I'm Happy Paying More on My Mortgage for My Seattle Townhouse

Our experts answer readers' home-buying questions and write unbiased product reviews (here's how we assess mortgages). In some cases, we receive a commission from our partners; however, our opinions are our own.

• I moved from a condo to a far more spacious townhouse in Seattle with my fiancée this year.
• Our increased mortgage, homeowners insurance, and property taxes have been the biggest transition.
• We're further from the center of our city, so we're also paying more for transportation, but it's worth it.

Thanks for signing up!

Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app

Growing up, I didn't think much about what my "dream home" would look like. All I wanted was to have a home where I felt safe and welcomed. I feel lucky to have created that with my partner.

This year, we decided to move from a condo to a townhouse, a decision largely driven by our desire to have more space to grow and share our space with the people in our lives. Previously, we didn't have an extra bedroom, which made it hard to have separate spaces. Now we have more opportunities to host guests, cook meals, and work on our passion projects.

We're adjusting to our new home

Although this wasn't the timing we had initially planned on, we were excited at the prospect of entering a new chapter together and having a soft place to land that would be wholly ours.

We ended up moving into a townhouse in Seattle with 700 more square feet than our apartment and is spread across three floors, and the additional cost of living became evident from the jump with moving costs alone, which were higher overall when moving into a townhouse because of the process to move everything up the stairs.

I was also saying goodbye to the elevator in my condo building, which meant that I was mentally preparing for the tradeoff of having a private garage and carrying all my groceries up the stairs.

Our mortgage cost has risen

The biggest transition of moving to a townhouse was the cost of the mortgage itself. I had previously owned my condo and had gotten a very competitive mortgage rate in 2020, which I lost when I moved to my new place.

As a result, my mortgage cost was higher overall, as were my property taxes and homeowners insurance because of the higher square footage alone. One benefit of having a townhouse was having lower homeowner's association dues, because I would be responsible for home maintenance on my townhouse instead of splitting the cost to maintain the building and lobby of my condo with other homeowners.

Instead, my current homeowner's association dues cover trash and smaller maintenance projects in the complex. These costs may vary if you're moving into a larger space in a different city or state, but for us, it was an expected price hike.

My partner and I decided to split the mortgage, homeowners insurance, and homeowner's association dues proportional to our income. This felt like the most fair way for us to contribute to the home we'd be sharing while still respecting each other's finances.

Check today's average mortgage rates and learn more about the amount of house you may be able to afford.

We took getting new furniture slowly

Unsurprisingly, my utilities bill went up as well, an expected side effect of having a much bigger space that required more energy to heat. I also had to buy a WiFi extender to ensure that my partner and I had strong WiFi on each floor of my home, a cost I hadn't needed to consider in a single apartment.

My office is on the top floor of our townhouse, so it's essential that I have reliable WiFi, whether I'm interviewing an author, taking meetings, or dreaming up the next set of goals for my vision board.

After moving to a bigger space, I had to resist the urge to immediately fill in every empty area with new furniture. When I had moved into my first apartment after college, I had relied on hand-me-down furniture from my family, because all I had to my name was a desk, bed frame, and chest of drawers, two of which were too broken to make it anyway.

We had gone through the process of slowly upgrading pieces until we felt like our space reflected us. Now, I have some quirky modular pieces from Urban Outfitters that double as storage and decor, but I also have an Ikea dining table and bar stools that I found at a local consignment store. By taking our time to buy new appliances as needed or get new furniture for extra rooms, we can ensure that we will cherish the pieces for a lifetime.

The growing pains have been worth it

As we've adjusted to having more space, one side effect has been getting used to the bus routes and higher gas bills, since we are further from the center of the city.

This was a growing pain that I had expected — the reality was that the same townhouse closer to downtown Seattle would have been significantly more expensive, so we made the tradeoff of having more space to be further from the places we had previously lived and went to college. I'm slowly learning the bus routes, discovering new businesses, and even finding charm in the emptier grocery stores in my area.

Though it has come with higher costs and tradeoffs at times, my townhouse feels like a palace where I can put down roots during this phase of life. And now that I have more space, I might just increase my expenses and get a pet — but I guess that remains to be seen. Until then, I'll keep filling my home with the things I love most and think about the fact that my 8-year-old self's dream of having a walk-in closet has come to life.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufonyxsdGspqeZnGKzqrrAp5qeZ5iWvbHFjKmYsqGenHquu9GeZKanoqm0orPEZqqemaSpuaZ506iup6CfqsCmeZFpaWxlYWc%3D