Just gonna drop this here. https://www.psypost.org/psychopathy-and-sadism-drive-preference-for-loud-vehicles-study-suggests/
Similar situation for me! I bought a Mazda6 and learned to drive it on the 30 min drive home. Had a buddy follow me to keep cars off my ass. It's definitely a skill I'm glad I learned, and I'm sad to see manual transmissions die off as EVs come into popularity. And honestly my daily driver is an EV now. But I still miss the precise level of control that comes with a manual, especially in Winter.
Spot on for me in the Midwest. My range and AC are electric, heating is a boiler. So it's super cheap in Winter and rough in Summer.
I have extremely high anxiety and can attest that it took a lot of time and effort to master a stick shift. It's definitely valid that your wife doesn't want to go through that struggle.
I've yet to find anything in this world that is more zen or fun than driving a Miata on a winding country road with my dog in the passenger seat.
PMI would be $1200 in your example, not $2500.
In what reality is PMI close to a rent payment? It doesn't seem like you know what you're talking about.
I think you're dramatically overestimating how much it will add to a mortgage to use this strategy. For example, let's look at a $250,000 home - the average for my area.
If you put 20% down, your payment will be $1242/mo plus Property Taxes. Certainly cheaper than rent, but most folks don't have $50,000 sitting around.
So let's say you put $0 down and roll $9000 closing costs into your mortgage. Your monthly payment will be $1,843 of which only $214 is PMI. Still cheaper than the average rent in my area.
Even if you're buying a $1mil home with this strategy, the PMI would only be $850/mo. Where are you getting that PMI would be close to a mortgage payment?? You seem to be regurgitating bad faith advice that keeps people scared of homeownership when the reality is that it's an excellent move for many folks.
Reach out to your bank. If they have nothing, call your local credit unions.
I went thru USDA for my first home and they had similar constraints. Talk with your bank's mortgage lender. It's possible that an FHA loan would do you better.
In the US, if you're a first time homebuyer you can buy a home with zero cash in hand. You can roll closing costs into the mortgage and have no down-payment. You'll pay more out of pocket for a few years but in many areas it's still cheaper than rent - and rent just keeps going up while a mortgage stays the same. Many states also have free programs where you can take a class and they'll give you a grant towards buying a home.
Credit unions tend to have the best rates. Get into a credit union even if it's just a secondary account that you toss $5 into each paycheck.
Also, there are programs through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for first time homebuyers that prioritizes them over investors. This is the easiest way to get into homeownership but the houses are usually fixer uppers.
Sold my Miata for this reason and I regret it every day.
I worked at banks for most of my career and was engaged to the lead mortgage lender, and together we hosted quarterly free events for our community to show people how to get into homeownership. I suspect you're lying in bad faith to try to scare people out of homeownership and push the agenda that Millennials and Gen Z can't own a home. I encourage anyone reading this to do their own research and contact their bank's mortgage team to determine if its feasible for them.
Over half of millennials are already homeowners, and I'd love to see that number go up.