Why We're Buying a House in This Market

My husband, J, is a small business owner.  We thought he was on a rocket straight to financial success about five years ago.  After struggling along for about two years we had to downsize considerably.  Eight months pregnant with our fifth child, we moved into a thousand-square foot apartment in town. 

The apartment gets amazing light all day long.  It's a charming old place in a great neighborhood.  The location is tops.  The price is very good.  However, it would fit half as many people a little a lot more comfortably. 

We gave birth to our sixth child last year.  We had a few rounds of visitors including my cousin and parents.  After my cousin left we started turning down friends who wanted to visit.  We couldn't imagine hosting anyone again, while we were so cramped, no matter how much we wanted to hang out with the people we love.  I kept thinking about the packed tenements of the early 1900s.  Even J, whose will had
been iron strong and single-purposed in paying off debt, was beginning to break down.  It's tough to homeschool five kids, nurse and change a baby, and live in a six room home.

So we started looking for different, larger homes to rent.  Lo and behold, no one else seemed to want to rent to a family of eight, not even with two months rent upfront and an additional deposit.  It was disheartening to say the least.  I think I got a little crazy. 

Then...we talked about buying.  We have been in the staunch camp of NO BUYING for a long time.  (Well, mostly J has.  I've wanted a house since the first time I opened a BHG magazine in my mom's living room.)  When the market was skyrocketing back when we were first married with our two little babies, people were all around us telling us it would be a good idea to buy.  The funny thing is, that's been the mantra for the past 8-10 years, even when the bubble began to deflate.  Thank my lucky stars, I've been married to a man who despite my puppy-dog eyed appeals, knew when he was being fed an over-valued pile of construction.

I know my friends who bought houses when the prices were really really inflated all say that they're glad they've had their home over the years.  And I totally understand that.  I really really do.  I would be saying the same thing if we were in the same house, because can you really put a price on "established" or "secure" or "settled"?  I don't know. 

I do know we've had to a do a lot of debating with people who've implied or said that it's "always best to buy" or that buying a house is always a good "investment."  So J made a spreadsheet.  Spreadsheets are pretty good at laying the numerical truth out there.  The cost of buying and maintaining an overpriced house, and paying all the interest on it, was not a good investment for us.  We could rent for less, and assuming we had extra money, actually investing it would gives us a better return than home-mortgageship.

Yet, what happens when the cost of buying and maintaining a house is less than renting a house of the same size and ammenities?  Then what?  Then you BUY! 

Obviously there are good, better and best circumstances under which a person may assume a mortgage.  (The bestest situation of all would be being able to buy a home outright with cold, hard cash!) It just so happens that at this point in our lives, we are falling under the good category of mortgage-ship.       

We would really really like more room for our family.  We are committed to our church family.  We love our little city.  We want to settle down right here.  And the house we found costs less to buy and care for than it would to rent the same sized house, even when it loses a certain amount of value.  That's why we're buying.