How much are your Mortgage Repayments?? Mortgage Vs Rent...

[Faithful Mumma]

Just curious.....


When we built our first home three years ago, and mortgage repayments of $506 a week seemed ENORMOUS and embarassing....that is on only $278,000. We fixed it for 3 years, and it unfixes soon and will be about $480 a week. I am just starting to realise though that our payments are pretty average?? Just curious what everyone else pays...
We live in the country, and I have moments every now and then when I think about how much easier it would be to rent.....but then one of my friends was looking for a new rental and was telling me about how you have to go on "group viewings" as there are always more tenants than houses, and that her rent is $375 a week....that is in the country....so only $100 difference really between that and our mortgage.
It made me realise how fortunate our own situation is as we live in a country where housing affordability is really becoming an issue.... and it is not just affecting the big Cities....

Soon the only debt we will have is our home anyway, as we we have been paying off our credit card debts etc, and are about 2/3 of the way to having them paid off in full..................2 years ago I thought there was no light at the end of the tunel, but now I can see we are nearly there!! It is a very liberating feeling, and I know we will NEVER take out a credit card again....EVER!!! We took out a debt agreement to pay them off. We have paid no interest since, have NEVER missed a payment on them, and we are paying every cent back and were still able to keep our house. Hard lessons to learn at a young age, and it will affect our credit listing for another few years, but to me that is a small price to pay for learning to live within our means.

[Arimeh]

Our mortgage repayments are $353 a week at the moment.

Rent in town for a place like this one would be about the same.

[skybie]

our mortgage is for 280k and its about $500 a week!!!!
To rent we can get a nice big 4 bedder for about $350 a week.

our house is a small 3 bed 2 bathroom single garage. i hate it and especially knowing what we could get if we did rent. i know its better to have ur own house and blah blah blah but i wish we had of waited a while to do it

[Indadhanu]

Our RENT is $325 a week. To buy a similar house in thie area would cost around $350,000-400,000. We like the house we're in though, its huge (especially for us haha), we couldn't affod to buy a place like this right now. We are gong to wait until Jazz is in Prep and then we'll both work and be able to buy a house and afford the repayments and not have to settle for something we don't want. That way we also know what direction our lives might take. At the moment we're thinking of not having any more kids, but if we bought a 2 or 3 bedroom house now and changed our minds later about kids then that would really suck! We'd have to make do or sell and move... BAH nah we're just gonna wait!

[Arimeh]

i hate it and especially knowing what we could get if we did rent. i know its better to have ur own house and blah blah blah but i wish we had of waited a while to do it

Yeah we are considering moving back into town and renting again - so selling the place we just purchased in January. Its too far away from town, and costs us about $100 a week in petrol, so we're thinking very seriously of selling the joint. At least then we could save money and purchase a block of land closer to town and eventually build on it when I go back to work.

[*EJ*]

I am currently paying $500 a week (just added a little on to our homeloan to do our kitchen) but that $500 is more than we are meant to pay. I never take much notice of what our minimum payment is and have always paid at least $50 more than needed. Ours was fixed to begin with but has been variable for the last 4 years i think.

[skybie]

Yeah we are considering moving back into town and renting again - so selling the place we just purchased in January. Its too far away from town, and costs us about $100 a week in petrol, so we're thinking very seriously of selling the joint. At least then we could save money and purchase a block of land closer to town and eventually build on it when I go back to work.

We thought about selling and renting but we'd make about 40k profit on our house and then have to pay a mean amount of capital gains tax and DF's quarterly tax payments would go up to.
so we decided not to sadly

[Lulu]

mine is $320 on $200k, I'd probably be paying $40-50 more to rent something similar. I've always paid much more than needed on my mortgage until recently, I can't to start hacking back into the debt once it's rented out!

[briggsy's girl]

ours is a bit under 300 a week (four bed/two bath/two living) - which is cheap compared to rent in the towns nearby. we live way out in the country though, and do pay a bit in petrol for me to get to work. i sat down and worked out the figures though - to live in town, to get a house maybe 2/3 this size (and with no yard - we have a huge yard) - we'd be paying 70-100 more per week. so the petrol/travel balances it out - and we get to have a home we are happy with

[Michelle71]

As far as I was aware, you don't pay capital gains tax if it is your primary residence

[skybie]

really?! wow our financial advisor told us that.
gosh michelle you've got me all excited now!!!!!!specially with another bubba on the way, having to decide who's going to share with who is a toughie, maybe we wont have to after all!!

[Faithful Mumma]

Yep, I am pretty sure that is right as well, capital gains tax is only payable on an investment property, not one of primary residence, and there are also time limits I think...

[Bun]

Yep, Michelle is right. I am a property lawyer and can tell you that for certain!!

[Astrid]

About $170 per week here, just about to go up to $210 as we have extended on the loan to buy some surrounding land. We live out of town, have to deal with our own garbage and need 2 cars. At the current petrol prices a round trip to town costs $6 without any running around in town. That adds up if I go in everyday, plus DH drives in for work, but he has a more fuel efficient car. Our mortgage is low, but we can't get ADSL out here, so no cheap phone or internet and that is really hurting us right now. We also lost $50 rent assistance per fortnight

We were renting in town, an 80's 3 bedroom, 2 living area, 2 bathroom, 2 car garage et for about $260 per week (that was 2 years ago, so it would be more now). We would just live with one car if I dropped DH off at work, he was only 5 minutes up the road.

[misty]

Our original mortgage on our home is just under $900 f/n. This house would rent for about $430+ a week here. It is a little poky 3 bedder. So it would be not quite covering itself.

We are also buiilding an investment property, the mortgage will be about $1100 f/n under current interest rates, the rental income will be around $490 a week - so it will not cover its own mortgage repayments. Again this is a small 3 bedder.

The thing about canberra is that property prices are very high as are the rents. You might save a little by renting, but not much. The problem is that a lot of people don't have much choice because they cann't afford the large mortgages but they still have to pay nearly as much on rent anyway.

[Faithful Mumma]

Exactly Misty, and then how are people excecpted to save for a mortgage/deposit, and they are paying such enormous rent prices...such a viscious cycle really.

[skybie]

u girls have just made my year!

[Faithful Mumma]

Skybie, so glad I started this thread then! It amazing how light shines through when we all share!