Buying a House as a student?

[dangerfield]

OK so with the lowered prices of homes, I wanted to know would it be a good idea to invest on purchasing a home while in medical school and with the current market conditions? There are some homes in my area that have dropped 40%! I feel like my rent could go to paying off a mortgage. What are my chances? I know I would need my parents help, thats for sure. Does anyone think its possible or have the same thoughts I do? Let mme know your opinions.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[randomedstudent]

OK so with the lowered prices of homes, I wanted to know would it be a good idea to invest on purchasing a home while in medical school and with the current market conditions? There are some homes in my area that have dropped 40%! I feel like my rent could go to paying off a mortgage. What are my chances? I know I would need my parents help, thats for sure. Does anyone think its possible or have the same thoughts I do? Let mme know your opinions.

There's a lot of discussion about this in the finance forum so you should look there. That said, many people in my class did purchase homes during school (not me though) - but we have a low cost of living here and a good stable real estate market (one of the few that still has increasing values, not declining). Personally with all the volatility lately I would not purchase a home during med school unless I was like 99%+ certain that I would be staying in the same city for residency. The situation with buying during med school is quite different than buying during residency. While many people think you shouldn't even buy during residency (like I said, see the finance forum) I think that in many cases it's a good idea. The difference is, it's much less risky (if you live somewhere with affordable real estate like where I live - we just bought a 3 bed/2 bath home for $155k) b/c your income will be increasing dramatically after residency so even if you get "stuck" with a house that won't sell, most likely you'll still be able to afford to make the mortgage payment even if you are also buying another house somewhere else. This isn't the case for the med school to residency transition. So if you can't sell your house/condo after med school you will most likely not be able to continue to pay the mortgage while also paying rent/mortgage for a home in another city (unless you have a spouse with a high-paying job). Then you would foreclose - very bad situation to be in.

To sum up, given the current market conditions and the fact that the next few years are so uncertain as to when things will improve I would not recommend buying during med school.

 

[plauto]

I'd not buy a house during med school at this point in time. Besides the inherent risks of volatility, you gotta remember that when something breaks on a house it's always $$$$$$$$. And things will break, all the time. Plus maintainance, taxes, yardwork, and such.
So, if you're very lucky, after 4 yrs you break even. But you're going to have major headaches in the meantime.

 

[mshheaddoc]

moving to the finance forum. Please see the FAQ at top that has tons of reference threads.