Uncle Roger's Notebooks of Daily Life

Two Kids = One House

I've been working towards buying a second, vacation home for some time now. I really like the Russian River area a lot, especially the part just West of Guerneville. I'd love to find a little place with lots of trees and lots of privacy, near the water but out of the flood zone.

A place we could take the kids for a week or a weekend, that we could rent out to help pay the mortgage, and where -- eventually -- we could retire. Well, this weekend, I found a place that would be nearly perfect.

The location is great, lots of privacy, trees, some history, and even an extra cottage. It's a small two-bedroom, one-bath place with tons of windows, a deck, and a patio with a big stone barbeque. It would be a fantastic rental property and would give us everything we want in a vacation home. The price -- a little over $300k -- is a little more than I had hoped to pay but not excessively so.

So Rachel and I sat down to take a long, honest look at our finances to see if we could make it work. Turns out, we can't. We both make a decent salary, our mortgage payment is fairly low (for the area, especially) and we have no other outstanding debt, but our ongoing expenses simply don't allow for an additional $1,700 to $2,000 per month outlay for the mortgage and other expenses.

Looking over the list of expenses we have -- mortgage, home and auto insurance, telephone and other utilities, etcetera -- I noticed something startling. If you take what we pay for childcare, the tuition for Jared's school, the cost of Jared and Sara's swim lessons, and add a couple hundred a month for food, we end up with just about the same amount as the mortgage would be on $300k.

So, basically, two kids = one house.

Related Links Russian River Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center Russian River Getaways Child Study Center at San Francisco State University La Petite Baleen Swim Schools

[ Posted: 15:30 | home | print ]

So bloody true...

And I don't even have the kids! It's more like "Dugh = no house"! Hopefully I'll remedy that someday. Meanwhile I'm impressed you have one in the first place. I just hope I haven't missed the boat...

Posted by dugh daren

Not too impressive...

I bought it a dozen years ago, and got a really good deal on it. One of these days, I'll have to write up the story. As for missing the boat... it's not too late and there are "deals" to be had, even in SF. Still, SF is expensive; elsewhere it's not unreasonable to expect to own a home.

Posted by Uncle Roger

Roger, Merced won some kind of "most expensive home" prize lately. It must be based on home cost/income ratio because I know we're not as high as the Bay Area yet but we're catching up fast. People are willing to travel Pacheco Pass twice a day (insanity) to get out of San Jose/South bay and we are getting people from as far away as Livermore and even further fighting the mess that is Hwy 99.

Posted by Ann Adams

Insane Commutes

There are a lot of people commuting for hours just so they can have a nice house. I'm not sure, but I'd like to think I am not so concerned with such things that I would do that. I would rather live near where I work and not have a big house than drive for hours to have a house that I was too tired to appreciate. Of course, that doesn't take into account having a family who might get to enjoy the house. There's no easy answer, I think.

Posted by Uncle Roger