By Emily Aniakou
When my husband and I announced three months ago that we had just bought a house, it raised many eyebrows. Not because we came back from West Africa only 18 months ago or because we are 28 years old and recently married, but because of the fear in the air about the economy–and central to that, the uncertainty of the housing market.
We count ourselves as lucky, being somewhat shielded from the recession by determination and chance, which resulted in my current position as managing editor for Today’s Machining World magazine, and high hopes for the future job market in my husband’s field, civil engineering.
Why did we buy a house? Besides the urge to have a place of our own, the pieces fell into place. I had a steady job with opportunity for growth at a time when others were being laid off. Interest rates had hit bottom at an unprecedented 4.75 percent. The buyers market afforded us a home that we couldn’t have bought five years ago, and the sellers were all too happy to fork over closing costs. In addition, the government was swinging an $8,000 first time home-buyers tax credit before our eyes. Emotions aside, it seemed like a sound investment.
Sitting on a wooded half-acre just 30 minutes from downtown Chicago in the well-kempt town of Munster, Indiana, we knew from the first glance at the internet listing that we had found our home at $149,900. It was 1,800 square feet and built like a fort, with radiant floor heating and a full concrete basement. The original owners, who had built the home with the locally famous architect, George Watson, moved to a nursing home after a stroke, and their daughters, now living out of state, decided to sell. The home needed work. It was a brick and cedar custom-built ranch in the Frank Lloyd Wright style, constructed in 1960. Stripped of its shag carpet, it was in need of plumbing work, updated electrical and a good coat of paint.
But the U.S. government had a solution for that problem, too. The FHA 203K loan was designed to encourage people to buy homes in need of work, and allowed us to roll $16,000 worth of repairs into the mortgage.
Yes, the extra paperwork was daunting, and yes, it was scary signing away our freedom to up and go. But pulling in that driveway after a good day’s work, seeing the grass we planted grow a little taller, and watering the burgundy mum on the front stoop, slamming the door on our forest-green mailbox with the bright red flag and hearing the trash cans scrape on the asphalt as we pull them to the garage brings satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment like nothing else. For us, it was most definitely a risk worth taking.
Question: Would you buy a house in this present market?
Emily and Andre’s House
