Jake. [ url ] said at 12:34 PM 05-04-2004: That's a neat looking house. It's got some of the layout-feel of the sopranos-the door opening to the combined front room and kitchen, and that neat recessed area in the corner column. You could get a secret cabinet installed there, and keep guns like tony!
*myriam said at 12:47 PM 05-04-2004: oh i'm sorry, didn't mean to be snarky. i thought you were this random troll that's been posting about n00dz recently. didn't mean to scare you away.
talice [email] said at 7:01 PM 05-04-2004: wow, that's nice. so you guys are coming back around here? unless i'm out of it and you guys are already down here. .
jenny [email] said at 8:09 PM 05-05-2004: yeah, looks like we'll be moving back to new orleans in june. we found out today that the bank accepted our offer, so it's for real now, and pretty exciting. come visit!
Denee1 said at 6:47 PM 05-06-2004: In the DC area it may get you a condo. I'm looking to buy in Seattle and for about $200,000 I can get a decent 1 bed condo. I need to get married so I can have two incomes.
Woody said at 12:49 PM 05-04-2004: Come to Canada. You can pay as little as 5% down, though you pay an extra insurance premium, rolled into your mortgage. They are soon moving to 0%. I am very excited, because at the next housing bust, there will be so many bargains to be had.
MsMary said at 2:19 PM 05-04-2004: You save up over time, or if it's your second or third home or whatever, you use the equity in the place you're moving out of.
In the U.S., we have a lot of programs for first-time homebuyers. The downpayment is what holds up most people, so the FHA has programs that let you put as little as 3 percent down. But it's like the deal Woody describes, where you have to pay for some extra insurance.
If you have good income and credit, you can get away with no downpayment. When I bought my place, I had savings to cover the closing costs (more than $7K, in this case; they can be as expensive as the downpayment), but that was it. I took out two mortgages. One, a regular ol' boring 30-year fixed rate for 80 percent of the cost. The other is a variable rate line of credit, and served as my down payment. Interest rate was under 6 percent in both cases.
It sounds like a lot of money to scrap up, but if you educate yourself before you head out househunting, it's very doable.
Of course, once you get the house, that's when it gets really expensive ...
