would you buy a house in this situation?

1. you have plenty of money to afford a nice home
2. housing market is down
3. your credit is excellent
4. when you sell, you can afford to keep it a few extra months if that's what it takes to sell

here's the kicker: you are only guaranteed to stay in the area for 1 year.

so is it still worth it?? to pay a mortgage rather than a rent for at least a year?

what if its not a few months that you have to keep it? i inherited a house in chicago, and its been "for sale" for over a year now....

do you have enough for a downpayment?

is the renting down in that area too? the point is, will you lose more money trying to sell that house, or will you lose more renting? in either case, i think youre looking at the same situation but more difficulty when trying to sell the house at the end when youre already going to be stressed trying to move to a new place.

but thats just my take, im a little jaded since my house isn't selling ...

Err... I have had to sell two houses now because of PCSing... I came out behind in both cases. It is definately a buyers market right now... NOT a sellers market. If there is a chance you might have to sell it in a year, don't buy. In a years time, you will not have enough equity built up to make ANY profit on your home. If anything, you will likely have to take money to closing.

what if its not a few months that you have to keep it? i inherited a house in chicago, and its been "for sale" for over a year now....

do you have enough for a downpayment?

is the renting down in that area too? the point is, will you lose more money trying to sell that house, or will you lose more renting? in either case, i think youre looking at the same situation but more difficulty when trying to sell the house at the end when youre already going to be stressed trying to move to a new place.

but thats just my take, im a little jaded since my house isn't selling ...


enough for downpayment: yes
renting down: no its a high rental area
lose more in renting: that's exactly what i'm trying to figure out

I don't think I would buy if it was only for a year... especially with the housing market the way it is!!

It is always better to buy than to rent. Think of the tax benefit.

I wouldn't not for a year. Like a PP said what if a few months turn into a year or more? While you could rent it out, again it could take awhile to get it rented and you would have to be competitive in the rent plus add the Property manager fee to that. For me it isn't worth the risk and potential loss of money.

enough for downpayment: yes
renting down: no its a high rental area
lose more in renting: that's exactly what i'm trying to figure out

how big of a down payment? and what kind of loan do you want to get/would you get? what kind of monthly payments are you looking at? would you rent a house otherwise? do you have kids/pets? (just trying to go through the thinking process with you...i think i might be going through this in like .. 2 years )

would keeping the house for an extra... year? or selling below your buying cost break you? how long have the other houses in the area been on the market? (probably why they are so cheap)...

I wouldn't not for a year. Like a PP said what if a few months turn into a year or more? While you could rent it out, again it could take awhile to get it rented and you would have to be competitive in the rent plus add the Property manager fee to that. For me it isn't worth the risk and potential loss of money.

not to mention potential destruction of property... depending on the possible tenants

Well you could rent it out after the year and use that as an investment.

Are you guarnateed to leave the area in a year or do you only have a guarantee of staying for one year with the possibility that you may end up staying longer? (did that make any sense?)

not to mention potential destruction of property... depending on the possible tenants
very true along with the extra costs, ie the house we are renting, we had to have the ac replaced. i know that was pretty expensive

how big of a down payment? and what kind of loan do you want to get/would you get? what kind of monthly payments are you looking at? would you rent a house otherwise? do you have kids/pets? (just trying to go through the thinking process with you...i think i might be going through this in like .. 2 years )

would keeping the house for an extra... year? or selling below your buying cost break you? how long have the other houses in the area been on the market? (probably why they are so cheap)...

we have plenty for a 20% downpayment plus closing costs, and i know the mortgage payment we can afford (i've owned real estate before)
right now we rent an apartment. we have 2 cats, no kids.
if we HAD to keep it for an extra year, we could. certainly not what we would want to do. and if we lost a little money, well i'm trying to figure out if the potential lost money would be more or less than losing money in rent for a year. :dunno there is always the chance that we'd still be here in a few years though. we just don't know, and we're weighing the risk factor.

Are you guarnateed to leave the area in a year or do you only have a guarantee of staying for one year with the possibility that you may end up staying longer? (did that make any sense?)

yep that made sense. we may move in a year, we may not. we are guaranteed to stay for a year, but it very well may be longer.

enough for downpayment: yes
renting down: no its a high rental area
lose more in renting: that's exactly what i'm trying to figure out

Well, it depends on whether you can afford to lose money on the rental each month and whether the area is likely to increase in value over the long term (assuming you will keep it for a while). For example, we bought our house in Jan 2002. We PCSed in Dec 2003 and put renters in. We took at $50 a month hit on the rent. Our first set of renters trashed the place and left us with $11,000 of damage (they skipped state too so we couldn't sue them and recoup it). However, even with that, the value our house went up in those few years was way above the money we lost. But, that was when the market was strong. Still, we knew we were coming back here and we're one of the few people who can get BAH to almost totally cover our mortgage (we're $100 off). Most people can't afford to buy up here because of the rates.

I would talk to two or three rental managers and see what's available in your area/price range. I would also look at BAH because that often dictates what people will pay. For instance, I can't get more than $1150 for my house but to buy it now the mortgage payment would be almost $1800. It's because of BAH rates.

I'd really look into the rental market first before making any decisions.

if you move away and then chose to rent it, you can change it to investment property as long as you own/provide evidence of a new primary residence... and that changes the kinds of taxes that you will have to pay if you are not there and trying to rent... so that might make the hit less too.

quick question. BAH is BAH regardless of what you own right? like "rank X you live in Y therefore your BAH = #" right?

That's a tough call. I'd probably rent though and then look into buying if I had written orders for longer than a year.

We are in the same situation and went with not buying right now.

We were in the same situation a few months ago. Our deciding factor was the rental market. From the year we've lived her the rental prices have dropped dramatically.
I'd wait until you have orders in hand.

I wouldn't buy.
Having bought this house thinking we would be here for 5 years, and then finding out we'll only be here for about 15 months, I can honestly say it is way too much hassle and stress for that short of a timeframe.
Good luck making your decision!

I wouldn't do it just for a year. I wouldn't buy unless we were guaranteed at least 2 years and preferably even longer than that. Too much cost and hassle involved, otherwise, IMO.

I would rent:yes for that short of a time

Not sure I would for just a year.

this many depend on your state, but i know were i am at if you buy and sell within two yrs you will pay additional taxes. so take that into consideration.

I don't think so, it takes at least 2 years to get back what you would pay in fees, etc. Buying and selling a home isn't free.

I would not buy either unless you are actually planing on keeping the house.

this many depend on your state, but i know were i am at if you buy and sell within two yrs you will pay additional taxes. so take that into consideration.

I think they may be a federal thing. I wouldn't buy for just a year due to closing costs and the tax benefits aren't as great as a lot of people think.

i wouldnt buy if i was moving in a year...unless u can rent it out when u move.

absolutely NOT-- it would be too risky and you run the chance ( very high in most markets) of not being able to sell before you leave.

you are not wasting your money by renting-


- and the military will not bail you out if you cannot sell, nor will they pay the difference if there is a loss of any kind.

I wouldn't buy unless it was going to be for longer than that.

I wouldn't buy unless I was going to be there at least 3 years. My reasoning is, you sometimes don't get $ or equity into it, and it can be a ...... to sell. Expecially now.

I say don't do it. Unless you are looking for rental property investments.

You usually don't start seeing cost re-coupment or advantage till you've owned for about 3 years. So with one year I wouldn't buy.