Day 3: Our Home

Opening the door to our new home for the very first time!

Last summer, we bought our first home.  It comes with a little bit of back story.  In 2009, Bryann and I moved in together to an apartment and got engaged two months later.  I called around to friends and family and let them know the good news!  I got in touch with Steve, my mentor teacher from Salem, who I dog sit for occasionally. During the visit, he said that since we were getting married, now was the time to buy a house!  I laughed at the thought because we had no money and had some pretty huge student loan debt.  He said we MUST buy a house because the prices and interest rates were so low.  Maybe in a few years, I suggested.

He sent me an email a few days later saying that he'd mentioned me to one of his friends who worked as a real estate agent, and that the agent had told him that since I was a teacher, I could qualify for some special teacher loan.  I got in touch with Sue, the agent, to figure out what this special teacher loan was all about.  She explained the Good Neighbor Next Door program, which essentially offers HUD owned houses to teachers for half the price of the home.  We jumped at the opportunity, and a few months and some really awful houses later, we found an absolute gem in SE Portland.  We wouldn't have been able to afford a home at this stage in our lives if not for this program, and I'm so thankful it exists.

It isn't our DREAM home, but it is a wonderful house, exactly suited for our needs right now, and our mortgage is only $750/mo which includes homeowners insurance, PMI (since we didn't have a 20% down payment) and property taxes.  The bills are ever so slightly higher, but all things considered, we couldn't have asked for better!

We talk about things we'd like in the next house - a 2-car garage, walk-in closet, larger master bath, and a larger yard, but there isn't anything we're lacking right now.  We have all the space we need, and then some.  We are so happy (and so lucky!!) to have this house.  We have to stay for at least 3 years in order to have the silent 2nd mortgage (the other half of the cost of the house) forgiven, but we aren't in a hurry to move after the 3 years is up.  The low mortgage is allowing us to pay off a lot of debt.  Our house is an easy drive to Oregon City, where we both work, and I really like living in SE Portland.  I love the camaraderie of living in a neighborhood like this, and I get to explore parts of town that I wouldn't otherwise have visited.  I love our home and the lifestyle it has provided us.