Re: OT: Buying a house
You currently pay about $1100 and feel like you're "tossing it away."
We'll begin with that assumption that rent is throwing your money away. You're forgetting the actual costs of maintaining appliances, landscaping, pool/rec room/ whatnot. If you buy a house, some of your monthly expenses will be "thrown away" too: You will likely have an HOA fee, repairs/maintenance expenses, loan interest payments, taxes...
This will be coupled with the gamble, yes, it's a gamble, that your house will actually increase in value. It may not. And even if it does increase, you might not actually make out on the deal. If you get trapped in a bad loan or if your boyfriend screws something up or if your agent's cut is too big or if you simply need to sell a little earlier than originally planned...
House buying is becoming more and more like car buying.
So, be careful about this. It might make more sense to keep rentinng and instead, take the extra chunk of money you'd pay for a house and invest it elsewhere.
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