Again using Gail’s numbers, 5% down would save you $19,700 in interest and pay your mortgage off 2 years earlier than with no down payment. Increase the interest rate from 4% to 6% and the savings almost doubles (to $38,000).

It’s the magic of compound interest.

What is a Vancouver girl and her family to do?

However, I should point out that buying a house together is NOT quite the same as being married. Though you didn’t mean it this way, the property rights that legally married extends are not the same as common law relationships. In other words, it’s clearly explained in legal terms that no matter who owns the matrimonial home, in the event of divorce it gets split up 50/50. common law rights specifically do NOT extend to property, so it matters who’s name is on the deed. Probably a minor point but one to consider.

Also – he has it stuck in his head that we only need 10% to buy the house, and can do it and have his eyes fixed and his truck painted and buy really expensive furniture and get a new bicycle and …and…and…see the issues!!!

This post is being printed. Since i am the only one of us with any kind of savings – and believe me the accounts I have are for emergency, and shorter savings things than a house, and I do NOT want to borrow against my retirement to purchase something I’m afraid I’ll be the only one handling afterwards, this house purchase will not be happening for a few years.

I have a debt I want to get out of first, I have a car I’ll be finished paying off in three months, I have a degree that will be expensive to finish – and with all this money talk and the answers I keep getting from my significant, I’m not even sure we’ll make it past the signing date for this house!!

Needless to say, I am printing your post and making sure he reads it. I would prefer to purchase without having to use CMHC – but he thinks it’s not that bad to have to have an extra 2-5% put on top of the purchase cost – perhaps i’ve answered another personal question about the relationship also – something about savers/spenders.

And since we aren’t married yet, I’d really like to rent a place on our own (that isn’t his mother’s house for crying out loud) to make sure the relationship works before getting into this kind of union – buy a house together and you are pretty much married without the ceremony.

Thanks again for intuitively posting something that will resonate with me for a while!!

Property taxes are the real killer. Never mind the mortgage payment — our property taxes ($5000/year) alone are about what our rent used to be. Good thing we researched the city hall web site and started saving, cause we thought it would be much less.

Another thing: If you go out looking for a $250,000 house, you will end up buying one for $280,000 or more. It’s very hard to stick to your guns, especially when you find your dream home and it won’t be there in a week.

My brother and I clubbed together to buy our grandparents house when they passed away, and luckily there had been loads of maintenance done on it.

We had 10% each and were separately looking for properties but we got together and it meant we didn’t have to pay mortgage insurance.

We also put the whole monthly mortgage amount into a savings account and I have arranged a direct deposit to the mortgage weekly, this has meant a saving of thousands and thousands of dollars over the four years we have had the loan.

As my brother is in Hong Kong and I work in Sydney and the property is more than two hours away from my work, we rent out the property to the Department of Housing (public housing in Australia).

They are FANTASTIC!! They pay market rent, they pay for ALL tenant damages and we don’t pay any agents fees.

It also means I get fantastic tax deductions and end up getting a two to three thousand dollar tax refund where in the years leading up to owning the house I was getting less than $100- a year in tax refund!

We are not putting much aside for maintenance as we are extremely lucky to have a plumber in the family, a handyman in the family and a roofer in the family.

Have a good Monday everyone!

We are now getting ready to buy our first house. We are looking at a $500,000 house and we only have $40K for a down pmt but we are getting creative. My fiancee’s mom is going to be our tenant, which means our mortgage will only be $1000/mo. That’s how people do it here – they live with family and share costs. Since $500k will only get us a fixer upper, we will be using the extra $600/mo for property taxes (2k/yr) and a maintenance account.

PS. We are 48 and 50 and it’s a first home for both of us, so it’s now or never.

As for those folks who say that you don’t need to save that much on maintenance – while you may not to spend that money each year, what will you do when you are hit with an expense that will cost two or three thousand dollars? I grew up in an older home, so I am used to seeing costs spring up all the time – water in the basement, for example. But my parents, who just bought a brand new home, have also been recently surprised with many new costs, including water issues. So you never know and it’s better to be prepared than up the creek.

When I had about a 40% down payment, I found the house that I wanted and got it. It’s been really easy to carry because of the low payments, which I appreciate – so much so that I decided I could afford a vehicle.

I scrimp and save still, to pay off the mortgage faster, and calculate that because of that, the mortgage interest “rent” on the house is less than 300 bucks a month.

Hopefully, it’ll be paid off 1 year after the first 5 year term. (Dang it, it’s the car that put me over, I’m SURE of it! … but I didn’t want to lease/finance, so I took a year’s ‘prepayment’ and bought a car with it.)

My income is pretty good at $4000/month (gross). That seems to be less than many, though. So it’s quite possible with some effort and strict budgeting!

I didn’t buy — paid off my student loans instead – because I really didn’t believe that there were no costs beyond the mortgage. It took about three years to figure out the truth.

I make very good money, and I can afford to buy a 250K house, but bluntly put, I don’t want to pay 2500 a month for my housing when I can rent the same thing for 1,000.