30Y in 30D • Y15: Simple Question, Complex Answer — The True Purchase Price of Your Home

Think your house purchase price stops at the sale price you agree upon? Think again. It’s often just the tip of the iceberg.

Photo by SIMON LEE on Unsplash

Related and recent articles

(Full list of “30 Years in 30 Days” Series articles at bottom of this page.)
• 30Y in 30D • Y16: The Total Cost of Ownership of Your House
• 30Y in 30D, Y14: What Kind of People Are Getting Loans for Houses Right Now?
• 30Y in 30D, Y11: Dream Home or Financial Freedom? Rethinking the True Cost of Stretching
• 30Y in 30D • Year 10: A Tale of Two Eras — Home Buying in 1972 and 2023
• 30Y in 30D • Year 3: Early Extra Payments Are Magical
• Kickstarting “30 Years in 30 Days” — Decades of Mortgage Wisdom in 1 Month
• It’s Open Enrollment Season for Medicare Advantage Which Means It’s Open Hunting Season on Senior Citizens
• Has U.S. Healthcare Really Become a Mob Protection Racket?

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Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

First, let’s set up a test now that we’ll come back to at the end of the article to see if your viewpoint has changed.

Here’s the situation:

• You bought a house for $235,000 in mid-2023. Standard 30-year mortgage for the entire $235,000 — nothing fancy or exotic here.
• Your family and you live in the house for the next 30 years. Life is good. (…or at least as good as it’s going to be in a time of dramatic climate change…but hey, that’s a topic for another day.)
• In mid-2053 — just weeks after you finally finish paying off your mortgage (yay!) — someone comes along and offers to buy your house for $352,500.
• Your wife and you have just retired, and you were already thinking…