Source: Free Digital Photos
I admit that though we’re a few years away from moving, I waste far too much time perusing the local real estate market. Consider it homework. I’ve said it before but this house is far too small for our family. We will probably bring another child home in this current house but will need to move before the kid needs their own space since we really only have two dedicated sleep rooms (third bedroom is necessary home office space which Mike uses for work). I have no issue with kids sharing a room, especially while young, but this is only one reason on a big list why we need to move, and so, I obsessively search the local listings to see what we may want when time comes.
Though we don’t love our current location there are quite a few perks to living where we do such as proximity to childcare (daycare and family), great school zone, convenient for amenities and we’re a decent location for family visits, which we love. We however crave much more privacy (not an option anywhere near our current house, regardless of price range), more storage space (indoors and out), and a neighborhood with more kids (a lot of retirees in our area despite great school zoning).
Though we love a lot of ‘non-negotiable’ items about our current house (schools, family), we’re not against totally picking up and moving within, I’d say, a 45 minute radius of where we currently live which is one of the reasons we’re looking now, so in a few years we have a better idea of areas we’d like to narrow our search.
The issue I’m finding though, is deciding if I’d like my dream house (a term I use loosely) or stay within my dream budget.
I like where our numbers are at now (especially as debt decreases and our wages continue to increase). Though we could comfortably afford it when the time comes, I really don’t know if I want to increase our mortgage by $500-$600 per month. I know it will go up when we move, for no reason other than there’s an 80% chance we’ll move to an area with increased property taxes (we’re currently crazy low for the area we live) but I like the idea of keeping our mortgage and property tax payment lower than $600 per month difference.
Accepting a $500-$600 per month increase would definitely get us the house we want, and need, with quite a few options to choose from. My homework is showing me that less than this (predicted) increase and we’re looking at older homes that will require a decent amount of work. Though this isn’t always the case, $500 seems to be the threshold between finding a home we could move in and be immediately happy in, and finding a home with the space we need and maybe even the location we want, but requiring quite a bit of work.
Obviously there are ways to decrease this dollar difference, we could save longer for a larger down payment. Realistically by the time we’re done paying our debt off, have another kid and oldest starting school (I don’t want to move her once she’s too established), time won’t be on our side. I’m not completing all the above and then saving for another 18-24 months, I’ll just be honest. We will be gone within three years. If the housing market remains the same that it is, we won’t get anywhere near what I’d like for our current home too, a fact I’m bracing to accept.
So as I continue to play imaginary number games, I’m curious, would you rather have the dream house (great location, layout, school, mostly move-in-ready with 1-2 young kids and working full-time) OR get a home that you may not love but works better for your budget? (Again, it’s not even a matter or affordability, we could comfortably do it, I think I’d rather just have more money for other stuff, stuff I can’t even define right n0w, probably travel??).
Always a tough call. I think a good strategy is to live in a smaller home for as long as you could, which allows you to save up and also to understand ways that you can live that don’t require an abundance of space. Then, you might find that your dream house actually can be a little smaller than you might think.
Haha I don’t even want an abundance of space. I’d just love somewhere to store stuff like a lawnmower and my kids toys. We have zero space. We’re not looking to move into a huge home, just a better layout and more appropriate storage (like a pantry, I don’t have one).
I don’t have a pantry either and I feel the pain!!
I think I’d rather have the dream budget and find a way to work with the existing space that I have, that way I have more money to do things like travel or just have more peace of mind.
Trust me, I hate moving. If staying here was an option I would but it isn’t.
#2 my ultimate dream home is a paid off home. I don’t see my home as an investment, it is where I live and raise my family. I see so many people move in to their dream home only to see it turn in to a nightmare because of the extra expenses and then living paycheck to paycheck. If you can afford it then great, if not you might have a 30 year headache. Always best to take some extra time and run the math.
This is something that we are wondering about now. I think we want something that we can get for an affordable price, but something that we can fix up to our exact liking so that it is our dream home on a dream budget! 🙂
This is such a dilemma, and one I find myself asking a lot as well. As we’re expecting our first child, I’ve toyed with the idea of being a stay at home mom when we have two kids. This would most likely mean moving out of our current area into the valley, or selling our house and renting instead. Our house is only a two-bedroom so it was never meant to last us very long.
If I decide to continue working though, then I think we will definitely go for the dream house vs dream budget. From having this house, I’ve really learned a lot as to what I want in a house. Also, that $500 difference? We would probably easily spend that on all the upgrades we would end up having to do. This year alone, we’ve easily spent like $10-15K fixing this place up– from installing air conditioning to getting asbestos removal, to installing plantaition shutters etc… It would save me the time and headache if I could just have all the stuff I wanted from the beginning.
We have a house that fits our budget. It’s not huge, but it’ll suit us even if we do have a kid. Sure, it could be nicer. But when I get wistful, I think about all the extra space that would need to be air conditioned in the summer. In Phoenix. That clears up my priorities real quick.
We bought a house that is NOT our dream house but has some of the main features that we wanted. The house is also close to the city, close to schools and shopping but not in the midst of the chaos so it’s an ideal location and sought-after. We didn’t spend as much as we could have because it was more important to us to feel safe financially and we did it on one income thankfully as my wife lost her job a few months after buying the house. So, I would rather have a house that has most of what we want until we could save enough to buy our dream home.
I think I’d have first a dream budget so that I could be as dedicated as much so that by the time I have my dream budget, I could get my dream house from a wide option to choose from.
A dream home for me was never a really big house. To me, it just meant more to clean or the need to fill it with more stuff or hire a housekeeper to clean it for you. I think I would consider our current home right now to be our dream home and it’s our first house. It’s in a more mature, quiet neighbourhood, on a corner lot with no sidewalk , several big trees on the property, close to major highways, great layout- with great potential in terms of renovation.
My husband is a handy-man and actually enjoys doing renovations, so if anything I’d take the dream budget, fix up the kitchen and use the leftover money to travel! 🙂