When you consider how much it costs to purchase a home, the first thing you think of is the down payment. Down payments get all of the attention because they are big, flashy amounts of money. The down payment is the end goal, but it’s not the whole story. There are many other costs associated with buying a home, and …
That Time I Bought A House
July has been a busy month for me, and I haven’t been posting as often. My absence was influenced by many factors, but the major one was the fact that my husband and I bought a home, and we’ve been devoting our time and energy to preparing for our big move. What About Saving $40,000 For a Home Down Payment? …
Affording an Average Home in Halifax versus the GTA
If you read the Globe and Mail or CBC’s coverage of the Canadian housing market, you’d think this country was one of the most expensive places on earth to live. While that may be true for the two hottest housing markets that are grabbing headlines (Toronto and Vancouver), the reality is the rest of the country is entirely different. I …
Balancing Saving and Life
Or: Why I’m Tapping the Brakes on Saving for a Home Not to toot my own horn, but I’ve made some pretty serious progress on saving for a home in the past five months. I started out January 2016 with $16,873 saved and I’ll end May with $28,645 – that’s $11,772 saved in five months, an average of $2,354 per …
Why I’m Not Saving a 20% Down Payment
If you’ve been reading my blog over the past year or so, you’re no stranger to the fact that I’m currently saving $40,000 for a down payment on a home. My ideal goal is to buy a home worth around $300,000 with a $35,000 down payment and $5,000 set aside for closing costs, hence the goal of $40,000. While this …
Can I Afford a Home, Using Every Rule of Thumb I Know
As I continue on my epic journey of saving $40,000 for the house I eventually plan to buy in Halifax, Nova Scotia, I often worry if I’m being realistic about the price point I set and whether or not I’ll be able to comfortably afford my mortgage. The “what can you afford” calculators offered by the big banks aren’t helpful …
Walkability is Worth $100,000
Last summer my husband and I started going to open houses. Even though we hadn’t reached our house down payment goal yet, we wanted to start going to open houses to desensitize ourselves to the house hunting process. I want to become accustomed to house shopping so that when the time comes, I don’t get swept off my feet and …
House Down Payment Goal: Halfway There
I’ve saved $20,000 for my house down payment fund! Today I received my extra February paycheque (I get paid five times in February) and promptly deposited the bulk of it into my house down payment fund. That deposit brought the total amount in my house down payment fund to $20,601. Getting to the $20,000 mark with this account brings me …
5 Reasons I’m Not Ready to Buy That House
I’ve been saving for my home down payment since last March, almost one year. As of today, I’ve got $19,300 saved, and am projecting around $20,000 by the end of this month. That’s quite a chunk of change, and as I approach the $20,000 mark, something strange is beginning to happen. You see, this past summer, my husband and I …
What I Learned From Three Months of Open Houses
This Fall I decided to take a leaf out of Frugalwoods‘ book and start going to open houses. My husband and I won’t be ready to start house hunting in earnest for at least another two years, so we were only going to look, not to buy. The idea behind this was to desensitize ourselves to the home viewing process, …