As lucky as I feel to have my own property, I also feel handcuffed to my home with an affordable mortgage in an unaffordable market.
Melissa Jean-Baptiste
In 2013, I threw reality out the window and reached out to a real-estate agent to try to buy a house.I had just turned 25 and felt like it was time to have my own space, even though I had minimal savings and a steep student-loan balance that my salary as a high-school teacher was barely covering.But as a first-gen daughter, my immigrant parents adamantly stressed the importance of ownership. So buying a home not only felt like the right choice — it also felt like the only choice.It took several years after that initial outreach for everything to fall into place. By December 2018, I'd made my final student loan payment, and in January 2019, I closed on my first home.As a single woman, I didn't want to buy too much house — there was a huge difference between what I could technically afford and what I could responsibly afford.With that in mind, I purchased a 750-square-foot, two-bedroom co-op for $195,000. After putting 20% down, I locked in a monthly payment of $849.40 at a 5.125% interest rate for a 30-year mortgage.Buying my own place felt like a tremendous win, because it was. Lately, though, it feels more like a pair of golden handcuffs.
