Help- Forced to Buy A House in Seattle in the next 6 Months!

[biliruben]

I was wondering about the insurance thing too!

Dep brings up a good point, specific to you: you have no idea what any of the neighborhoods are truly like. Sure, Greenlake is nice, but there are dozens of neighborhoods that I would consider nice or nicer than Greenlake. You can only find out which ones truly suit you after living here for a while.

If transaction costs were nil and house values were increasing, perhaps buying might make a modicum of sense. But they aren't.

Rent, and enjoy not having to pay for the new roof, the landscaping, the plumber and electrician's bills, and most of all, the Realtor (tm).

[radycardia]

Ha, I wish I had some really neat answer to why I currently don't pay for car insurance, but I don't.

I drive a 1996 ford explorer with almost 170,000 miles on it. It was given to me by my parents when I went to university. They have paid my insurance ever since and as long as I keep that car they said they would continue to pay since it is already on their insurance plan.

The same deal worked out with my wife's car as her parent's own a business with a dozen vehicles and her insurance is on that policy.

Sweet deal, eh!

We are making the trip up to Seattle in November to scout out the area and to enjoy a long weekend. Yeah, the weather will probably suck, but I am still excited. We are going to check out traffic patterns and try to get a feel for the areas. I have spent a significant amount of time in the Seattle area (probably 25 vacation days and then I lived in Lake Stevens for 6 months) so I have a decent idea of where things are but no idea of what it's like to live anywhere. I really want to get things right the first time. To find a place that we can be happy with for 4 years as I am tired of moving every year. Hopefully it's a good trip.

Any more info on the seattle neighbourhoods or any resources on that topic would be appreciated. Are there any books that you forum gurus would recommend?

[biliruben]

No book that I know of, but I have lived here for 14 years, the last 6 with a strong eye to evaluating neighborhoods, particularly North-end, as I looked for my first and second house.

If you give me an idea of what's important to you, I can give you my opinion.

Things like:
- Walkability to retail/bars/restaurants
- Size of yards
- Crime
- Schools
- Transit
- Commute
- What sort of house you are looking to rent
etc...

[radycardia]

[Dave0]

Check out Bryant... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryant,_Seattle

A quick search on craigslist for keywords "Bryant" & "Garage" bring up
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/apa/1438892990.html &
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/apa/1437017579.html

[deprogram]

[radycardia]

Well, with the extension of the FHA credit, $8000 bucks certainly helps.

It is making me seriously think about buying. I expect the prices to drop over the next six months and then we will see how things look.

[Markor]

What if it costs $30K in terms of higher house prices to get that $8K? Cash is a powerful incentive to get people to take on extra debt.

[anforowicz]

[biliruben]

[huruta]

So, here's my two cents. I've been a lurker on this blog for quite awhile. While I do very much appreciate the input I get from this board I do find it to be very conservative when it comes to house buying. I do not think its a bad thing necessarily but with your situation (and mine) I'm not sure you'll get much support for buying here for that time frame.

Our situation is that dh just finished residency and we just moved back home to Seattle where's he started his 'first' job. We are renting a house on Queen Anne for ~$1900 and thinking about buying for many of the same reasons you stated. I'm an early-stage academic and the most I can plan for in terms of job security is about 4-5 years, similar to you. I am SO ready to live in my own home but at the same time, we are peripatetic and just really don't know what we'll be up to in 5 years -- it's really the most we can plan for...does that mean we shouldn't ever buy a house? I personally don't think so because I think the personal gain I would get would outweigh the additional cost, especially at this stage in our lives. So here a few thoughts about the questions you raised:

1.) Would spending $350K on a house/townhouse knowing you are only going to be there for 4 years be foolish? I have looked at the graphing calculator on the NY times website and seem to come up with a time frame right at the 4 year mark.

I'm not sure it would be foolish but I'd ask yourself how you'd feel if you paid more for housing for the next 4 years and ended up losing a bit of money (or having to rent the place for awhile) at the end of this period. Will the nonfinancial personal benefit/gain from having your own place truly outweigh the costs of paying more for your housing? This is a total judgment call.

2.) What kind of rents would I be expecting for a 3/2 + garage in a good area close to my work?

If you rent a whole house you'll pay more than if you rent a town home or duplex/triplex in a house. N Seatle neighborhoods seem to be runnning $1500-2200 for something decent but this is very subjective -- just what we found when we were looking to rent this past August. There is a lot of crap in this price range so be prepared to look for awhile (we looked at 2-3 places a day for ~10 days before finding our place).

3.) Nobody knows for sure, but I am optimistic that next spring will be a decent time to buy. Agree or disagree?

I don't think it would be a bad time to buy (but admittedly I'm not real estate expert). It is hard to imagine that home prices won't drop after the 8k tax-credit goes away and if it is not extended after April, after any left over summer rush, I'd think the fall season may bring even cheaper home prices. I'm not sure how to weigh the potentially cheaper home prices vs. 8k tax credit for a 4/5-year ownership situation.

4.) What would you do in my situation?

If you are willing to spend the extra to be a home owner and get the personal benefits, I'd be sure to buy in a neighborhood that would be easy to rent it out -- that way if at the end of your time you think you'd lose money it'd be easy to float it until you could sell.

5.) Any other helpful information to share?

If you will be working on Capitol HIll, I'd check out the 14th street neighborhood (not so young but nice); madison park, montlake, madrona, leschi, ravenna, laurelhurst in addition to greenlake, phinney, fremont, queen anne -- neighborhoods east of I-5 would make a commute to capitol hill a big PITA, even during odd work hours.

Good luck with your move, your decision and your new position. The UW is a great place for training and research and Seattle, as you know, is a wonderful place.

[ira s]

Huruta,
Your advice is practical and smart, but when I got to #5 I got confused.
I thought the questioner was going to be working at UW Medical Center, I didn't read anything about working on Capitol Hill, and also Capitol Hill IS east of I-5, so a commute from east of I-5 to Capitol Hill would be easy, unless you're talking east of Seattle itself.
But 1-4 was pretty spot on.

[huruta]

[radycardia]

Thanks to everyone for their helpful advice.

We just got back from a 4 days trip to Seattle to scout out neighborhoods and areas. We found several areas that we liked, but overall it looks like Queen Anne was the winner. We can't afford to buy so we have decided to rent.

If you know of a good house or townhome to rent in the Queen Anne area, feel free to drop me a line. We would like to be close to the shops at the top of the hill, and we are looking in the $1500 - $2500 dollar range. We also would like the option to sign a long term lease if that is in your interest.

Take care

[huruta]

Welcome to QA -- it's a lovely place. Best bet is probably to drive around and look for 'For Rent' signs in addition to craigslist. Macrina Bakery is your new good friend (McGraw & 6th) -- one of the best bakeries in the city. There's a great farmer's market spring-fall next to Pasta & Co on QA Ave. Metropolitan Market is decent and Whole Foods is in the interbay area (on 15th between QA and Magnolia). Can you tell I love food? Anway, best of luck finding a nice place. My guess is that you'll probably find something in the $1800-2200 range.