’re buying for 25 or 30 years, but when you leave, its YOUR choice not the landlord’s. When I sold my house I pocketed over $135k in profit because the housing value had gone up in that 17 years.
Glorious I tell ya!
Note that this is an American experience. In Canada, every time you renew your mortgage the interest rates are set at the current rate. So people renewing their mortgages now are paying around 7% interest, whereas 5 years ago they might have been paying 2%.
One of my co-workers had his mortgage payment jump from about $2,500 to $3,500/month a couple of years ago.
Thats very true. Isn’t the longest mortgage rate in Canada something as short as 5 years or so? I have no idea how you guys can manage that. This is especially true with hot housing markets the Vancouver or the GTA where the price of homes already is insanely high.