Dear Liz: My wife and I are young (25 and 22). We owe no one money and have built up an emergency fund with six months of expenses. We both contribute enough to our 401(k)s to get the maximum match, and I contribute the maximum to my company’s stock purchase plan. Currently we are saving $2,500 to $3,000 a month for a future home purchase. My question is will we be able to buy a decent house without getting a mortgage in three to four years at this rate? Is this something we should do? Or should we have a large down payment and pay the mortgage off quickly? We both have below average credit and mostly use cash for everything.
Answer: Since you two are so good at saving, you presumably can do the math required to determine how much you’ll have in three or four years. So what you’re asking is whether home prices will accelerate so fast in your area that what may seem like enough to buy a decent house now won’t actually buy one in the future.
The answer is: Nobody knows for sure.
The best approach is to keep your options open — and that means you’ll need to work on improving those credit scores. A year or two of using credit cards lightly but regularly, and paying off your balances in full each month, should help pull up your numbers. You could speed up the rehabilitation process by getting an installment loan such as a car loan or personal loan. Managing different types of credit responsibly is typically good for your scores.
If you wind up getting a mortgage, you may decide to pay it off quickly, or you may have better things to do with that money such as boosting your retirement accounts or saving for college educations.