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Decided to payoff my mortgage.
Optionality - there is opportunity cost to being stuck somewhere
This. Rule of thumb is you want to stay in a place for 5 years before leaving to recoup closing costs. Depends how fast prices appreciate.
Was considering buying a house but then my job got shaky so will continue to rent and look elsewhere for jobs. If i had bought a house, my job search would be confined to current city or you take the loss or become a landlord.
I am also a vet - so I can finance the mortgage without putting money down. This seems like it creates less of a trade off between a down payment and investing in the stock market.
Also a vet and think it makes sense if you are going to be somewhere or hold the property greater than 5 years. I lived in Hawaii for 3 years and spent about $2k per month on rent. As I was leaving it drove my decision to rethink buying vs renting. I ended up buying a house at my next duty station, got out, and now am using it as a rental property.
It depends heavily on location and your commitment to where you live. I live in a VHCOL, so buying has always been a poor financial choice. I’ve also moved every 4ish years since I was 18 so, at this stage, buying is too much of a commitment. There’s also the added maintenance layer. I like that if something breaks in my apartment I can make someone else deal with it.
Mentor
Also depends on your view of the real estate market now and over the time period you plan to be there. There is a risk of loss if you buy in a hot market that cools down
Coach
Also think about what your cash reserves look like and if you could handle an emergency. Would you be able to drop $$$ if the furnace dies (about $5k)? I had a friend who had to replace the main drain to her house within a month or two of moving in; that was ~$10k
Also, dont forget to factor in closing costs. Remember, early on in the loan's life your mortgage payment will be mostly interest (my first payment was almost 70% interest!). This means that of every dollar I spent only $.30 was going towards equity and building my wealth. Due to TCJA it is harder to take advantage of the mortgage interest deduction.
To add to this, in the HOA situation, and probably especially with condos (as opposed to a suburban HOA where they'll mostly yell at you for leaving your trash can out one hour past the deadline or sue you to get rid of your dog), you always have to worry about them doing a special assessment on things they mismanaged into disaster. I had a client get an enormous surprise bill from his HOA because they waited too long to replace the roof, then a big storm hit and the damage was so much worse than it would have been...Then of course they didn't have a fraction of what they needed in reserves, so now it's everyone's problem