I'm seriously finding it so expensive to buy a home. Actually I had not planned to even buy a home this year. But due to unexpected circumstances, I might be forced to buy a home. The housing market is so expensive. But it seems like we can never save enough to get there. Each time I save to get to the target, the price of homes have also increased even further. Inflation will always be there. I read from a website that we can never save enough for a house. Just go ahead and buy that home to lock in the price now as inflation will always drive prices of homes up. Perhaps I would be smiling in a few years time.
The fear of taking a mortgage or housing loan is there. It's a huge liability. What if I can't pay at all? What if something happens that I won't be able to pay for the installments? But on the other hand, I also googled what if I want to pay off the loan before a certain timeframe if I have accumulated enough cash? The answer is that we have to pay the bank a penalty fee. (What?) Yeah. You heard it right. A penalty fee for paying up your loan earlier. So they advised to apply for a refinancing of the loan instead to get a lower interest amount. Refinancing means to shorten the loan period and pay a higher installment per month so that this spare cash can be spread out nicely till the end of the new loan period. So there are people out there who apply to refinance their loans every few years to save money on interest payments.
I've never owned a home before and there is so much to learn. I guess I will know more when I get there. I'll try to update this blog when I know more.