Buying A House Might Be More Affordable Than You Think

I've been wanting to buy my own house for a long time but have put off doing so for a couple of reasons. First I wanted to build up a substantial investment portfolio to increase my income and provide enough money to put a good down payment on a home purchase. Secondly, I live in an area with very low rent, so there wasn't really too much incentive for me to purchase a home, until I realized how much I'd actually spent on rent in the past 8 years.

In the past couple of years, several of my family members and co-workers have purchased homes. I've seen many of them struggle to makes ends meet since they took on big house payments, along with maintenance, property taxes and insurance. So this has kind of made me hesitant to move forward in buying my own house and in adding rental property to my investment portfolio. Then I decided to do a little homework.

Most of the houses purchased by friends and family members were priced according to the national average, which meant high house payments relative to local pay standards. Since the prevailing wage in the area where I live is below the national average, this means anyone purchasing a home priced according to the national average will have to struggle to make the payments. What I didn't quiet realize was that there are several properties available in my area that are quite affordable. In one search with a major real estate agency, I was able to locate more than 30 houses with payments equal to or much less than I currently pay in rent. I also discovered that the down payments are much less than I anticipated. I was thinking I would pay a 5% down payment and spread the loan over 30 years for my first property purchase. However, after taking a look at what is going on in the local real estate market, I've realized that it will be quite simple for me to pay 10% down and take out a 15 year mortgage without changing my monthly payout for housing. So instead of throwing my money away on rent, I will be building up equity in my own home and have a very strong possibility of price appreciation, given the current state of the market.

So before you make up your mind that you can't afford to buy property, do a little homework in the area where you live. I would never have thought that any decent homes were available in the town where I live for the prices I've seen. You might be surprised how affordable owning your own home can be. It's worth a look.