A House!

We are under contract -- we are buying a house! It's in the neighborhood we live in, so it will be an easy move, and Gabe gets to stay at his school. At the bank, officially applying for the mortgage (we've been pre-approved so there shouldn't be any problems), Malachi saw us signing lots of papers, and wanted one. Matt gave him a blank piece and a pen. Chi scribbled a bit on it and then slide it across the desk to the loan officer and pointed to the pile of papers. Apparently, he had signed his name and it belonged in the pile. We find it very funny that Chi helped apply for the mortgage. Other than that, he sat and watched "Curious George" on the portable DVD player. Thank God for technology!

Chi and Gabe have been having us play Hide-and-Seek in the back yard. When it's Chi's turn to count he goes to the tree and hides his face and says, "nine...nine...nine..." Then turns around and says "Where'd they go?" On our walk today (past our soon to be new house, we couldn't resist), Chi kept stopping at trees and counting. It was funny at first, but we have A LOT of trees in the neighborhood, so it made our walk take quite a long time.

Other than trying to get the house, I've been getting ready for Gabe's birthday party. He's very excited about turning six. We are inviting his class and having a science party. The kids will be broken into groups and they will go do experiments at different tables. Matt is going to demonstrate some stuff that wouldn't be safe for them to do as well. I think it will be fun. Instead of the usual goody bags, I'm making a book of the experiments and why they work and each kid will get to take that home along with stuff they make during their experiments (slime, a tinfoil boat), I'll through in a pencil and a piece of candy or something. Personally, I think it's much nicer than the stuff that breaks in a day anyway, so I hope the parents appreciate that.

It looks like May is gearing up to be a busy month...I guess it always is!

To Buy or Rent; That is the Question.

We are stilling waiting on a response on a short-sale in Frankenmuth, but we are not very optimistic. House hunting has just not gone our way, and because of that we have had a lot of time to gain a better understanding of the local housing market and to question our motives: are we buying just to buy, without really looking at what makes the most financial sense for us right now?

Right now houses in the area are overpriced. Some are selling, but not that many. When the tax credit goes away, we (and experts around us) believe prices will plummet. So, we don't think we are going to try for the credit any more. But, prices are not gaining around here either. Even with the possibly inflated prices, those are not any higher than they were five years ago. So, we know we will want to leave the area and we were looking at a five year (or so) timeline. We can't expect our property to gain much value. We can't really have any certainty that the house will sell for enough to pay off our debt and have anything to put down on another house. In fact, it seems unlikely.

We also would prefer to live closer to the university, but all the schools over there are substandard. So we have also been wondering if we want to send Gabe to the Lutheran school anyway. In that way it wouldn't matter to us what the public schools were, except for purposes of resale. It would be crazy to buy a house in an area where no one wants the schools when I know it's not going to be long term. But, because of that logic, I can't live where I want to live. Unless...

We rent. Then I don't have to worry about the bad market or the schools. I can live where we want, send the kids to the school we want, and walk away when we want. The downside remains not having any decorating control, probably still not having pets, and although interest rates won't likely jump super high quickly, it means not taking advantage of all time low interest rates. (5.1% on 30 yr. fixed rate mortgage) Nationwide, the housing the market is expected to be shaky through at least 2011. Here in Michigan unemployment is 14% with little to no prospects of turnaround anytime soon. We don't like it here. We would probably be crazy to buy right now. I think....

What would you do? I know we have to decide for ourselves, but it would be interesting to hear some one else's perspective.

Bubbles and Dragons

The boys got bubbles for Easter. Chi especially loved blowing bubbles, and amazingly, he actually managed to blow at least as many as he wound up eating in his slurping attempts to use the bubble wand. Unfortunately we have only had one nice day this week, so we haven't had any more chances with the bubbles.

The boys have been playing dragons a lot this week. They got dragons in their Happy Meals this weekend, so they have changed their dinosaur game to dragons. It mostly consists of putting their "claws" up and ROARING and then the other one shrieks and runs away. Then they switch. I imagine we'll have even more of this type of game after we see "How to Train Your Dragon" this weekend. I decided that would be a good way to celebrate my birthday. Matt is not convinced Chi is ready (and I'm not sure he is either), but we are going to attempt to make a family outing of it. Our hope is that Chi will like it, so he'll be interested, and we'll give him popcorn which will keep him content and busy for awhile.