Got an offer on my house today.

[multigraincracker]

They offered the full price I was asking.
I paid cash for it when I bought it about 8 years ago and just bought my new place and paid cash for it too.
Has been my goal for years, never pay interest, only collect it. 🕺

[MontanaMama]

1. Wow!

Congratulations. Paying cash for a house is a dream! I’m happy for you.

[multigraincracker]

3. Thank you.

My retirement is getting better all of the time.

[CanonRay]

2. Congrats inorder in a tough market

[SheltieLover]

4. Congrats!

[Johnny2X2X]

5. Fantastic!

We bought 8 years ago too, value has more than doubled in that time, we refinanced to about 3% interest. Owing less than half of what my home would sell for is a really great feeling, but nothing compared to owning it outright. Congrats.

So I have friends in California. Their thinking is just different on home prices because it's just so expensive to buy there. But people do buy there and it's still a great investment. They just are prepared to pay more of their income to a mortgage.

I have talked to a lot of people who are renters, the gating issue for them isn't home price, it isn't interest rates, and it isn't monthly payments. The biggest gating issue is having the money saved for the down payment and closing costs. That's where we need to help people, maybe give tax incentives to save in an account that is designated just for this use. There are so many families who can afford a home mortgage but are forced to rent because they can't get the $15K or so minimum required to get into a house. So people that can more afford a mortgage payment are stuck renting.

And rents are out of whack right now, there's no reason rent should be almost double the mortgage for a home. I am in what used to be a cheap area of West Michigan to live and people are renting modest homes for $2500 or higher a month. $4000 a month for something even above average. My mortgage payment is less than half what my sister pays for a townhouse to rent and my home is much nicer than her townhouse.

The math just works out so well even with taxes, upkeep, and insurance. Owning a home is the most sure path to having wealth to pass down to your children.