First house in Suburbs (Pittsburgh, California: foreclosure, HOA fees, condos)

[str8outtawexford]

Warning: Long!!

First, my bio:

- I grew up in Wexford and went to N.A.
- I am getting married next summer. I am 27, she is 25.
- My future wife works in downtown Pittsburgh, I work in Wexford; however, we both live in Shadyside (not together, but close!)
- We are very much considering buying a place right after we get married next summer someplace in N.A. or possibly Ross twp. (I am partial to N.A.)
- I "ran the numbers" on buying a place. I have enough cash to put down 15 to 20% plus closing costs on a $250k to $260k house.
- We want to start a family perhaps 2 to 3 years after we are married.

Here is my question: At first I was considering a good three bedroom townhouse, and then upgrading after we have some children. But after my analysis, it looks like it may be worth it to buy a 4 bedroom single family place and not have to move for any reason in the future. There are significant transaction costs with buying and selling a home and just buying a house ONCE seems to make sense to me if you have to downpayment and income to do it.

Thoughts?

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by str8outtawexford

Warning: Long!!

First, my bio:

- I grew up in Wexford and went to N.A.
- I am getting married next summer. I am 27, she is 25.
- My future wife works in downtown Pittsburgh, I work in Wexford; however, we both live in Shadyside (not together, but close!)
- We are very much considering buying a place right after we get married next summer someplace in N.A. or possibly Ross twp. (I am partial to N.A.)
- I "ran the numbers" on buying a place. I have enough cash to put down 15 to 20% plus closing costs on a $250k to $260k house.
- We want to start a family perhaps 2 to 3 years after we are married.

Here is my question: At first I was considering a good three bedroom townhouse, and then upgrading after we have some children. But after my analysis, it looks like it may be worth it to buy a 4 bedroom single family place and not have to move for any reason in the future. There are significant transaction costs with buying and selling a home and just buying a house ONCE seems to make sense to me if you have to downpayment and income to do it.

Thoughts?

Here's my thoughts. I would buy the house in a neighborhood with kids. In this market, right now, I don't think you'll get much appreciation to "move up" in 3 years and moving with kids will be hard. If you find a nice house (and I would think in Pittsburgh 260,000 would be a nice house in a nice neighborhood) you will have a few years to get used to the place, form some ties and get used to the mortgage payment, and have a few pay raises to get a safety net firmly in place in order to start a family. That way, in case one of you wants to stay home with the kidlets, you may be able to afford it more easily.

That, and townhomes and condos have HOA dues, and there is no controlling those.... granted, I'm out here in Northern California, land of crazy home prices and even crazier people, but I'm starting to read about people that did everything right to control their mortgage payments and they are losing their homes due to HOA dues and assessments that are insane! One woman said in two years her HOA dues went from 375. a month to nearly a thousand -- and she's going to end up in foreclosure, because even if you pay your mortgage, if you default on your HOA dues the HOA has the right to start foreclosure proceedings on you.

I should add that in our business, we work exclusively at HOA's (janitorial) and there is no way I will ever live in place where I pay HOA dues... I really don't like that kind of living. It makes people feel they have the right to say how YOU live, since they are "paying for it".

[hinsey86]

I would avoid townhouses in most markets but particularly Pittsburgh. Unless a townhouse has somethin extra extra special about it it will be a hard sell here. I just don't see the Pittsburgh market going so crazy that a townhouse would be a good resale investment. Single family homes are much easier to resale. Even though we recently bought what may be our "die in" home we still considered resale value. Our children are grown but we still looked at the school. We did alot of research which we may never actually need but it was still important.

[AnamariB]

I think in Pittsburgh, for the money you have you can get a single family home with no problems. I would start with a 3-4 bedroom if I were you and if you are handy -and have friends -I will even look in a fixer upper. There are a lot of nice houses with good bones here in need on spome upgrading -and you would still have a conservative mortgage. And a conservative mortgage is the best for this area -with a conservative job market and house market as well.

[str8outtawexford]

Tallysmom - That makes sense about the HOA fees. Plus, with a townhouse, you don't really get a good "private" yard, you have to more or less share with others....I think that would be difficult with a baby or kids.

[guylocke]

Tallysmom - That makes sense about the HOA fees. Plus, with a townhouse, you don't really get a good "private" yard, you have to more or less share with others....I think that would be difficult with a baby or kids.

Yeah I would stay away from a townhouse. I think townhomes definitely have their place, but not for a family. I do think that for a young couple that didn't want children, and didn't have the time or want to care for a yard or do the upkeep, a townhome is a perfect solution.