Would we be crazy to buy DVC when we don't even own a house?

[lovespugs]

Thanks for all of the replies! I've never had this many responses to one of my questions before!

DH and I had a long talk over dinner, and we decided to purchase DVC! We just resigned our lease at a really great discount, so we're locked into renting for at least one more year anyway. Since we plan on taking at least one week-long vacation to WDW each year for the forseeable future, I think DVC is really going to pay off for us. And as long as we have a little extra discretionary income now, pre-house and pre-kids, we might as well buy in sooner rather than later.

Thanks again for all of the opinions and suggestions. I think we've found the solution that's right for us!

 

[Goofyzgurl]

We don't own a house either, but just made the decision to buy dvc. We were looking at buying a house right before we bought dvc, but since we decided against the house, we did the next best thing and bought 200 points. For us it just isn't feasible in the scheme of things. DH is in the military and we MIGHT be moving in two years. By the time we have a house built we MIGHT have 1 1/2 years here...also we didn't want to be hindered with renting/selling a house before me moved. My dad was in the military too, so it wasn't until he retired that they bought a house. We've moved every other year so we've never even thought about buying. Now if we had bought dvc when we first toured we could've saved at least $12 like the other person who posted.

For us it was a good decision b/c we had been going to wdw for the past four years, at least once a year. The decision is yours and I don't think you have to worry about what family/friends think b/c you will be the ones to live with the decision so just make one that's right for you. Anyways, no one would know that you owned dvc unless you told them.

 

[jimmytammy]

This is advice from a building contractor. If buying DVC does not affect your desire to own your own home soon then I think it makes sense to buy DVC. You sound like so many others who can go to WDW and be satisfied. Let owning both be goals for you. I will say to concentrate on getting that home bought before little ones come along, love em as much as I do, my 2 kids eat into our pockets way more than you can imagine.


Good luck on your decision!!

Jimmy

 

[Pumbaa_]

Originally posted by lovespugs
Thanks for all of the replies! I've never had this many responses to one of my questions before!

DH and I had a long talk over dinner, and we decided to purchase DVC!

Congratulations!

 

[Disney1fan2002]

I don't think whether or not you own a house has much to do with the interest in Disney Property you will be purchasing. Some people can go their whole lives without ever owning a home. My uncle was one of them. he certainly had the money to buy a home, but he liked to travel, and the money he would of spent fixing plumbing, upkeep of the house, unexpected expenses, ect...he was happy to just leave all that to a landlord.

You sound like you and your husband do not have an issue of whether or not a home purchase is affordable, so I would say, go for it! You seem like you have your finances all set..you say you can have it paid of in a year..that would be great!

Buy it and enjoy it!

 

[brucec32]

Originally posted by Goofy's Mum
Personally, I don't think you are crazy. We do not own a house either, mainly because the mortgage would be prohibitive for us at this time. So, instead of denying ourselves any pleasure, we opted to buy into DVC, and have absolutely no regrets. We know we will have a house some day, but we prefer to enjoy our vacations until that time. We can always sell our DVC if need be, so we look at it as an investment.

An investment appreciates, a DVC membership may well depreciate. But the membership isn't your biggest problem.....

Bankruptcy courts are full of people who had "deny no pleasure" attitudes. Disney vacations, even modest ones, are crazy if you can't even afford a house payment. You still have travel, park passes, food, etc. to pay for, even with DVC savings.

If you can't afford a house mortgage nowadays with rock bottom rates, you may never be able to as rates rise back to typical levels in the future.

If you can't even afford a mortgage payment, how are you going to come up with 20% down on a house to avoid paying PMI? (required insurance to cover the lender if you can't make the payments). Not having sufficient down payment will cost you much more than you save with the DVC. ($100-$200/month!)

Every year you rent instead of own means you lose out on appreciation and tax savings of home ownership. We have lived virtually free the last 5 years due to our home's value going up and the tax deductions on the interest.

But to each his own. Just please don't vote for higher taxes on me to cover your medical costs when you reach age 65 and dont' have a pot to #### in. I'm already paying for the geezers who lived it up 25 years ago.

 

[Goofyzgurl]

*looking at the above post *Wow, that's pretty harsh.

 

[Pumbaa_]

That is a little past harsh.

 

[Disney1fan2002]

more than harsh, and a bit uncalled for. Where is it written that people have to buy a home? Just because people choose not to buy a house does not mean they can't afford it. Some people just don't want the hassle of home ownership. It is alot of responsibility. And it is time consuming. The original psoter did not say should could NOT afford a house. She said they were not in the position to buy one, for other reasons other than not having the money.

How full are the bankruptcy courts on the people who DO own a home and still "deny no pleasure" even if they are house poor? I live in an area where young couples live in these $700,000+ homes, and they are not yet 30. They have these HUGE houses and maybe one or two kids. Why do they have a house so big? I am getting off onto a totally different subject, but the point I am trying to make is, having a right to purchase vacation timeshare should not just be the right of a "home owner".

 

[niks81]

Everyone is different and therefore has different priorities....that being said, I bought into DVC right after I turned 20 and I did not own a home at that time....but I do now! We didn't have any problems either when it came to buying the home...if its something you think will really work for you then I think you should go for it.

I agree that the above post was totally uncalled for also

 

[disneyberry]

to brucec32's post.

anyway.

no, i don't think it's that crazy to buy DVC before you buy a house. as others have mentioned, it does depend on the situation though.

my dbf and i are also young (mid 20s) and we rent our apartment.
unlike the majority of early-20-somethings, we have zero debt and we saved and saved like crazy during the years immediately after college. (and managed to not lose much in the stock market... dumb luck that we didn't invest much? )

travel is very high priority to us. we travel 2 to 3 times a year. at least 1 Disney trip a year, plus 1 or 2 other locations a year.

we also are not sure where we want to settle. by the time we realized we should've bought an apartment a few years ago, we had decided we wanted to leave NYC we just haven't had the heart to actually move yet. probably 2004 is when we'll relocate.

this January, i reviewed our finances and budget, and came to realize that we just are not likely to give up our annual trips to WDW. we're willing to (and have already) cut back on a lot of other things in order to not dip into our savings during this economic low; but it looked like WDW expenses would only be cut as a super last resort.

that's when i started reading up on DVC, and we finally decided it was the right thing to do. we're going to continue travelling to WDW on a regular basis, and we'd continue to stay on Disney property.

so, a little over a month ago, we bid for a small resale contract, and now we're in the middle of closing on it. yes, this did take a little chunk out of our savings, but only a little one, so we're okay with it.
i'm not sure if we would've done this if we couldn't afford to pay cash for it though... i'd hate to start having debt just for DVC.

 

[chrissyk]

Originally posted by brucec32
An investment appreciates, a DVC membership may well depreciate. But the membership isn't your biggest problem.....

Bankruptcy courts are full of people who had "deny no pleasure" attitudes. Disney vacations, even modest ones, are crazy if you can't even afford a house payment. You still have travel, park passes, food, etc. to pay for, even with DVC savings.

If you can't afford a house mortgage nowadays with rock bottom rates, you may never be able to as rates rise back to typical levels in the future.

If you can't even afford a mortgage payment, how are you going to come up with 20% down on a house to avoid paying PMI? (required insurance to cover the lender if you can't make the payments). Not having sufficient down payment will cost you much more than you save with the DVC. ($100-$200/month!)

Every year you rent instead of own means you lose out on appreciation and tax savings of home ownership. We have lived virtually free the last 5 years due to our home's value going up and the tax deductions on the interest.

But to each his own. Just please don't vote for higher taxes on me to cover your medical costs when you reach age 65 and dont' have a pot to #### in. I'm already paying for the geezers who lived it up 25 years ago.

The OP of the comment you responded to is from MA. I'm from MA. Houses here cost A LOT. My house is quite small, is a cookie-cutter subdivision house, has a tiny lot, and is over an hour from Boston with traffic (and there's always traffic!). It is worth over 400K. The houses here sell before they even hit the MLS, so "bargains" like my 400K starter home aren't even easy to find. We got extremely lucky when we purchased our house JUST before the incredible run-up in housing prices. Had we waited, we'd NEVER have been able to afford a house. A decent-sized house (2000 sq. feet) goes for upwards of $500K in my average MA town. What I consider a big house (2500 sq. feet) goes for closer to 3/4 of a million dollars. My town is not even that nice and the schools are lousy! You should see what the houses in the nice towns go for. Please don't fault the OP of this comment for not being able to save a downpayment or afford a house here. Not too many people can right now. Besides, they could end up upside-down on the mortgage if these awful housing prices ever come back down. My husband and I were born and raised in MA, but come next year, we're moving to a state where we can actually afford a decent-sized house in a GOOD school district.

 

[Jen D]

It definietely all depends on where you live.

Recently in the park a lot of us were commisserating about not owning homes yet because they are so expensive here, and our jealousy of our friends from our hometowns who had good-sized homes for small prices-- most of us would be considered upper-middle class anywhere else, but here we're having a hell of a time coming up with down payments for a home, while we pay shockingly high rents on our apartments. Someone said-- well, isn't the thing in New York, is you rent an apartment and then buy a cheap country house to escape to? Just an idea to turn the conversation on its ear. I personally wouldn't buy a "second home" before a first home, but it happens here. I know the other solution is move somewhere else, but for those of us in certain industries, it isn't that easy.

Our family decided against dvc for now, but we're not going to quit vacations until we get a down-payment. With the price of a down-payment here, we might never get a vacation again. It's worth noting that the buying in-cost of dvc is about a sixth of what it would cost us to put down a down-payment on an apartment in our area that is roughly equivalent to what we live in now-- a badly in need of renovation duplex with two bedrooms and one bathroom.

 

[Mousefanz]

Imagine how boring life would be if everyone did everything in life in the order it was supposed to happen... blah!

As long as they aren't going to come take you away to the poor house - go for it.
After you buy a house you never have any money anyway (lol) so the way I see it, you already have your vacations paid for. Smart move!!