trying to figure out best plan for purchasing 1st property

[Erin Schenk]

Buy a Condo vs Rent vs wait longer to be able to buy a SFR

I live in Ventura, CA and am interested in getting into real estate investing.

I will be moving out of my current rental in a couple of months and am trying to figure out the best plan on housing situation- whether it makes more sense to rent or to buy.

Condos have been something that I have wanted to stay aware from since there is an HOA that could change and would be a cost every month even after the property is paid off. However with a teaching salary I am not able to qualify for a traditional loan amount large enough to buy a single family home.

Here are some of the numbers:

renting a room would cost $650-800/month

1 bedroom rentals are around $1300 for anything decent; Ive been seeing a range of $1100-$1800 depending on the location and property

lowest 2 bedroom rentals in the parts of town I would be interested in are around $1500 although most are higher than that

condos can be found for around $250,000 for some 2 bedrooms; there are some 3 bedroom ones in the mid 300s

HOAs tend to be around $200-$350 per month

I havent seen any houses under $400,000.

many 3 bedroom homes in the area I would be interested in are going around $530,000

I have enough for a 5% down payment on a condo. I could potentially put more down depending on the deal and if I had someone rent the other bedroom.

I’ve been crunching the numbers on what the rent/buy comparison would be for how it effects my bank accounts over the course of a year. just starting to work on numbers for what the debt pay down would be over 1 and over 5 years.

It would be great to get some feedback on what seems to make investment sense. and on whether it would be better to keep saving cash toward a down payment on a SFR or to buy something at a lower price point sooner.