Why did you buy?

[GreyhoundsRUs]

We didn't buy during med school because we were hoping to move someplace else for residency. We did buy here, but we have a 5 year residency. If it were 3 or 4 years long, we may have rented. We have a similar turnover situation to others here - we bought in the resident prie range and hopefully won't have trouble selling at the end of 5 years. One of our senior residents actually already sold their house...for July!

We bought, and were stuck with it for a full year after moving, and had to bring a check to closing. Carrying that other mortgage really held us back from the "running start" we could have gotten with the jump to an attending salary. If we'd been moving for a fellowship, we'd have been sunk for sure. Hussey that i has now surpassed our nightmare, but ours was bad enough that I seriously consider eventually just remodeling this place rather than trying to sell it. The idea of putting a house on the market just terrifies me.

Remember, it's not only Jenn & I who have had this nightmare. Matt (still, I think) has carried his house in Pensacola, and Heidi (AttheBeach) is carrying a house in Cleveland after moving for fellowship. I would not buy in this climate - especially not for 3 years.

[DCJenn]

Our friends who moved to Colorado are still waiting for their house here to sell- it's been a year and a half. and it's prime downtown SA real estate sitting on three city lots and was completely overhauled including having the porch taken off and rebuilt. So- even in desirable markets at decent price points, it's hard.

The only plus to buying now, depending on where you go, it that it is a total buyer's market so you can get some good prices from desperate people. I still wouldn't do it though- not for only three years.

Jenn

[Chrisada]

Another resident here just bought their home for only three years and want to get the hell out of here as soon as he is done. I wouldn't have bought in their shoes. The only reason I felt comfortable buying is that we want to stay in the area.

[MarissaNicole]

I WANTED to buy for medical school but I am SOOO glad we were not able to. I wanted to because I had some belief that we would be able to buy, and sell higher when we left.... a lot of people were doing that at the time and banking off of it.

We bought for residency because it's 7 years (and although I hate to say it already we'd like to stay here (the thought is that we can stay here through residency plus 1-3 years and then move into our dream home). We had also saved and I was fricken tired of moving all the time, and tired of having no storage, so I'm not gonna lie, I was a little over-eager to buy, as in I kind of had my mind set on it. The market also allowed us to be able to afford to buy because the prices had dropped so significantly, and the $8k tax credit was a nice bonus.

Closing costs are several thousand dollars, so financially its expensive to buy if you're not planning on staying a place more than 3-4 years.

[ladymoreta]

We bought because we hope to be able to stay in this home for 2-3 years after residency (4 years), and the area is currently growing. Our estimated home value is still rising according to Zillow. Lots of residents move here, and it's a popular location for both new families and retired empty-nesters.

[ides]

We had originally planned to stay in NYC after training but between having a child and looking at financial realities as well as what we want in the future & for O, it's just not somewhere we can afford to stay. The cost of living is outragious and frankly not worth the substandard living conditions. We were in no position to buy either and probably be renters for life if we did stay. If you buy an apartment in NYC you also have to pay maintenance fees which (in our building) range from $600 - $1000 on top of your $500k 1mil + mortage. You can totally be rich and poor at the same time NYC.

On another note, in med school a lot of students parents bought condos & townhouses with the intention of making a bit off it when selling four years later. The market was still rising then so it was probably a good investment at the time.

We decided to rent even though we have a 6 year residency. We were able to find a great house owned by a guy who had just finished residency and was moving far away for An attending job. It's in a great neighborhood, 2 minutes from the hospital and took our big dogs no problem. We thought about buying, we even looked at some places but the crazy crunch to get the tax credit was too much stress and we figure that if we but this summer we will still have 5 years here which would hopefully make buying worth it. We live in a place that was not as affected by the bubble/crash so I'm really hoping that we can get a good deal and have a good chunk to put down between my income and his by next July. I would LOVE to really have our OWN space!

[GrayMatterWife]

We bought because: (1) we were in a long residency; (2) we had children and needed sufficient space; (3) we wanted to live within walking distance of the hospital; and (4) the only way to get the amount of space we wanted in the location we wanted was to buy--if we rented anything equivalent, we literally would have been paying very close in rent to what we pay a month in MORTGAGE--on a 15 fixed!. If we had wanted something smaller or in a different location and renting would have been a better financial option, we would have rented. I have no love for being a homeowner. It is a pain.

We bought for our 4-year residency. We thought we might stay in the area, we figured it was a better investment (at the time) than throwing away money on rent, and it was before the housing crash. We sold just a few months before the crash.

For the 3-year fellowship, we looked at buying but ended up renting. *whew* I cannot tell you what a relief it is not to have to sell when we move next summer. Buying is stressful enough.

Ditto what everyone else has said. Rent if you can, but if you do buy, get something standard in a neighborhood where houses are moving fast.

[MissCrabette]

Thanks for your responses, everyone. No, we're most likely not planning on buying. To be completely honest, I wanted to know your reasons for buying a house in a short-term situation to stop myself from launching into a tirade about what a colossal mistake buying would be. I thought that surely the iMSN peeps would have some very good reasons for buying instead of the old myth that renting is a waste of money.

Personally, I'm a big chicken. Buying with such a short horizon in mind is not a risk I'd be willing to take. Depending on the market and the type of rentals and homes for sale available, you might only begin to break even after 4 or 5 years, and that's assuming that you won't have any trouble selling, that you won't have to pay the buyer's closing costs, that you won't have any costly repairs or improvements, and on and on. But that's just my opinion and the reason why I wanted a different perspective on things.

[Flynn]

We bought because we had the down payment and our mortgage would be equal to or less than rent in an expensive city. It was also 1997 so the market was TOTALLY different than it is now. We sold in 2006 at the end of training about 4 months before the huge crash so we sold for twice what we bought it for.

I'd think twice about buying in today's market unless it was in a certain area and price range. The market today is SCARY and there is no end in sight.

[Urowife]

We bought our condo at the beginning of residency in 2005. We tried to sell it last spring, but hardly had any showings. So we are renting it out. If we had sold it at our asking price, we would have had to bring about 20k to closing. The whole situation is seriously depressing. We are renting now and won't be buying until we are sure we won't be moving again.

[Ladybug122]

We bought 4 1/2 years ago...right at the peak of the housing bubble in RI. Unfortunately for us, that bubble popped and we have been losing money pretty steadily since we purchased. We are in a terrible situation. Forclosures throughout my neighborhood have brought values down...way down. We won't sell for another 2 1/2- 3 years and we will most definately lose a big chunk o change on this place. I used to stress about it, but I really don't anymore because it's completely and utterly out of our control. There is nothing we could have done to change what happened (other than not buying the place!). So, coming from my bad expereince, I wouldn't reccommend buying now.