[david422]

When you buy a house and get a mortgage, you are going to be paying MUCH more in interest (than expected). Over the course of the mortgage, you are going to be paying MUCH more than the sticker price. Between closing costs and taxes and fees maintenance, you will need more cash than you think.

My advice is look at the numbers very carefully and choose something that is (below) or fits your budget. Sudden financial issues like the loss of a job or new vehicle purchase can put a big strain on all this.

[Etheryte]

This is a topic that often comes up, but once you pry, people usually overlook inflation. As an example, let's say you took out a $300,000 mortgage 30 years ago. The inflation adjusted cost of that today is $634,546 [0], so figuratively you end up paying more than double the sticker price just because of inflation.

[0] https://www.calculator.net/inflation-calculator.html?cstarti...

[Another_Act_]

Eh? This is totally backwards. The amount you owe is fixed, e.g. 300k. Inflation means that that 300k is worth less and less as time goes on. Therefore, inflation is a good thing for debtors!!!

[ninetyninenine]

The slower you pay off that loan the more you save because of inflation.

The faster inflation goes up the better a loan on an asset is. Because the asset doesn’t inflate.

Inflation is a reason why you want to buy a house.

[bluedevil2k]

What?? Something’s off in your statement. Inflation is actually a good thing when it comes to buying a house. You buy a house, get a (fixed) mortgage, and make set payments for the next 30 years. However, the payment amount never changes so as inflation takes effect over the years, your “real” payment gets cheaper and cheaper. In my case, the $1500/month I started paying in 2011 was worth a lot more than $1500 is worth today.

[mitthrowaway2]

What do you do when the people you're bidding against don't understand this?

[hintklb]

it's called renting.

Americans are obsessed with owning a home at all cost. This means that you are effectively bidding against people that do not even do the math. They are ready to spend Millions of dollar on something that is comparatively cheap to rent.

The fact that absolutely everyone wants to buy pushed prices through the roof. The good news is that you can take the other side of this bet. it's called renting.

Currently in most places in the US you will save literally millions over the 30 year mortgage by renting and investing in the market instead.

Reminder that renting and owning is functionally almost exactly the same thing.

Never trust your realtor and never trust other homeowner that most of the time never did the math (We all know those people: "I bought my home for 500k 15 years ago. It is now worth 1M$, therefore I made 500k$").

In other words, let other people take the irrational side of this bet and take the rational side by renting. It's an arbitrage opportunity.

[cpursley]

I feel like most of the response to housing comments are from coastal US perspectives where the math really does not work at the moment. But that is not the case everywhere nor outside of the US.

[nothercastle]

You wait and invest In something else and you try to convince your spouse that living in a super nice neighborhood as a renter isn’t a bad deal. But sometimes you lose rational arguments on feels and that’s just life

[gaws]

> When you buy a house and get a mortgage, you are going to be paying MUCH more in interest (than expected). Over the course of the mortgage, you are going to be paying MUCH more than the sticker price. Between closing costs and taxes and fees maintenance, you will need more cash than you think.

This. No idea why people fall into the hype of owning a house they can't afford in the long term.

[tootie]

Also, there's no shame in renting and it's frequently a better financial decision.

[riffraff]

If you get a mortgage you're also getting extremely cheap credit compared to other options in many jurisdictions.

One should do proper accounting as things change wildly from one place to another.

[bozhark]

Exactly, calculate total cost of loan vs. cost of purchase