The sanity of owning a home for a single guy

C

Cklein

New member
Let's say you make $50K per month. (Yea, I know, it sounds a lot).

And you are single. Living in an apartment for $2000. (Apparently, the apartment is super nice, and the location is the best, you can't find any SFR with a better location than the apartment).

Will you  buy a million dollar home? Or even a half million dollar home? I am struggling with this decision. If not, what is the right way to live your life?

I feel the social pressure of owning a home, but the numbers do not come out right economically. Am I too stupid to enjoy life? I even drove a $40K car, and never thought to upgrade it.
 
Cklein said:
Let's say you make $50K per month. (Yea, I know, it sounds a lot).

And you are single. Living in an apartment for $2000. (Apparently, the apartment is super nice, and the location is the best, you can't find any SFR with a better location than the apartment).

Will you  buy a million dollar home? Or even a half million dollar home? I am struggling with this decision. If not, what is the right way to live your life?

I feel the social pressure of owning a home, but the numbers do not come out right economically. Am I too stupid to enjoy life? I even drove a $40K car, and never thought to upgrade it.
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There's no right or wrong answer.  As a single person myself, I bought because I want my own space to do with it as I please, a driveway to wash my car, and not pay rent any longer.  So it comes down to a personal decision for you...I would try to ignore peer pressure or pressure from family. 
 
No one ever attains wealth by frivolously spending money.  It seems like you are pretty level headed.  I say buy a home if you want pride of ownership, a place you'll be happy coming back to after a long day of work, a place that might give you a tax break, but don't buy as a place that will potentially pay back your investment.  Too many variables and you never know what the market will be like when you wanna unload the home.  If you want a house, buy a house (it sounds like you can afford one easily), but don't buy one cuz people tell you that you have to buy one based on your income. 
 
Thanks, Guys.
Glad to see many like minded people here.

I just figure buying a million dollar home with all the property tax crap, I am effective lift my monthly rent from $2000 to $5000. I keep asking myself why I would do that.


OCgasman said:
No one ever attains wealth by frivolously spending money.  It seems like you are pretty level headed.  I say buy a home if you want pride of ownership, a place you'll be happy coming back to after a long day of work, a place that might give you a tax break, but don't buy as a place that will potentially pay back your investment.  Too many variables and you never know what the market will be like when you wanna unload the home.  If you want a house, buy a house (it sounds like you can afford one easily), but don't buy one cuz people tell you that you have to buy one based on your income.
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Calvin Klein: What's your goal?

A separate post mentioned your wife lives in China. Is your goal to bring her here and live in a home together? Are children potentially part of the picture? Or, you're just looking for a place to rattle around in by your lonesome part-time... a crash pad which you will only see in the evenings and weekends after a hectic work week? Does the work week include much travel in which you'll not be home for a stretch of time?

The financial is not everything -- would need more info to get the bigger picture.

 
when you get a house, the social pressure will want you to get a wife and then kids. If the numbers don't work out for you with only a house, imagine a wife (this tends to be very expensive) and kids would cost you.
 
at 600K per year do whatever the hell you want.  you obviously know what you are doing.  if i was single i would not buy a house. i would rent until it was necessary to buy a house or it made good financial sense. and right now, a lot of home purchases in dont make financial sense.
 
Me, personally, I would not like to live in an apartment or condo because I would hate living in such close proximity to my neighbors and having to share a wall with noisy neighbors.  I don't think buying a million dollar house in Orange County with no wife or kids makes much sense either.  If I were making a half million a year, I would probably rent a house and buy a vacation home.
 
Buddy, I thought you are from Orange County.
a 2BR detached SFR cost $1M even in stonegate.

Maricopa plan cost you $900K easily. With all the upgrades, backyard, should be well over $1M.


irvinehomeowner said:
Why buy a $1mil home if you're a single guy? Buy a nice 2 bedroom condo (or 3br detached SFR) for cheaper.
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Cklein said:
Buddy, I thought you are from Orange County.
a 2BR detached SFR cost $1M even in stonegate.

Maricopa plan cost you $900K easily. With all the upgrades, backyard, should be well over $1M.


irvinehomeowner said:
Why buy a $1mil home if you're a single guy? Buy a nice 2 bedroom condo (or 3br detached SFR) for cheaper.
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just keep on renting for a couple more years, then just buy the house in cash - straight cash homey!
 
lol at 50k a month... buying a home is just diversifying ur assets... do u want to hold all ur equity in USD?? RMB?? stocks??

the savings interest rate right now is pretty crappy if ur holdings are in USD here in the states... combine that with the low mortgage rates, ur pretty much borrowing money for free after inflation... might as well spend it on hard assets

besides the FDIC only insures up to measily 250k per bank accnt... even if ur single with no intention of marrying anytime soon, buy and hire a management company to rent out ur place...

imo, at 50k a month, a little bit of diversification never hurts... just keep enough in the bank in case of a rainy day and another chunk enough to invest or use as a hefty downpayment for any potential opportunities/investments that may come ur way in the future... worst is if opportunity comes knocking and all ur cash is tied to something else...
 
Cklein said:
Buddy, I thought you are from Orange County.
a 2BR detached SFR cost $1M even in stonegate.

Maricopa plan cost you $900K easily. With all the upgrades, backyard, should be well over $1M.


irvinehomeowner said:
Why buy a $1mil home if you're a single guy? Buy a nice 2 bedroom condo (or 3br detached SFR) for cheaper.
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2 br detached condos (even 3br detached condos) are not $1mil... even the new ones.

As for the SFRs... Mendicino starts at high $700k... Las Ventanas (sold out now I believe) started in the $600ks.

Resale is around those prices too.
 
Cklein said:
Thanks, Guys.
Glad to see many like minded people here.

I just figure buying a million dollar home with all the property tax crap, I am effective lift my monthly rent from $2000 to $5000. I keep asking myself why I would do that.
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How does buying a million dollar home lift your monthly rent from 2k to 5k?  Tax on a 1 mil home with mello roos is at most 20k.  That's 1.6k per month.  You just dropped your monthly rent 400 for a much nicer place with equity than that pos you're renting now.
 
if u already own a 1m+ home sitting around that ur not living in or 1m+ in stocks sitting around, u might do well avoiding taxes by selling it and cashing out now... taxes are going to go up regardless if we fall off our fiscal cliff or come to a compromise...

but if ur just going into the market right now, i would suggest against putting all ur eggs in one 1m+ home... why not buy two 500k homes to rent out? or three or four 2br townhomes/condos?... ull have a much easier time finding folks to rent to with the alternatives
 
If you are making $50k/mo, you should be qualified to buy a house at $2m-3m. I would actively shop for a short sale  / foreclosure property in $2m range. The property may be worth $2.5m next year. You can rent this property out and keep staying at $2k Irvine apartment until you want to move to the property. Earlier this year, you could buy a shady canyon 4800SF property from short sale at $2.3m. The short sale property I bought last year for $1.7m is worth more than $2m today.
 
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