[MarkL]

Could someone actually buy a house without knowing what their payment would be when taxes and insurance were added in? Crikey, I couldn't really get a mortgage for under a Grand a month where I live, and that's before taxes and fees. Good cautionary tale though. The prevailing wisdom is that it's always better to own than rent, but it's not always true.

Something else to consider is that taxes and insurance will always trend upwards... Don't expect them to stay the same over the term of the mortgage. Over the last 10 years, my mortgage payments have increased by almost $180 a month, due to insurance rate and tax increases. Of course, in my case, I made sure to buy a house that I could really afford, one that cost about 1/2 of what the realator told me I could "afford." I wanted to be sure I could get some furniture, and still be able to pay my bills.

Mark

[johnb838]

Yeah, just last week I decided (again) that the houses I could afford as opposed to the houses I could qualify for were not places I felt like staying for the next five years or so.