Everyone needs a place to live, and here’s something else that probably won’t change: In many parts of the country (and in many urban neighborhoods dominated by single-family homes), the stock of homes for sale will be more attractive for many to rent.
Much of the inventory has to come from people who are going up or down and they will need the courage to buy a new place.
Last month, the year of Elaine Cicora and her husband was this: selling their house in Macedonia, Ohio, at the end of spring; buy a new one not far away and move in August; withdraw money from retirement accounts in an orderly manner when needed; and flying to Austin this month to take her eldest daughter down the aisle.
Now they are putting their home on the market even earlier, hoping they can capture buyers before they think twice; Consult your builder about broken supply chains while considering what to do with the next planned warehouse at that location; considering whether they should simply stop buying and selling; look at the markets with growing concern; and close to canceling her plans in Texas.
“If it were just one or two of these things (stocks, out-of-state marriages, two-home transactions), I wouldn’t go crazy,” she said.
Many people thinking of buying now could be affected by other benefits of home ownership – control and certainty. Get a stable monthly payment at home and minimal interest rates can mean you never have to refinance, plus the convenience of knowing the job is yours as long as you make that payment.
This certainty proved crucial for another Minneapolis couple, Lacey Mamak and Alison Nowak. They put together a 3% down payment in 2008 (partly through a local assistance program) to buy an 800-square-foot home, and they stayed there. They now have around $ 50,000 in stock and a mortgage of around $ 1,100.
So, Mx. Mamak was in a part-time position, but is now a tenured academic librarian. Ms. Nowak is an adjunct instructor who also deals with design and communication. Rents in the area have risen so much that it is believed that they would have already been forced to leave the city, or would have been forced to work in several lines of work, had they not purchased.
After reflecting this week, they were intensely affected by the emotional resonance of home ownership. First, there was gratitude that their fixed costs allowed them to do the work they love. Then there was the empathy for people who need or want to relocate and are afraid, this time for their health as well as their finances, and so I’m at the crossroads that the two were 12 years ago.
“People tend to think that buying a house means being an adult, and if you can’t afford it, you’re somehow not an adult,” Mx. She said Mamak. “But now there are many other factors and forces, and it has nothing to do with your personal worth or your age.”