Finance 101
Why I’m Buying My First Home at 35
Here’s a personal confession, I’m 35 years old and I still rent an apartment. I know what you’re thinking, “Isn’t she a financial planner?” Yes, I am and let me tell you that I would continue to rent forever if I could because in my personal opinion buying a home isn’t for everyone.
However, with all that being said, our (I live with my spouse Nick. He’s not my husband, we aren’t married, but we’ve been together for 17 years and honestly I’m sick of calling him my boyfriend, but no hard feelings) living situation has changed and instead of looking for another apartment we decided to buy our first home.
Do you own your home?
According to Zillow.com the average age of a first time homebuyer is 33. At what age did you buy your first home? My parents were married at 19 and bought their first house at 23. Who can afford to buy a house at 23?
When I was 23 I still had student loan debt, had no idea what life or financial responsibility was all about and I was definitely not in an emotional state to buy my first home. To tell you the truth I don’t really want to buy a home now, but I don’t think there’s another choice.
Is becoming a first time homebuyer a good choice?
I always associate buying a home with becoming an adult and I have no interest in doing that. I like paying one bill every month – in the form of rent – and I enjoy living carefree. If the roof starts to leak (which it did last winter) I can call the landlord, if there’s a weird smell coming from the laundry room (which happened last year) I can call the landlord. When I’m a homeowner I have to deal with all of that and it’s of no interest to me. Doesn’t renting seem like the much easier choice?!
Buying a home isn’t always a good investment
When I met the real estate agent and explained we want to buy our first home, the first question she asked was “why do you still rent? It’s such a waste of money.” I couldn’t disagree more. According to Bloomberg 1.5 million Americans have lost their homes since the housing crisis. I think all of those people would agree that buying a home isn’t always a good investment.
Paying rent is giving someone else money for a service, since when is that a waste of money? If I was paying rent and not living in the apartment it would be a waste of money, but Nick and I are getting something out of it so I’m not sure why that’s a waste of money.
The real estate agent continued on her home buying rant and said “When you leave you’ll have nothing in your pocket.” That’s true, I won’t have a large chunk of change from selling a house, but I had a nice place to live for the past few years with a roof over my head. That’s a win-win in my book.
We’re moving because our landlord sucks – I’ll tell you all about it later – and his behavior has pushed us towards homeownership, that combined with the need to avoid living in an apartment beside neighbors.
My question to you is, how did you know when it was time to buy your first home?
