geez, my folks paid 92k for a 1650 SQ ft home in Deer Park Tx...granted that was....17 years ago........ :P

 

The farthest south I've been looking is Culebra Road. The farther south I've looked, the more questionable the neighborhoods have been. I saw a few new neighborhoods directly south of 151 near Sea World. They may be new but I get a strange feeling there, like in a few years it might not be such a great area anymore.

The places I liked best were west of Leon Valley (Misty Oaks and Crossing at Quail Creek area) and I'm heading back out there to get my parents' opinion this weekend. It'd be nice to be closer to 151 but I haven't come across any good neighborhoods yet. Do you know of any in particular?

What I'm looking for: A place with a 2 car garage, good neighborhood, and not KB. I'll trade off some square feet for better build quality, construction, and materials. Price: under 100K. Work is over at former Kelly AFB and I'll be going to/from there at off-peak hours. They have a 9/80 schedule there (80 hours of work in two weeks, done in 9 days so every other Friday is off) and lots of people show up in the 6:00 hour and leave before the rush.

edit: My parents paid close to 50K for their ~ 1600 sqft place here... In 1976.

 

Okay, not to hijack, but what is an "escrow account?"

Anyway, back to your $2.45 ... my wife and I have a mortgage paid bi-weekly and we get a statement from our bank that shows what we pay in interest and what we pay in principal. It's a little outrageous, but I sort of "counted on it" to be that way. But all told, (I just checked my January statement) we've paid about $7800 worth of payments to a $177 000 mortgage, and dropped our balance to $174 000 between April 03 and Dec 03.

That was when we were paying monthly. We just got it changed to bi-weekly last month. Doing it that way, we should be able to pay off our mortgage 4 years sooner.

 

to put it loosely an escrow account would be something like a third party that holds money temporarily or at least it's a seperate account and for which you would get any interest (hopefully). As i understand it house payments include 1/12th of ins and taxes, which are due anually. the money is held and acumualted over the year. That keeps people able to pay both when due. If you buy on contract for deed you can negotiate not to.

My understanding about prepaying against principle is that it comes off the *backend*.
Them people who loan money want their cut and they make sure they get it first.
Lots of things one needs to know to ask. Like is there any penaltiy for early payoff. Some places won't allow it or any reduction in interest amount. They want it all. Real Estate seems to have it's own rules, so somethings that apply to other loans don't apply.

As to the first post that's not surprising and yeah it sounds about right. And it is shocking.
OK, so don't laugh at how old these figures are - from 1981. A purchase price of 50K, 30 years, 13% would cost over the life of the loan aprox 150K. Of which about 13 cents went to principal reduction the first month. Do they even come close to teaching consumer finance in schools yet? Cause it wasnt' when i went.


An escrow acount can act as an insulator between you and the other party for record keeping and such. you both pay small amounts for the maintence of the escrow account.
Get yourself an amortazation table or Loan Payments Handbook. And by all means multiply payments X number of months in the life of the loan for total cost.

When i bought my house CFD the difference between 30 years and 15 was only about 78$/month. I figured 78 wasnt' that hard to come up with. Saved a lot in interest

 

Makes me love the banking laws in Kansas - most date back to the Depression. No penalties for early payoff and principal paid is applied immediately.

 

There may have been some penalties for early pay off added into that. Sometimes it is worth staying in a house a little longer and getting past some of those penalties. 2 yrs is really not enough of a stay to come out ahaed of the game.

Mark

 

Peties3 beat me to it. There may indeed be a prepayment penalty. Check with the lender and find out if thats the case.