Please help me get over my buyer's remorse

Hahaha

Oct 6, 2017 at 8:09pm

Trust me, it’s tough sometimes. I still go to open houses to see what’s in the market. But what I’ve learned is that I need to move into a while other housing bracket to get the house I want. If I sold my house today, I’d have enough money to buy into a somewhat bigger place, but not by much. So, for now, I have to stay put and make the best of it.

Perseverance said:

Thanks so much for pointing this out. My husband was laid off a few years ago. Because we were living well under our means, we managed to live on my salary until he found his current job. I'm in a field in which I make a comfortable salary but it's certainly not ever going to make me rich. That experience taught me that it's always good to live within our means which we can with this house. We can pay off our mortgage and maintain the house on one salary which is liberating in a way. And while I don't want this to be our "forever home," we could make it our forever home by finishing out the attic and basement if we needed to.

Hahaha said:

I’m in the same boat. Bought a “starter home” in a great town 6 years ago. We’ve made major improvements almost every year: new roof, updated kitchen, finished a scary basement, removed old aluminum siding (shocker: pristine cedar shingles underneath WIN!), updated bathrooms, etc etc. Still there’s so much more to do and in the end we still have a house that is too small for our family’s current needs.

But here’s the rub. We can live in this house comfortablely on one salary. I was laid off earlier this year and knowing that we could maintain the house and relatively keep our lifestyle on one salary was a huge relief. When I visit friends with larger, more we’ll-appointed homes I also get house envy (and don’t get me started on HGTV - saw an episode of Flip or Flop yesterday where a renovated house in Atlanta was being sold for $299k!!!). But I remind myself that I’d much prefer an affordable house within an hour of NYC - and still have some money at the end of the day to dine out, vacation, save for college/retirement, etc.

Hang tight. You’re not alone.