A little over 24 years ago, Jeff and I moved into our condo. I don't remember the exact date because we moved in over a week around President's Day. After the closing, Jeff and his father painted the place. Jeff and I gradually moved in small items and boxes over the week.
Most of our furniture consisted of hand-me-downs from our parents' homes. We did buy a new couch and a loveseat. Jeff's parents bought us a new TV set. At one point we inverted an empty cardboard box to use as a coffee table.
We didn't look at many places before we decided on this condo. We definitely wanted two-bedrooms and at least one-and-a-half baths. Financial limitations and a desire for a reasonable commute kept us looking only in Stamford and Norwalk. I had previously sold real estate and I knew I didn't want to live in most of the places we could afford in Stamford.
Of course, when we bought this place, we never expected to be here for 24 years. I figured we'd be here two or three years. It was a booming real estate market when we purchased. I didn't realize that we bought at the top. I didn't know our place would plummet tens of thousands of dollars of value in a matter of months. If only we had waited until closer to our wedding in September.
But we didn't.
All in all, this has been a good move for us. Our mortgage and common charges over the years were close to or lower than our rental payments would have been. We have large rooms; we're in a great location. When we considered other places in 2006 - 2007, we realized how nice our current home was. I'm so glad we didn't move then; we would have repeated our mistake of buying at the peak of the market. (After seeing a place I really liked, I called our bank and was scared at how much it was willing to lend us.)
So here we remain. And of course we re-committed when we renovated our condominium.
This is not our perfect place nor our dream house. But this has been our home and we have been happy here. We are luckier than most people in saying that.
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