save money to buy a house

I’m 26 and still living with my parents. I think it’s seriously time to start saving so I can move out by the time I’m 30.

Since the next few years are apparently not going to be good for getting a foot on the housing market it presents me the perfect opporunity to save as much money as possible to make this dream come true.

I better begin reigning in my spending.

My SO and I paid off all our debt this year and thought we’d use our retirement funds for our first house. Then we found out we’d be taxed to hell and back for taking that out, especially on top of the money we got when the company we work for was bought earlier this year (which was how we finally got rid of all of our debt!) Now the plan is to save, sell some stuff (anyone want a Rat Rod ‘59 El Camino?) and move our IRAs into our 401k so we can take a loan from it next year and also have a full year of the tax benefits of owning a home. Fingers crossed! Good luck to everyone else working towards this goal, too!

This is the next big thing to do on my list. Only that why does it seem so easy when I just talk about it and so hard to start saving up? Every time i save some money i see something else that i like , like let’s say some stupid things like a blouse, t-shirt, or i even get this silly thought in my mind that I will never do it so why even try. I just hope this time, with a little help, i might do it!

This opportunity is coming up on me. My company very likely is getting acquired real soon and I am getting a pay-out but not enough for a San Francisco down payment. I intend to invest in something else, I like my neighborhood and my rent-controlled flat too much be house-poor in less desirable (for me) neighborhood.

Based on the current house market, I don’t think it is wise to buy instead of rent. Just read someone’s post online that they bought a brand new town house for around $400K and now the same models are out for bidding starting at $250K. Losing $150K a year is something I want to risk. So we’ll stick with renting for another while, and at the same time keep a close eye on the market.

Seriously. Start saving and put your savings continually into an account at Emigrantdirect.com. I started 3 months ago, putting away $1000 per month.

My current lease will run out in April 2008. Now and then I am tempt to just go ahead and make an offer on a house, but the fact is:

1. I am not sure if Califonia’s house market is really a bubble, but I have all the reasons to believe that the price will continue to go down in the next year.

2. I don’t have enough cash for the down payment. I know I can put less than 20% down, but I’d rather not. In about a year, my goal is to save up about 40K, and hopefully at that time the house price is down enough that we can find a decent house for about 200K.

3. Our rental lease will be ended in the end of March or April. If we decided to move out before then, in theory we can be asked to pay for the rent until then anyway.

Based on these above, my goal is to

1. save up $40K in cash by March 31, 2008.
2. Stop applying for credit cards, no matter how attractive they seems to be. This way I can get my credit score as high as it could.
3. Continue observing the house market in northern California.

Yay! It’s done, I’m a homeowner!

I’m not really finanically ready to buy my own home yet, but it is a goal of mine that I want to accomplish maybe this year or the beginning of next year. I’ve been saving money and trying to be more responsible to prepare myself for home ownership.

My student loan is paid off and my car loan will be paid as soon as I figure it out (how to pay it off in full). It took a lot longer than I imagined, but I am finally out of official debt.