Case Stuy:Susan Moulton Moves to Utah

After four years in California, your husband, Brandon, has taken a job in Salt Lake Valley. You were able to sell your comfortable, 1800-square-foot house for over $350,000, netting nearly $170,000 you can use as down payment on your Utah home.


You have one boy, age 4, and two girls, ages 7 and 9. They are with your mother in St. George while you make an exploratory buying trip. As the agent shows you houses, you realize that housing in Utah is much less expensive than California. Your down payment and credit screening authorize a loan of almost half a million dollars. In the Utah market, that buys a lot of house.


Brandon insists the larger home is within your budget. Your down payment of 30% means you will not have to pay any PMI (private mortgage insurance). Tax assessments in the area are 1.29% and an agent has estimated insurance on a $500,000 home at $68 per month. Given Brandon’s salary of $150,000/year and interest rates of 5.3 % APR for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, he thinks you can make the payments. He also thinks you will qualify on the 33/38 debt ratio, since you have no credit card debt, only an auto loan of $259 per month and a student loan of $123 per month. If this sounds like gibberish to you, you will need to do some research. Use the Internet to read about tax assessments and the 33/38 debt ratio. You’ll also need to locate a mortgage calculator.


Even if you can afford the house, you are uncomfortable with so much house. You plan on having at least two more children, but the homes you are visiting have five and six bedrooms, with footage of almost 5200 square feet. These houses also have huge garages, and many have special-interest rooms for home theaters or exercising. By comparison, you recall the average gymnasium playing floor is 7500 square feet. You also recall that a small LDS ward building averages 15,000 square feet and a stake center, 24,000. It concerns you to think you might have a home a third the size of a ward building. That being said, you do admit to wanting a large kitchen, laundry room, and great room where the children can bring their friends.


A part of the issue is income--you could buy a smaller house and have a smaller mortgage. A more significant concern is your feelings about stewardship. You remember your missionary years in Honduras, when you worked with faithful members of very modest incomes. Most of them raised faithful families in houses smaller than the garages you are seeing in Utah. In some cases, you taught investigators in shanties cobbled together of plywood and corrugated sheeting. At district meetings you also met missionaries from several South American countries. They often talked about their hopes of an education which might be possible with help from the Perpetual Education Fund. You have thought about this enough to study the PEF on the Internet; you have discovered that education made possible by the PEF increases average income by 326%. You also discover that the Church is involved in a number of other sustained humanitarian projects in third-world countries. These include clean water initiatives, measles vaccinations, neonatal resuscitation training, vision treatment, and sourcing of wheelchairs. In addition, you discovered several reputable organizations which sponsor microcredit—small loans (usually less than $300) which allow individuals in impoverished countries to start small businesses which pay back the loan. The affluence and busyness of your California years finalized your resolve to help others in poorer countries. You approach Brandon about buying a less expensive home and using more of your resources to help others.


When you discuss this with your husband, he reminds you of his home town in Oregon. His ward was small, but the youth were close. He fondly recalls Brother Johnson, a member of the ward who had a large home which he made freely available to the ward. Many of your husband’s friendships were forged at firesides and youth activities in Brother Johnson’s home. Your husband also remembers feeling reassured by Brother Johnson’s financial independence; he was self-reliant, but generous with his resources.


You would like a house that would bless the ward and provide an inviting place for your children’s friends, but you are uneasy with buying more than you need. Last night, when you talked to your children on the phone, the girls begged for a house where they would have their own rooms.


What do you do?