....The only other thing I'd add is that paying cash now does not preclude you from taking out a mortgage later.

Yeah it actually mostly does.... A purchase mortgage has *much* better terms and fees than a cash-out mortgage.

Cash-out refinances do come with higher interest rates from purchase mortgages, but based on evidence I've seen, that difference is not huge.

Some numbers from briefly looking it up again:

- Cash-out refinance are reportedly 0.25% to 0.5% higher than a normal refinance typically.

- A normal (not cash-out) refinance at the moment from some popular quote cites has a 0.3% higher interest rate than a purchase mortgage for a 30-yr fixed.

So combining those two, that would make the interest rate of a cash-out refinance (paying cash now for purchase but taking out a mortgage later) 0.5% to 0.8% higher than an outright purchase mortgage.

This doesn't seem huge. I recall fees being higher too when I originally looked, but I don't recall that difference being huge either.

If you have evidence to the contrary though, I'd love to see it.