As a sophomore in college, I never thought I would need to know how to purchase a home for a family and myself. \u00a0This exercise gave me the opportunity to simulate the experience of buying a home, and therefore “buying” a school. \u00a0To begin searching for a home, I first needed to find out what type of a home I could afford. \u00a0I needed a home for my husband, a sixth grader, a third grader, and myself. \u00a0After establishing an annual gross income of $66,000, with $5,000 saved for a down payment, and factoring in monthly debt of $500, I discovered that I could afford a home listed between $238,000-$260,000. \u00a0To begin searching for a home I searched “Remax.com”, a website that lists homes that are for sale in suburban Hartford. \u00a0I found three bedroom homes within my price range that were suitable for my family. \u00a0The homes I found were in Bloomfield, East Hartford, West Hartford, and Wethersfield. \u00a0I made sure that I could afford the monthly payments, and interest rates that came with these homes. \u00a0The homes in Bloomfield, East Hartford, and West Hartford were located in areas that surround many schools, however, I wanted to find a district school because I know that my children would be guaranteed seats in a district school. \u00a0In these school districts, I was unable to find a school that both of my children could attend. \u00a0I had better luck in Wethersfield. \u00a0I found a home located at 22 Fairview Drive with a\u00a0mortgage $249,000. \u00a0It will cost me $1,229 per month. \u00a0After one year I will owe $10,539 in interest and after 30 years I will owe $192,668 in interest. \u00a0This number is $191,443 over the principle amount, which is very high, and because of this I was not convinced that this would be my best option until I realized that the Wethersfield Public School District offers school that teaches kindergarten through sixth grade, and therefore both my children can attend it. \u00a0This school, Charles Wright School, is less diverse than the schools I found in other districts. \u00a0It is about one fourth black, Hispanic, or other races, and the remaining students are white (smartchoice). \u00a0However, 79% of the students were at or above the test goals in 2012, which is higher than the Connecticut average (smart choice). \u00a0Luckily, I do own a car so I can drive my kids to school, but in case I ever could not drive them, the school is only .3 miles away from my home.\u00a0\u00a0Before this exercise, I was unaware of how much interest rates can increase payments on a home. \u00a0I also did not know that this much thought went into buying a home. \u00a0I now better understand the pressures parents face when trying to buy a home for their families in areas where their children can get the best possible education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a sophomore in college, I never thought I would need to know how to purchase a home for a family and myself. \u00a0This exercise gave me the opportunity to simulate the experience of buying a home, and therefore “buying” a school. \u00a0To begin searching for a home, I first needed to find out what … Continue reading Emily M. Home Buying Simulation Exercise<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":609,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9579"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/609"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9579"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9606,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9579\/revisions\/9606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}