conversation: User (greenerdoc): "Here's my situation...\n\n\nI'm about to start a new job and i need to find a place to live.  Nice houses remotely near where I am working are ridiculously expensive (starts at 500k, property &amp; school taxes total 15-20k/yr for decent schools, hello westchester!)\n\n\nWe're a mid 30s couple with a newborn in tow, - we'll be making in the 200k range and can probably swing buying a place - however, the taxes &amp; mortgage are daunting. And I want to start paying down all of my loans, start saving for retirement, goal is financial independence ASAP.\n\n\nSince we won't really need good schools for a while - I was thinking of renting - they go for around 2000-2500/month for 2br in westchester.  \n\n\nThat being said, I looked into coops even in decent school districts - and they are relatively affordable.   decent renovated 2brs are available for ~250-300k with ~1k month maint.  \n\n\nMy analysis is as such:\n\n1) Buying a house - would be the nicest option obviously, but the most financially straining - 500k @ 30yrs w/ 3.5% interest is a 2500/month payment (of which 2/3 is going to interest to start with), along with about 1500 going to school/property taxes (ie: of 4000 monthly payment, about 800 is going into equity with 3200 'wasted')\n\n\n2) Renting: 2200 wasted\n\n\n3) Buying Coop: 300k @ 30 yrs at 3.5% is a 1350 monthly payment (~900 going to interest, 500 going to principal), 1k going to maint, total monthly outlay is about 2350 of which is about 1900 'wasted'.  \n\n\n(note: a 300k coop will be a nicer apt than a 2200 rental)\n\n\nAssuming I stay for 4 years, \n\nBuy House option 1) spent 192,000, built up 38400 equity\n\nRenting option 2) spent 105,600, saved 86,400 (net of what i would have spent on option 1)\n\nBuy coop option 3) spent 112,800, built up 24000 equity, saved 79k\n\n\nUnless the perfect house/deal of a lifetime comes along, it seems option 1 is out.  Between option 2 and 3, it seems my risk is: \n\n\n1) difficulty selling the coop in a few years, because.. well coops boards suck.\n\n2) moving in less than 4 or 5 years (ie: my $500 month savings of buying coop over renting may not cover the transaction costs of buying/selling)\n\n3) the housing market worsening - the coop market in westchester is crap, but i was going to go for those with nice renovations - which will improve my quality of life, and hopefully make it easier to sell (tho ill probably be paying for most of it upfront)\n\n\nBased on this analysis it seems as if buying a coop is the best financial decision (as long as i can deal with the delayed gratification of wanting a house with a garage and white picket fence that ive been dreaming of for the past 4 years) - with about a 20k buffer to account for buying/selling costs and price fluctuations. \n\n\nIs there anything else I'm missing? I've never bought RE before - so im probably missing something.  Any other thoughts are welcome!\n\n"
  Self: "What about down payment?"
  User (greenerdoc): "i have a decent amount saved up.. probably on the order of 120k they are all sitting in investment account.  I'm probably earning about 5% dividend off of the portfolio. \n\nI wonder if im better off just cashing it all in and dumping it into a house, or just putting down a smaller down payment and saving it for a rainy day.  "
  Self: "There is also the risk of losing that with depreciation."
  