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me_irl
(thelemmy.club)
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this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2026
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me_irl
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Just finally landed a “starter” home. 325k. During comparisons we looked at old listings of it being half that a decade ago. I still feel lucky because that’s “cheap” for a good neighborhood where I am. Mortgage and all rolled together comes in ar only $200 higher than my current rent, which will surely continue to rise every year unlike my fixed mortgage. But saving up that down payment in this economy took everything I had even with a decent salary.
We just did the same thing, it's crazy. How can rent be SO EXPENSIVE, when, now that we finally got into a house, our payment is only a few hundred more, but we've tripled our square footage, and we have a garage, and a little bit of land. It's crazy.
That payment includes insurance and taxes too. Wild.
Granted house upkeep takes money, and effort. But still.
Great job though. Persistence really pays off. My wife and I bought a house in an ok neighborhood and struggled to pay it off for almost ten years. When covid hit and they were offering 2% loans we had about $20k left to pay on it. By the time we found the next place we wanted and saved a down payment, prices had shot up, interest rates were higher, but we ended up buying points instead of using all of our money for down payment and got our current interest rate below 3%. Our old house, which was paid off, sat on the market for almost 3 months before we sold it, put all the money toward our current home, and did a refinance for the same interest rate for six figures less.
Starter homes are especially great when you know it's a starter home. You don't dump a ton of money into it, everything becomes "will this decision add value when we sell it" and you don't get emotionally tied to it. It's a stepping stone to get you where you want to be.
I respectfully disagree with that final statement. At least, my opinion on it differs from yours. Which is fine.
We're in our first starter home right now, and we definitely have plans to make changes that will potentially drop its resell value. Why? Because we live here now, and probably for the next decade, and we want to fix things that annoy us.
Namely we plan to knock out a wall to make the kitchen/dining more open, and it'll flow better into the living room too. But then it goes from a 3 bedroom house, to 2 🤷♂️
My in-laws just built a house, and I kind of hate it. They even dislike a lot of things about it, but everything they did to build that house, every decision, was 100% about resale. I don't even mean big stuff, I mean every little detail. Like they're living in a showroom. That's just not for me.
Thank you! It’s definitely been a process. Even if I never move beyond it I know having a home is a privilege now.
Pretty much the #1 reason to buy a home. I got into a $350k house in 2014, knocked my mortgage down to 3% during the COVID shock, and have been happily paying under $1/sqft for the last twelve years. No idea what I'm going to do when my son outgrows his tiny bedroom. But that's a problem for 10 years from now. Maybe we'll see another housing crash before then.
I can get roughly 3000 square feet house built in the 2000s for 325keuros. In a stable neighborhood with good schools and lots of nature.
As a Texas resident, I'll say one of the ugliest turns of the last decade has been the hollowing out of the local schools and parks. What used to be some of the biggest selling points of our neighborhood is gearing up to be an absolute blight.
Note that if property values continue to increase, then your property tax will also increase. Therefore, your monthly payments on your mortgage can increase.
When I bought my home in 2020, my mortgage was a flat $2,600 to the penny. Now it's $2850.
The one good thing about that though is that property tax is deducted from your income, so you get 30 or 40% of that back at the end of the year depending on your overall tax bracket, and depending on where you live and what your property taxes are once you sum up the entire year, even though your mortgage is $200 more, you could actually be paying less in total.
Okay, but $250 over six years is a pittance compared to the equivalent hikes in rent.
Like, I agree, property taxes keep creeping up on us. But so do fuel and food costs, utilities, etc. That's inflation for you. I'm also getting COA in my annual wage, so you could argue that I'm "part of the problem".
Compare that to some landlord who can spike your rent because the market gets a bit tight, because the interest on their debt ticked up, because they want an excuse to renovate and are looking to scare people out of their leases, because they think they can squeeze us a bit harder, or for no reason at all. I watched my $800/mo rent balloon to $2000/mo over the five years before I bought a home.
Getting a fixed rate mortgage is pretty much always better than renting, unless you need to change addressed every couple of years anyway.
I agree, I was just letting them know that a mortgage not going to stay at the same price throughout the entire length of the loan regardless of how it's set up.
It could also decrease, like if there's a massive housing value crash and your house is now worth 20% of what you paid for it, then upside is your property taxes should also only be 20% of what they were.
And the only reason why I even thought to share was because I myself was shocked when my mortgage increased after the first year, even though it was only like 60 bucks, I was like, man, I thought a mortgage was not supposed to change.
Why would the mortgage payment go up if property taxes go up?
You typically escrow your property tax payments based on an estimate from your mortgage lender.
So, if you were paying $1200 in taxes last year and $1320 this year, the extra $120/year (aka $10/mo) would get tacked onto whatever you're paying the mortgage lender.
I'm speaking from an American perspective, but usually, when you have a loan, the loan requires that your property tax be paid and that you keep house home insurance on the property. And so to prevent difficulties, what they'll do is the mortgage company will bundle your choice of home insurance and the payments for your property tax into an escrow account.
If your property taxes rise, then the mortgage company will tell you, hey, you either have to pay a lump sum to keep it at the same amount, or you have to start paying more every month.
And since property taxes are a fairly set value, it honestly doesn't matter whether you pay them over each month or all as a lump sum, you're going to be paying the exact same amount because that's the amount of money that has been charged to you for owning the property.
Ok so it's not the mortgage itself
Yes, it's your mortgage payment, but the actual debt you owe on the property has not increased.
Not if you don't make enough to itemize deductions. Ask how I know 😮💨
It's not about how much you make. It's about your deductions.
All of your property tax is deductible. All of the interest on your mortgage is deductible. If your income is low enough, all with the interest paid on your student loans is deductible. Health care costs are deductible.
If those plus your other deductions cross whatever the threshold is, then you itemize and if it doesn't, you take the lump.
That's why I like FreeTaxUSA.com because it actually does all of your deductions and then tells you which one is the better choice for you.
Gee, thanks.
Your mortgage will likely stay the same but I have some bad news about insurance and property taxes