Hey! I’ve been thinking about buying my first property and wanted to get some outside perspective.
Right now I’m paying about $2300/month for a 1-bedroom rental. I’ve been looking at stacked homes in the ~$420k–$480k range (builders like Minto, Mattamy, etc.).
Doing some rough math:
- ~10% down (around $45k)
- Mortgage comes out to about $2800/month over 20 years at ~5.5%
Then I added a rough estimate for other costs:
- Property tax, utilities, maintenance: ~$500/month
So total monthly cost would be around $3300.
I’m trying to figure out if this actually makes sense financially, especially with how things are going (rising costs, job uncertainty, etc.). It feels like a big jump from renting, even if I’m building equity.
Questions:
- Does this overall approach/calculation make sense?
- Am I missing any major costs?
- Is ~$500/month a reasonable estimate for taxes + utilities + maintenance?
- For a first-time buyer, does this seem like stretching too much?
- Given the current economic situation, would you wait or still consider buying?