Hello all!
I'll be moving here in January/February to Aurora, IL. Looking for advice or opinions on things I haven't thought of.
I'm 32 years old.
I'm moving for a job that will pay about $4,500/mo before taxes. Wife owns her own online business that is bringing in about $3K/month (it's been growing like crazy but we're unsure of how much it will drop after holiday season).
I don't plan on us living there forever. Maybe 3-5 years. We've never owned a house before. We were trying to get to a 20% down payment on something in the 200K range but had some medical issues that will mean that we either buy at 10% down payment or have to sign a one year lease to save up enough again.
So, we're deciding between renting and buying. It looks like in the area, renting anything we want to live in for a long time will be in the 1300-1500/ month range. We have a dog and work from home, so will likely be looking at 3br houses with a yard. It looks like with a standard 30yr mortgage and escrow we'd be at about 1500/mo as well.
I'm quite handy and looking for projects, so we'd really like to get a fixer upper in the 150K range and do some renos. That might make it worth buying. If we know we like working on houses, but only plan on being there for 3-5 years, is there a prominent reason to rent or buy? If we get caught in a housing crash or something it's not a huge deal if we live there longer.
What am I missing?