Ok, before I start, I realize that I am in a wonderful position and should not be whining. That being said, I do need help with this situation to see if thee are any solutions at all:
I am 32, married, 2 kids (potentially a third on the way soon, we're figuiring that out) We live in a pretty nice area in the suburbs of Chicago in our first home, purchased in 2007, but I would very much like to move back to my hometown. Mostly because the schools are 10/10, there is a huge, diverse, educated population, it's one of the safest cities of its size in the country, and both sets of grandparents live there.
However, it's expensive, and up until almost exaclty a year ago, my Engineering career had stalled. I was unemployed for 27 out of 32 months. In 2010, right as we were getting a solid bank account of emergencies, we had our worst non-health-related emergency. May 20th of last year that all changed, and now that we're back to 2 incomes, we're doing well. We're out of debt, but have no safety cusion in the bank, yet. My job is solid, and the new experience I have now puts me in a great position for the rest of my career.
So, here are my stats: Assume $0 in the bank, 5 years left on a .9% car loan ($393 payment) 4 years left on a 2.9% car loan ($363 payment), 23 years left on the 80% mortgage and 15% mortgage we took out in 2007, at 5.25% and 8% respectively.
My house is worth very close to what we currently owe on it, 15-20% down from the original price. Sucks...
A mortgage on a more expensive house would be affordable on our current salary. In fact, due to differences in APR right now, and our property taxes, and potential to be rid of that 15% subordinated loan, we can easily afford a new mortgage for a house we're targeting.
As you can see, though, the problem is cash on hand. If we wait 4 years to accumulate 20%, we'll miss out on the reduced prices in my hometown, the reduced rates for a mortgage, etc, but if we try in 6 months with 5% down, we're looking at another crappy subordinated loan and PMI for the life of the loan.
One option is...my inlaws are very well off. I was considering putting all of this information together and asking for a loan from them, but wanted to see if there were other options.
THOUGHTS? Thank you!
