Q:Should I buy a house for 400K or rent a apt for 2400/month?
Since your rent is pretty high, I will suggest that you just buy a condo.
I believe you did some math already.
Let’s compare renting an apt for $2400 vs. buying a 400K condo.
If you buy a 400K house with 320K, 30 fixed rate 3.75% mortgage.
Mortgage monthly payment is $1481
Property tax:$416 /month
HOA: $250~300/month
Insurance: $20/month
1481+416+300+20=2217/month
From the above, it’s already cheaper than what you are paying per month for rent, but it requires that you have a $80K down payment available.
Mortgage interest and property tax are tax deductible:
The first 48 month, mortgage interest accrues to $46,216. Property Tax (assuming 2.5% annual increase) is around $20762. The tax break is roughly $23K (assuming 35% tax rate).
With that said, 48 months of living in your condo will cost you:
$46216 (interest) + $20762 (property tax) – $23000 (tax break) + $12000 (HOA) + $960 (insurance) ~ $57K.
If you can get 5% annual return on your $80K down payment (if you had invested it rather than buying a house), the “cost” there is $17.2K.
So, the total cost is $74.2K. That’s still significantly less than $115K that you paid in rent over the same period. When you sell the house, there’s ~5% commission, which is $20K (at $400K sale price, assuming no gain). Your total cost is $94K assuming a flat house price. You can easily add or subtract from that number based on your forecast.
Therefore, I know you probably will choose to buy a condo than paying rent.
我的中文名字是簡明葳，大家都叫我Maggie，現在在美國矽谷/硅谷(Silicon Valley)擔任房產經紀人 Broker DRE#01973756 。
我曾在台灣當過九年的財經記者，蘋果日報房地產中心(地產王&家居王)、自由時報財經中心房產線總資歷長達七年。我在台灣採訪過數千間建案，在矽谷看房歷年破千間以上，這幾年的矽谷房地產經紀人經驗，建立了我完整的買房資歷與經驗。
在矽谷買房子，是一個充滿挑戰的過程。我能提供試算服務、貸款諮詢與轉介、為你挑選適合妳需求的房子、一同看屋，與你一起挑戰競標的過程。我們將逐條念過合約內容，下標之前我會誠實地揭示屋況、屋主詳細情形、報告，而後續的交屋、租屋、修繕、改建等諮詢都在服務範圍之內。
關於賣房，房價評估、市場分析、修繕建議、上市時間建議、Staging評估、風格挑選、行銷方式分析、海報、Post、媒體推廣、行銷媒體選擇、挑選offer輔助，後續交屋，都是我擔任賣房經紀人時的職責。
我是 National Board of Realtors、California Association of Realtors、以及 Silicon Valley Association of Realtors的會員。
I am a California realtor/broker associate in the Silicon Valley, currently working with Keller Williams Realty.
I have always had a passion for Real Estate. As an Editor/Journalist in Taiwan, I had written hundreds of news articles covering Real Estate and Interior Design. After moving to the SF Bay Area in 2014, I followed my passion and embarked on a successful career as a Real Estate agent/broker.
For my buying clients, I understand home ownership is a big part of the American Dream and I will help you to achieve this goal with logic and data:
- Find/compare/verify the house of your need
- Review all property inspection reports, seller disclosures, permit history, HOA docs, etc. with you
- Explain all contractual documents to help you make the strongest offer with confidence
- Share a buyer's only checklist with you prior to making an offer
For my selling clients, I understand it can be a very stressful process determining when to sell, how to price and market the house. I will greatly reduce your burden by:
- Thorough analysis on market condition, timing and price
- Prepare all documents and escrow account
- Touch up/renovate the house with my team of contractors
- Showcase the house with professional staging
- Advertise and conduct open house
- Review and select the strongest offer with confidence
Check my review and give me a call for a free consultation today.
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