I'm torn and looking for input.
I'll start by saying I've owned 5 houses in 3 states at varying price points. All had pros and cons,
All were eventually offloaded (sold) at a loss after renting them (also at a loss). I thought I'd be a committed renter after that, but now that my kids are getting older, constant moving is costly and disruptive. So, here I am.. Looking to buy and settle for at least 10 years.
The hard part is deciding how much to spend. I live in a suburb of Orlando, the entire county is generally safe with top rated schools. You'd have to drive nearly an hour to find a "bad" neighborhood.
Seems like that would make my decision easy- go cheap! Right?
Buuuuut.. I'm afraid I'm being a snob. I live in an upscale rental currently. House prices
Here are 400k+. I've only ever lived in working class areas before. This neighborhood- is amazingly quiet. Well kept yards. Retired people. Curteous drivers who watch out for kids on bikes. People who bring you misdirected mail. Just.. Nice.
I never really experienced this "other" side, but now that I have, I don't know if it's worth putting up with the old headaches to save money. In my less expensive houses.. 8+ cars belonging to one house piled up on either side of my street. Drunk neighbors playing Cornhole loudly at all hours.. Teenagers routinely denting vehicles with rowdy pickup games in the street.. Adult children living at home blowing through stop signs. Latchkey kids at the bus stop with phones trying to show graphic content to my gradeschoolers..
What do you guys think?
$ wise, We have saved up 850k and have no debt. Combined we bring in about 160k a year, but are not ready to retire as we have a desire to travel extensively as empty nesters and send our kids to college without loans. I currently spend $2600 in rent, which is the equivalent of a 450k mortgage payment. The cheapest house I could possibly get in this are is 375k, which is still going to cost me about $2200. I was looking at houses in the 250k-300k range, which would only be about $1800 and allow us to Reach our "magic number" in 6 years, instead of 12... Is it worth it?