house thoughts

[tielan]

There's a part of me that wants to mortgage to the hilt to get the house we want.

And there's a part of me that thinks this is a bad, BAD idea...

Comments

[beatrice_otter]

The problem with mortgaging to the hilt is that you've got no flex room if something goes wrong. Basically, you're betting the farm (literally) that everything's going to go exactly right for the duration of the mortgage.

Also, consider this: there's a group that's been doing some interesting research lately on what makes people happy. (The book "Happy Money" is based on this research, and it's pretty good.) They found, to their surprise, that one's domicile--the state of one's housing--actually doesn't contribute much to one's state of mood overall. One's roommates or lack thereof counts quite a bit; so does the length of one's commute. But as long as the housing itself meets a bare minimum of habitability (and that bare minimum is pretty low), it doesn't much affect your level of happiness one way or the other. The pressure of debt you strain to meet, on the other hand, can make a great deal of difference to one's overall happiness.

Take from that what you will.

[tielan]

Yeah, I'm aware of the issue of wiggle-room and how important it is. The last time I took out a mortgage, I was made redundant a bare four months later, and ended up playing it very close to the line for the better part of five years before I went into a permanent job and things steadied.

One of the issues re: commuting distince is that a location with a shorter commute to the centre of Sydney is going to be more expensive to buy. And since most work that I do - IT business applications - is likely to be in the city, this is a concern.

We'll almost certainly be taking out a mortgage - it's part of the conditions the parentals attached to taking the inheritance from my grandmother (there are reasons for that, mostly related to the sistren) - but it doesn't have to be a large one and can almost certainly be paid back without unduly stressing us.

[colls]

Whatever you end up doing, have fun house hunting!
It's actually kind of fun to troll around neighborhoods looking at places and imagining living there, mentally painting the walls, etc.

[tielan]

Oh, my sister and I definitely do that!

"Cat room!"
"Oh that carpet's gotta go."
"And the wallpaper."
"I rather like the wallpaper."
"You can keep it in your room, I'm stripping mine! Actually, the downstairs room, all it needs is some red curtains and a videocamera...if you know what I mean..."