South County Girl: December Mortgage Update

Principle paid down: $334.88
Interest: $335.08
Additional Principle: $0.19
New Balance: $106,891.71

The pay off date is June 2033.

If I continue to pay the minimum on my loan, we will end up paying a total of $69,410.24 in interest over the course of our entire loan.

Before our refinance, we would have paid $116,404.23 in interest.

Getting the Keys...

It took me $7,057.08 to get the keys to my condo and then I spent another $17,672.29 to remodel and repair it... In short, I was -$24,729.37 in the hole on day one...

In 2009 I got the First Time Home buyer's Credit giving us $8,000.00. I also got to write off some of the property tax I paid in addition to taking the standard deduction. This gave us an extra $90.10... but then I had to pay an Electrician $95.00 to fix an outlet... We also got a refund from my botched tile job that gave us another $1,265.00.
In 2010 I saved $1,087.00 on my federal taxes and $461.00 on my State taxes from itemizing my homeowners expenses. (This is what I received ABOVE what I would have gotten back with just the standard deduction).
In 2011 I spent $12.97 at home depot and $72.29 on a kitchen door. When we subtract those costs from what we saved by living in our condo instead of renting, we came out ahead $494.04 (See Mortgage Update + Condo Costs December '11 for that break down.) We also received a small $70 refund check from over paid closing costs. We didn't Itemize our taxes in 2011.
In 2012 we finished our Kitchen/Laundry door which cost us $103.24.. We also replaced both our glass slider doors which cost us $2,957.00... and repaired our dryer for $81.42....It ended up being $3,383.47 cheaper to OWN our condo than to rent an apartment on a monthly basis, (See Housing Costs 2012 for the break down) so even after we subtract the windows and other minor repairs, we still came out ahead $241.81 by owning our condo instead of renting...
In 2013 we got $52.53 back from challenging my property taxes in 2012. I also refinanced our condo, costing us $447.00 up front for our home appraisal... but we got a check back at closing for $747.20 and a check from my old escrow account for $489.74... We also got to skip a mortgage payment too! In addition, they automatically lowered my property tax value, giving us a check for $86.77.. and we saved $5,191.81 by NOT renting a place (see Housing Comps 2013)!! Additionally we ITEMIZED our taxes in 2013, saving $702.45 on a federal taxes and $503.74 on our State Taxes. (This is what we would have owed had we not had our property to write off).

All of that "math" leaves us $5,788.18 in the hole. If we assume our home is worth at least what we paid for it ($120k), we have $13,108.29 in equity...

Leaving us a profit of $7,320.11 after 5 yrs & 3 months!

Even though we broke even at the end of 2013, I still want to keep track of how much money our condo is saving us each year, especially since we are hoping to stay a few more years. For 2014, we will again assume our monthly mortgage payments are going to be a wash since it's cheaper to OWN our home then to RENT an apartment. (Check out Housing Comps 2014 for how we figured that one out). For 2014 we spent $14,172.96 to live in our condo, instead of $17,292 to live in the apartment.

Mortgage: $7,980.33 (P&I)
Extra Mortgage Principle: $15.09
HOA: $3,390.00
Property Taxes: $611.80 + $669.66
Homeowners + Earthquake Insurance: $530.00
Small Home Repairs/Improvements: $976.00