Hope this is in the correct forum…
I’m 38, married and have three children with another on the way. My wife has stayed at home since the birth of our first child just over 10 years ago and has no plans of returning to work until our children are older. I’ve been working for the same company since 2003, which is located in the SF Bay Area. Due to the HCOL, it’s made sense for us to rent. I should mention that the company I work for is a niche company with no others like it within a few hundred miles, meaning that we’d need to leave the area if something were to happen to my job.
I’ve been presented with an exciting opportunity to work for a large and well-respected company, but the job is in Ohio, about 30 miles outside of Cleveland. Benefits to this job would include higher total compensation, lower COL and a new set of challenges career-wise, or so it seems. The downsides as I see them include moving away from family, leaving a job that is comfortable and relocating to an area with harsh winters and hot summers.
One of my primary concerns revolves around housing and whether to rent or buy. We are excited because, for the first time ever, we could actually afford a nice home. I’m not talking anything extravagant, but nice. My wife has a bias toward buying, as she’s newly pregnant and wants to feel settled. While I’m not crazy about the idea of moving and then moving again a short time later, I recognize there are some risks involved with buying (e.g. job doesn’t work out as planned). I should mention that buying is favorable to renting within this particular area, at least from a financial perspective.
Would appreciate your feedback.