desperate housewife

The lack of inspirational tips and posts has been due to us seriously trying to buy a house.

A lot of brain energy goes into buying a house. You question ourself over and over about the property, the layout, the fittings, it's true value. You're trying to double guess the agent, get the jump on the other buyers, the vendors, you role play scenarios with the bank, thinking through the timing, the rate rises. You worry about the neighbours, the noise of the freeway, the rental potential, re-sale value. It's circular and ultimately pointless, because one simple phone call ends it all, and you have to start again on a whole new place.

However the process does reinforce your understanding of what you can afford. When you are pushed to come up with another $2000, $3000, $5000 to finalise the purchase and the graph on the loan calculator soars skyward.....well, it's only another $5000 to them, but it's years and thousands more to us.

The last attempt was the most affordable house we've looked at yet. Within our budget, but also easier repayments. Or so I thought until I discussed it with a friend of mine, who pointed out that our cheap loan would still require us to pay $400 a week. Yikes! Really? Oh dear.

Seems my grasp on the mathematics of this is still a little shaky. I'm well into the household budgeting process, but the manipulation of the loan figures I've been leaving to the Baker. I can't worry about everything....But of course, now I am.

How on earth do other people do it? Did they have massive deposits already saved? Do they not eat, drive or have children? $400 a week? Why are so many people coercing us into a mortgage, like it's a good and better life? I get why people choose to rent- even high rent is still cheaper than a below average mortgage!

That's the best part of the joke. We are looking to borrow well below the 'average' mortgage of $300,000. Like we are looking at buying an ex-commission house in an area of questionable reputation. No queues of people fighting to get in there. And yet this 'blessing' of cement pre-fab-70's-kitchen-stinky-carpet home ownership is going to cost us the better portion of our weekly income, for thirty years.

I feel sick.