Where to?
There has been much talk (mainly on my end) between Jake and I about our next move. Somewhere along the line I have turned into a gypsy and can't seem to find a place that I feel is right for us. Jake doesn't seem to care much about where we move so long as it isn't even further away from his work. It would take a lot of effort to get even farther. His 80 mile a day commute is wearing thin and he is ready to live, at the very least, a smidge closer.
This means that I have pondered and pondered where I would love to live next. We are most likely not going to be in the position to buy a home that we would like, so renting may be the option we must turn to for now. We certainly could buy a home, just not a home that we wouldn't be thinking of selling shortly down the line. That isn't exactly appealing. If we know we are going to be moving soon, why not just rent and make it much easier on ourselves? That said...I have the yearn to own a home and have fun 'home improvement weekends.' You know, trips to the Depot, the list of projects and the sense of accomplishment. I digress....
Barring a handsome raise, we have decided on renting. There I said it, there has been one decision made. We most likely won't move until late August but where to? Ahh...the debate begins. Having lived on the East Side my whole life, I really enjoy knowing where everything is and being able to navigate anywhere I need to go. However, the alluring idea of not knowing the best grocery store and learing the quickest ways around sounds like fun too. A new town for a new start or something like that.
We currently live in Grosse Pointe Park and we love the area. As I dove into house-hunting in a truly 'Amanda' fashion(fall in love with first house I see and want to move, like, yesterday) I began to see some really AWESOME homes in the Grosse Pointe area. Flat out-swanky homes that we can afford to rent? Suddenly my dreams of walking on Kercheval with Starbucks and puppy on leash do not seem so silly. Sure I live in the area now, but I feel like a fraud. These homes are so great, so posh, so 'right' zip-code, so beautiful, so not us. Everything seems great but we are again, very far from Jake's work. This would mean a much higher rent with no less money spent on our enormous gas bill each month. And no fun of discovering a new town. Hmmm....
My next browse will be the Royal Oak, Ferndale, Clawson area. There are so many reasons we want to live in this area. Best friends are super close. it would cut Jake's drive to work almost in half (half the gas money??) and it would be a great area to raise kids. It may sound cheesy but I love the idea of raising our potential children in a really tolerant neighborhood. My kids would grow up seeing men holding hands, women holding hands, men and women holding hands...or hugging...or kissing! It would be a great way to grow up. It would just be how things are. No odd stares(fingers crossed) just a great area to grown up in thinking that it doesn't matter who you love. I'll admit(it is obvious, I'm sure) that this alone is a big draw to me. Never mind the kid aspect. Just living in an area where it is okay to be yourself. This would not be the case 15 miles away in the conservative Grosse Pointe.
There is a Trader Joe's right there on Woodward too...ok, again, this is a minor detail.
Hmmm...are there huge, great areas I am not thinking of? I don't know, but I really want to be sure we make the smart decision and not an impulse decision as we are both apt to do. We did take a somewhat decent time looking for our current home. I think that is only because we didn't see places that we really liked until this one.
Decisions, decisions..they are my friend and foe all at the same time. We have decided one other thing-we are definitely paying movers. Actual movers. At least for the big stuff and if it isn't too expensive, all of the other stuff too. With this nomadic lifestyle, we certainly cannot ask another favor. I would be outed from a potential co-op group before it begins!
On a completely unrelated note-I felt the need to take a pregnancy test and I was cheap and bought the Target Brand. BOTH test that came in the package were duds. Neither of the 'control' windows worked. I can't exactly walk into Target with some used pregnancy tests and demand my money back, but DAMN! I guess it was the fates letting me know that it isn't the time to take another test. Whatever. I want my $7.00 back.
posted by Amanda @ 12:51 PM
3 Comments:
come to Ferndale!!!!!!
People who rent thier homes fix them up all the time! I have never lived anywhere where I ddi not do flowers, paint, shelves...the sky is the limit sometimes, and talk to your landlord--often times they appreciate the effort and will even knock off a bit of rent if you are willing to do things like renovations. Its worth a shot, at least--hell, I used to got o home depot for things for my dorm rooms, so there is no way that you and Jake renting a home would be barred from that kind of thing : )Besides, without the stress of big ticket paintrain items to be responsible for like water heaters, roofs, driveways, plumbing, electrical work and more, you are free to spend whatever home-ear marked bucks on fun red pillows, bookshelves, flowers, curtains, bedding, polka dot wine glasses...(call me biased but 6 grand on gutters makes me wanna commit suicide--)
You are making a wise decision to not buy a house right now. Out of my few freinds who are currently homeoweners, they are all miserbale and wanting "out" and they cant sell. Sounds like a nightmare to me.
There are many factors to consider when deciding whether to rent or buy. There is a common perception that if you are renting rather than buying you are "wasting money".
Don't buy it. It depends on your situation.
I have gathered from my limited personal research that unless you plan on staying in a house for AT LEAST three years before reselling, there is little to no advantage to buying over renting. You just don't have enough time to build up equity and overcome some of the hidden costs that come with buying a home.
Also: the housing market right now is depressed -- but it is causing rents to be more depressed than housing sell prices.
People who want to sell their houses but can't get the price they want are just hanging in and asking for the price they want, or else giving up and taking their house off the market. So the drop in prices is the house-for-sale market is limited by the unwillingness of people to sell at a loss.
(It's a peculiar feature of the housing market. If I am selling a crop of tomatoes, I HAVE to sell them in a timely manner at the best price I can get, but (at least some) house sellers can afford to wait for the market to get better.)
I had thought the large number of foreclosures in the Detroit area might drive up rents by putting more renters in the market -- but in fact is having the opposite effect. People who needed to or wanted to relocate and were not able to sell their houses are now offering them to rent just to try and make some money to maintain their mortgages.
The result is that rents in Ferndale are $100/month less than they were just a year ago. I think it is similar throughout other surrounding communities.
Renting means more flexibility in terms of job changes, deciding you like/don't like the community, etc. and less worry about catastrophes like a tree falling through your roof or the furnace dying.
Do check our Craigslist.
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