Perhaps the primary consideration if you are contemplating a home purchase is your financial position. What monthly payments for home loans can you afford? How much money have you for the down payment? If you do not have enough, what sources for funds are available to you? How will you pay the money back? How much will the interest cost?
It is wise not to underestimate the cost of owning your own house. For example, a person may look at an apartment for rent and then look at a house, the monthly payments for which, after the down payment, are exactly the same. So he may decide that, because the payments are equal, he can afford one as easily as the other.
To be realistic, however, the potential buyer should add to the monthly house payments several other expenses, such as loss of interest from the cash used for the down payment, property taxes, insurance, heating expenses, water bills, maintenance and repairs. When these expenses are carefully calculated, the actual out-of-pocket cost of being in the house may be 50 to 90 percent higher than living in an apartment!
Of course, there are also arguments in favor of buying a house. The new homeowner is making payments on something that he can eventually own. He may rightly argue, too, that apartment rents go up regularly, whereas now, with the exception of property taxes, he has reasonably stabilized his costs. Further, he may reason that with the spiraling inflation of the world’s monetary system, the best hedge to protect oneself against inflation is real estate.
Another consideration that may weigh in favor of a house is the welfare of the children. The environment in the crowded atmosphere of many apartment buildings is not good. In fact, the owners of these often prefer tenants without children, and thus may not provide any kind of recreation facilities. While mother may have small jobs for her daughters around an apartment, many of the chores that provide such excellent training for boys, such as cutting lawns, shoveling snow and cleaning up the yard, usually do not exist.
On the other hand, the apartment dweller may point out that when time is not consumed by these chores more hours are available to train children in various other worthwhile activities. For Christian families this may mean more time for Bible study and the ministry. Apartments just do not carry the load of extra work that is inescapable to the property owner.
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