Renting over buying in this situation

[user87382294757]

Some people we know had a large expensive house, children at private school, then it all went tits up. Something about a business loan...anyway at the same time they were burgled. Sounds pretty bad.

Anyway, so they lost the expensive car, house and children taken out of private school. they moved to the catchment of nearby school and now they rent an even bigger house. Like, unnecessarily huge. The rent is very high, and now both have gone back to work, (the mother in a job she hates) to afford this.

I just don't get it. Why not buy a smaller house? Is it just about 'keeping up appearances'? Why would you give away so much money every month to have nothing at the end of it.

OP - I agree, it's a stupid life choice.

I have similar friends - bought a house which was crazy priced, and are now flat out working to pay back their family and the mortgage. It's affected the activities they used to do together as a family and has changed their lifestyle. For them, it was to keep up with the Jones.

It's been a good life lesson for me and my DP - we rent a cheap house, and realise that if ever we move/buy, we want to have the spare capital to be able to afford other things.

Their financial situation is nothing to do with you. My guess is they are giving it 5 years for to repair the credit scores and will buy again. Also they probably went for this house as you said because it is in school catchment which is hugely important for them. They also probably dont want to tell you anything as they rightly so assume you will go of and bitch about them no matter what they do.

You are coming across incredibly jealous.

I'm anything bit jealous. I would hate to be in that situation, will be great to have paid the mortgage off next year and be free! Our property has gone up loads in value too so could buy a very large house in another area anyway if we wanted to!

I'll just try and ignore them I think. let them make their own decisions. And stay away from their rude remarks.

but jealous, I meant to say!

Lots of people rent with children - it's not an irresponsible thing to do!
They probably like the gated complex and are waiting for their credit score to improve, and in the meantime if they want to live in a big house why not?

Presumably they are no longer in a position to buy in cash and mortgaging is even worse than renting (you areequally throwing away money through interest payments for three or so decades but you also have to fork out on maintenance) and you are also chained to the house and are screwed if you need to move more often than not. We’ve had difficulty disposing our mortgaged house, so have many people who bought around the time we did. We’re definitely not buying until we can do it in cash/with enough deposit to take out a short loan.

Oh and they’re making negative comments about your house because they’re twats FYI.