wendylee Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Here's the situation, friends: -we live in a moderately high cost of living area. My husband is in and out of work (long story, suffice it to say I work full-time from home and make a living for us, he is hopefully going to go to school, we'll just see what happens and pray for Mom to have patience!). -Our mortgage is really high. Not too high for me to afford, but it's really high for our house. -I can't depend on my dh's work. I work from home, so I can work from anywhere. -We have friends here, but not any family. Although living nearer family is not a big priority, I would like to stay in the area (the NW). I guess I'm just looking for advice. I was reading the Dave Ramsey out of debt thread and it's so inspiring to me, but since our mortgage is high, and we're living on my income, I'm wondering if it would be a good idea or not for us to move. Our house would barely get what we paid for it at this point, and we have a special needs kid in school here, as well as an older teen who takes AP classes at the high school. So we're kind of rooted, but not necessarily ROOTED, if that makes sense. I'm just trying to figure out the best path for us financially. Any advice would be welcomed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXMomof4 Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 If you moved closer to family would the COL be significantly lower? Would you be sacrificing services for your special needs child if you were closer to family? Are you able to save any money or is it just survival where you're at now? Would your dh's prospects be better if you moved? I love moving but I would have to be sure it was worth it and needs could be met that aren't currently being served, KWIM? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathleen in VA Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 (edited) I'm no financial expert, but if your house is barely worth what you paid for it, I'd say don't move. Moving is expensive. Realtor's fees and closing costs alone would be high and then there's the whole physically moving aspect. Also, would you have to spend money to fix it up in order to put it on the market? Would you be able to buy a house you'd be comfortable in with whatever money you have left after the sale? We've needed a bigger house for a very long time but the cost of selling this one and buying another, making minor repairs and getting it "showable," along with the cost of just getting everything out and moved some place else has always prohibited us from even looking. Like I said, I am not a financial expert so I'm not sure about all this. I mainly responded to get this bumped back up so others could chime in.:) ETA: Ah, I see someone else beat me to it. Edited October 29, 2010 by Kathleen in VA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorMom Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Due to the house and the special needs.... stay put. Make DH commute ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Could you stay in the area so dc wouldn't have to move schools, but find a smaller/cheaper house, like maybe one in foreclosure or something? Can you refinance? There are pretty good rates out there now--have you investigated? I'd probably stay put in the same town for a while, until the kids were gone, but that's just me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unicorn. Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 I'm no financial expert, but if your house is barely worth what you paid for it, I'd say don't move. Moving is expensive. Realtor's fees and closing costs alone would be high and then there's the whole physically moving aspect. Also, would you have to spend money to fix it up in order to put it on the market? Would you be able to buy a house you'd be comfortable in with whatever money you have left after the sale? . :iagree: I wouldn't move/sell at this point in time. Maybe in a few years if the value of your home comes back up, but at this point, it would seem like throwing money away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weaver_67579 Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 somewhere and had to move to live near that. Moving is a pain and expensive, but is worth it for full-time employment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mejane Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Could you stay in the area so dc wouldn't have to move schools, but find a smaller/cheaper house, like maybe one in foreclosure or something? This is what we'd do. If you can get what you paid for your house in this market, you're actually doing well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 If you would come out ahead with a new mortgage and have good school setting for the kids a move could be a good thing. It really comes down to how much you can save (and what you would do with that money ;) ) versus how settled you feel you are now. These decisions are so difficult but at least we have them to make. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarreymere Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 I'm in Amish land, Crawford County PA. We have a low cost of living and things like houses are pretty inexpensive. You can get a nice house in a good part of town for about $400 a month in a mortgage, and a nice house in a not so nice part of town (relatively speaking) for about $200 a month. Move out here !!!! We need more classical homeschoolers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendylee Posted October 29, 2010 Author Share Posted October 29, 2010 If you moved closer to family would the COL be significantly lower? Would you be sacrificing services for your special needs child if you were closer to family? Are you able to save any money or is it just survival where you're at now? Would your dh's prospects be better if you moved? I love moving but I would have to be sure it was worth it and needs could be met that aren't currently being served, KWIM? COL would not be less, they all live in the Seattle area. We would be sacrificing services. We are saving a significant amount of money per month, finally, after following the DR plan to the letter, so that's good. I have no idea if DH's prospects would be better, I tend to think that pretty much wherever he goes it would be difficult because of various reasons, which is why he's going back to school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendylee Posted October 29, 2010 Author Share Posted October 29, 2010 I'm no financial expert, but if your house is barely worth what you paid for it, I'd say don't move. Moving is expensive. Realtor's fees and closing costs alone would be high and then there's the whole physically moving aspect. Also, would you have to spend money to fix it up in order to put it on the market? Would you be able to buy a house you'd be comfortable in with whatever money you have left after the sale?. You kind of hit the nail on the head! Our house is barely worth what we paid for it, but we could rent it out for almost our mortgage. We would have to fix it up but not a tremendous expense. We would not buy a house again, we're only interested in renting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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