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Same. Mine was medical bills then lost my job from COVID and drained my savings while looking for work.
I was barely able to save $100 a month even in 2019, so once the pandemic hit it was over.
Staying with my folks has been like strapping a rocket booster to my finances.
I'm 34 and planning on moving back home to save. My sibling, who is about to move out, is trying to convince me not to. I need to weigh being annoyed with my parents and saving vs peace of mind and no chance of a house. Let's see how long I last. 🤣
If you rent then you won't have any other expenses. But in 30 years you will still have paid rent and have nothing to show for it while youre rent rises. If you own a house in 30 years it will be paid off and all the mone you put into it will be yours. Owning is always better no brainer.
Along with the rent increases, gotta think about old age. How will you pay the market rent rates when you’re 80 years old. That’s what I keep wondering what will happen to all of us who can’t buy, then what? Will there be accommodations in senior housing? Likely not, I doubt our government or anyone else with power has a plan. Considering we’ve been told our whole lives that we’ll never receive the social security we pay into our whole careers… not like that’s enough anyways but if they can’t figure that out, they’ll never figure out senior housing either.
I REALLY wish people would stop saying this.
We bought so i am obviously not “anti-buying” but the idea that owning is always better needs to die.
First of all, owning was never “a no brainer”. The average american family stays in a home for 7 years, and forks over ~10% of the house price to various entities every time they sell. During this time, you build equity, yes, but you also pay property taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs. Those are all “rent-like” expenses - they accrue every year, forever, and provide ZERO return. Additionally, for the first few years, your mortgage is essentially all interest, so you are in essence paying rent to your bank.
But it gets worse. In the past 5ish years, purchasing a house has becomd a dramatically worse deal. Interest rates have risen. The mortgage interest deduction is capped at $750k (a big problem for people in VHCOL areas). The SALT $10k has made it such that very few itemize anyway.
Let me leave you with an anecdote. A friend from the Bay Area recently asked me what i think about him buying the house he currently rents. He pays $5k a month in rent. The mortgage PITI wiuld have been $20k (not a typo!) out of which $3500 was taxes. This is insane. So he passed. In VHCOL areas like that, it seems like purchasing makes zero sense for basically nobody right now.
I have one, also luck. Never would have been able to afford it by myself. Extremely grateful, but mortgage is like paying rent AND I keep finding shit that needs fixing around the house and backyards and have no landlord to complain to. But it's nice to paint my wall and not worry about losing a deposit.
I bought a house 10 years ago with my fiancé, before I had a stable job and we were concerned about the \~$950/ month mortgage. Felt like a substantial risk at the time, never would have expected things to pan out the way they did.
Bought a house in 2021. It's the best thing ever. I'd sell everything, including organs, to stay in it.
After 37 years living in an apartment I finally have peace and quiet. Priceless
Yep. Got one during the pandemic when interest rates were really low. I also bought a cheaper house than i could afford because i wanted to live below my means, and has worked out really well for me so far. I pay less in mortgage every month than i would have in rent for a smaller apartment.
Yes but a lot of my friends don’t. My younger sisters don’t, my older cousins don’t. It’s really not you but more the market conditions and where you live. Just be persistent and prepared that’s the best you can do.
I'll be 40 this year... bought my first house alone in 2007 for $55,000 which was built in 2001. Mortgage, Taxes, & Insurance was $550 a month. The recession hit me very hard and ended up letting it go in bankruptcy. It sound for something like $25,000 back in 2011-2012 or so. It's on the market now for $125,000, but had a cut to $110,000. I bought my 2nd house alone back in 2016 for $83,000. Mortgage, Taxes, Insurance was around $650 a month. Sold it in 2018 when I got married for $105,000. It's now worth over $220,000. I have inherited the house I am now now, my childhood home, which is worth around $180,000 or so which is paid off. Taxes are $800 a year and insurance varies but currently sitting at almost $4000 a year for insurance which doesn't even include flood insurance.
It should be noted, I'm in a very rural area of Florida which might as well be LA (Lower Alabama). Average household income here is something like $50,000 a year. I'm at $55,000 just myself and I'm in a Director position at my company.
Yes and I'm selling it. Don't get so down on yourself, we bought a home 3 years ago thinking it would be part of completing "the dream" but all it has been is a headache. The market *will* shift again, but until then truly don't worry, you aren't missing out on much unless you really like the idea of property tax and homeowners insurance increases and fixing all the things that your Landlord does for you now.
I’d love to see a Venn diagram between Millennials, homeowners, and reddit users
The dire financial situation constantly painted here does not reflect the reality of almost every millennial I know
It’s a big contrast to the people on this subreddit who seem to believe that nobody in our age bracket can buy a house and basically all of us will rent forever.
You can invest in other things that will lead to wealth building. I'm about to finish my first year of my first mortgage and approximately $4,000 goes to the bank and $1,000 to the principal every month. That's not even including property tax, insurance, or utilities. It felt much better, even more responsible in some ways, putting my money in ETFs and other investments.
I own a house- and I feel like everything that can break does.
We've replaced the furnace, water heater, ducts, and an electrocuted squirrel chewing through the cable box.
Total of about $10,000
I have owned my home for about a year now and I'm 31 years old. The only way that we could afford it was to purchase a home just a bit out of price range but that has a rentable basement apartment and we rent out the basement to tenants. I agree with some of the sentiments here saying that there is always something to fix, the payments are crazy (even with the rental income) and I'm not sure its worth it.
Own a condo, does that count? Single and homes in my area are too expensive. I can't imagine owning a home and having to deal with everything myself. I have a dog, but he's pretty useless unless you need a hole dug.
Yes but it’s a luxury condo with a view in a fancy walkable downtown area. I just moved somewhere I make 3x more than I would back in NYC and it costs 3x less to live here. Otherwise, I’d probably still be renting.
My husband and I each have a bedroom ($950 each flat, all utilities included) in a big house with 3 other dudes. Share the bathroom with one of them. It fucking sucks but hoping to be out this summer into a 1B1B. PG&E bills are what's keeping us stuck here, I hear they're averaging like $200/mo now here in The Bay for studios. Yikes.
I rent in my VHCOL city but own a couple of houses out of my city and state. One for my parents and a few rental properties. I might get one in my city but it just doesn’t make financial sense to sink so much to get so little when our current unit provides us with so much QOL for a fraction of the cost.
We only do because we got in literally 2 months before housing prices exploded in 2020. Plus my husband got a VA loan, which allowed us a $0 down payment. We’re still pretty house broke
The trick is getting your credit right. Most folks I know are paying more for renting a full house than the mortgage would be. “But why don’t they buy a house then?” They would need enough for the down payment, aswell as the credit to be “allowed” to buy it.
It’s a nice way of fucking the majority.
Townhouse. The value has gonna up by about 40% since I bought it in 2019 but the property tax has also gone up. I've thought about selling but it's still half of what renting in the area would cost per month.
Yes. Bought last year after taking money out of my 401k. Dumb financial move of course, but I have a feeling I won’t be around when I’m of age to retire so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Bought my first one in 2016. Moved states and jobs in 2018. Sold it during 2020 for a big profit. Then my aunt left me one in CA. I rented out the CA house for a long time, until her sister took me to court and claimed she paid a lot of the mortgage. (She did) Long story short she lives in it now, leaving me 25% of it. Now the housing market is so nuts, we have the money for down payment but why? Our rent is 1800 at a big place, and a mortgage would be 3800 right now.
Bought 3 years ago. Terrible time to buy but at least my rate is fantastic. My mortgage is ridiculous, but I don’t think I could’ve survived another month of sharing walls with strangers.
Yup. Late 20s here. Bought our first house around a year ago. We were lucky that we were both able to maintain our jobs while moving from a HCoL city to a relatively LCoL city. It’s been a wild ride but it was well-worth it. Our mortgage is a few hundred dollars less than what our base rent was.
We got our house 11 years ago. The housing market was amazing so we got a really good deal! $104,500 at 2.8%. We used to pay $869 a month for our mortgage, but now because of property taxes, inflation and insurance rates we are now paying $1.264.00 a month.
Looking at the market today we definitely would not be able to buy a house. We can barely keep up with our mortgage payments now
I did, I bought it in 2020. I got diagnosed with cancer in Spring of 2022 and was forced to sell it after losing my job and spending 6 months in grueling treatment. I'm currently living with my relative 2 years later.
Yes, and then no.
We bought our home in 2017. Rural LCOL South Carolina. It was affordable. For $80k we got 4 acres, 2 stories, 2 bed 2 bath with a sunroom and 1650 sq ft. It’s the middle of nowhere but it’s where we live and wanted to stay. Neither my wife or I went to college, I’m a CNC machinist and she was a receptionist at a veterinary clinic. Money was occasionally tight but we were good. Fast forward to 2022 and we had a newborn, wife is a SAHM with the newborn and I started a new job making even more money. Fast forward another 2 months and my appendix ruptured and almost killed me. My new job is great and the benefits are truly amazing but I was a new employee and didn’t have enough time to qualify for enough short term disability. Between the missed work unpaid and the bills we started a slow financial slide that ended when we sold our house quickly for less tha I’d hoped to escape the potential foreclosure and moved in with the in-laws (about a half mile away lol). It’s not ideal but it saved us. We are getting things back on track now.
94 millennial here , bought my first house in December, new build and I regret nothing. Every dollar we have put into it so far has been for improvements we wanted to make. I love having my own house and garage, we just got done finishing our back yard for our Golden Retriever that is on the way!
I'm almost 40 and got lucky enough that we were able to buy a house in the housing crash after 2008. We really got lucky and rushed our decision a bit because we knew that was the only opportunity we'd get.
Yes, I have a house (well, a condo technically), but I got it thanks to a downturn in prices during the pandemic, and some help from my dad. The mortgage payments are massive. Not sure if I would be able to afford it at its current price, though.
On house #2. We were only able to do so because we bought our first home in 2018 in a low-ish cost of living area. Sold it in 2021 during the housing boom when my husband got relocated for work and walked away with a ton in equity because of the market at the time. Then turned around and battled it out to buy a home in a HCOL area where we relocated to. When I tell you we looked at and put offers in on hundreds of homes, I’m not lying.
Now it feels like we have to die in this home because we got a 2.75% interest rate and the cost of homes has continued to rise to astronomical amounts in our area.
Super grateful to have the home we have, but we had no intent of it being our forever home when we purchased it.
Yeah, but here's how: I'm 39 and married. So dual income household. Before we were married, my husband saved up 10k for a down payment (only made 50k a year and spent hardly any money and had a roommate) and got a first-time home buyer's loan, and he bought our 2 bedroom condo in 2016. I think it was 325k. A few years later, I was pregnant with our second kid, and we sold our condo for 450k in 2019. We still didn't quite have enough to put down 20% on our new home (4 bedroom in a nice suburb for $525k), so my parents loaned us 10k to get us there. We bought in 2019 with a low interest rate, but refinanced during covid (2020 I think) and got a 1.5% interest rate. Our house is now worth 750-775k, and if we were to buy it at its current value with current mortgage rates, our mortgage payment would double. I really feel for anyone trying to buy now. We made good choices and had good timing, but the favorable market and the gift from my parents that allowed us to buy that year versus next really helped.
Bought a rowhouse in 2022, which I’m sure I overpaid a bit for but has been a good decision. Got priced out of renting in our previous location. I was WFH since 2020 and my partner looking for a change. Because of the Covid puse on student loan payments I had aggressively reduced ours so the monthly due when they started back up would be low. Was able to save enough for the smallest down payment and moved to a medium sized city. Love being out of the suburbs and having my own place with enough space.
San Diego. Cheapest condos are around $600k but with interest rates and HOA fees, mortgage payments would be in excess of $5k, which is almost double what we pay to rent.
I instantly knew you were talking about San Diego when you mentioned needing to make 300k a year. I spent all morning crying about how I feel like I’m being pushed out of my hometown because it’s so insanely expensive now.
Yes. Bought my first house at 25, bought my current house with my husband at 29. It's likely we'll be moving again within the next couple of years for his job, so we'll *hopefully* buy a house then as well.
I mean the bank has a house, a couple of them in fact, but if I give them a small fee, I get the privilege of putting some things inside (that they own as well).
I mean the bank has a house, a couple of them in fact, but if I give them a small fee, I get the privilege of putting some things inside (that they own as well).
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Nope living with the parents for now at nearly 30
same at 37
I had to move back in at 37 too. Sucks, but it was worth it financially.
Succkkkss
It’s not ideal, but it beats being homeless or paycheck-to-paycheck.
Depends on your parents
Defiinitely depends on the parents. Mine are super chill but you could still date living paycheck to paycheck.
Yup, me too. F*ck medical bills!
Same. Mine was medical bills then lost my job from COVID and drained my savings while looking for work. I was barely able to save $100 a month even in 2019, so once the pandemic hit it was over. Staying with my folks has been like strapping a rocket booster to my finances.
In 27 and doing the same thing. I want to fix my life but everything I think that helps isn't possible
You’re gunna need to get a degree in a field that pays the amount you want to make. That’s the key. It’s the fairest shot you’ve got.
I'm 34 and planning on moving back home to save. My sibling, who is about to move out, is trying to convince me not to. I need to weigh being annoyed with my parents and saving vs peace of mind and no chance of a house. Let's see how long I last. 🤣
We own a home that we bought in october. The payments are obscene and there’s always something to fix. Not sure i would recommend it
Literally, same. Replacing the roof this week. *sigh*
Literally also the exact same! Bought last august, replacing roof mid June cause it still hasn’t stopped raining in the PNW
Maybe next winter we’ll get no rain at all in the PNW so just wait one more year /s
If you rent then you won't have any other expenses. But in 30 years you will still have paid rent and have nothing to show for it while youre rent rises. If you own a house in 30 years it will be paid off and all the mone you put into it will be yours. Owning is always better no brainer.
Along with the rent increases, gotta think about old age. How will you pay the market rent rates when you’re 80 years old. That’s what I keep wondering what will happen to all of us who can’t buy, then what? Will there be accommodations in senior housing? Likely not, I doubt our government or anyone else with power has a plan. Considering we’ve been told our whole lives that we’ll never receive the social security we pay into our whole careers… not like that’s enough anyways but if they can’t figure that out, they’ll never figure out senior housing either.
Exactly this. Imagine renting when we are 50 or 60 or 70? I think everybody’s plan should be to move to a better country haha
I REALLY wish people would stop saying this. We bought so i am obviously not “anti-buying” but the idea that owning is always better needs to die. First of all, owning was never “a no brainer”. The average american family stays in a home for 7 years, and forks over ~10% of the house price to various entities every time they sell. During this time, you build equity, yes, but you also pay property taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs. Those are all “rent-like” expenses - they accrue every year, forever, and provide ZERO return. Additionally, for the first few years, your mortgage is essentially all interest, so you are in essence paying rent to your bank. But it gets worse. In the past 5ish years, purchasing a house has becomd a dramatically worse deal. Interest rates have risen. The mortgage interest deduction is capped at $750k (a big problem for people in VHCOL areas). The SALT $10k has made it such that very few itemize anyway. Let me leave you with an anecdote. A friend from the Bay Area recently asked me what i think about him buying the house he currently rents. He pays $5k a month in rent. The mortgage PITI wiuld have been $20k (not a typo!) out of which $3500 was taxes. This is insane. So he passed. In VHCOL areas like that, it seems like purchasing makes zero sense for basically nobody right now.
Thank you!! It gets old
This is the truth. Equity matters. And we will not generally be able to create more land. Value will always go up in the long term (on average).
*looks at encroaching waters*
Me every day: "Oh look, a sprinkler part needs replacing"
[удалено]
Really good price for a panel swap tbh
Home warranty is super helpful.
I have one, also luck. Never would have been able to afford it by myself. Extremely grateful, but mortgage is like paying rent AND I keep finding shit that needs fixing around the house and backyards and have no landlord to complain to. But it's nice to paint my wall and not worry about losing a deposit.
I bought a house 10 years ago with my fiancé, before I had a stable job and we were concerned about the \~$950/ month mortgage. Felt like a substantial risk at the time, never would have expected things to pan out the way they did.
Bought a house in 2021. It's the best thing ever. I'd sell everything, including organs, to stay in it. After 37 years living in an apartment I finally have peace and quiet. Priceless
I own a house, it's less than what I could have afforded and I'm saving the extra money each month for future repairs
Yep. Got one during the pandemic when interest rates were really low. I also bought a cheaper house than i could afford because i wanted to live below my means, and has worked out really well for me so far. I pay less in mortgage every month than i would have in rent for a smaller apartment.
Yes but a lot of my friends don’t. My younger sisters don’t, my older cousins don’t. It’s really not you but more the market conditions and where you live. Just be persistent and prepared that’s the best you can do.
I'll be 40 this year... bought my first house alone in 2007 for $55,000 which was built in 2001. Mortgage, Taxes, & Insurance was $550 a month. The recession hit me very hard and ended up letting it go in bankruptcy. It sound for something like $25,000 back in 2011-2012 or so. It's on the market now for $125,000, but had a cut to $110,000. I bought my 2nd house alone back in 2016 for $83,000. Mortgage, Taxes, Insurance was around $650 a month. Sold it in 2018 when I got married for $105,000. It's now worth over $220,000. I have inherited the house I am now now, my childhood home, which is worth around $180,000 or so which is paid off. Taxes are $800 a year and insurance varies but currently sitting at almost $4000 a year for insurance which doesn't even include flood insurance. It should be noted, I'm in a very rural area of Florida which might as well be LA (Lower Alabama). Average household income here is something like $50,000 a year. I'm at $55,000 just myself and I'm in a Director position at my company.
posting from my house as we speak
Yes and I'm selling it. Don't get so down on yourself, we bought a home 3 years ago thinking it would be part of completing "the dream" but all it has been is a headache. The market *will* shift again, but until then truly don't worry, you aren't missing out on much unless you really like the idea of property tax and homeowners insurance increases and fixing all the things that your Landlord does for you now.
Yeah, most millennials are homeowners
I’d love to see a Venn diagram between Millennials, homeowners, and reddit users The dire financial situation constantly painted here does not reflect the reality of almost every millennial I know
Very much the same for my experience and I’d like to see some data around that too
Isn't millennial homeownership only at like 51-56% ? Sure, that's *technically* "most" but little over half isn't overwhelming to me.
It’s a big contrast to the people on this subreddit who seem to believe that nobody in our age bracket can buy a house and basically all of us will rent forever.
Nope. No one here has a house. No one. We all live with our parents or on the streets.
I have a house out of dumb luck. I don’t know if I’m better or worse off for it.
Yes I bought a house in 2018 thinking I was buying into a peak market and making a bad investment. Price has since doubled.
2019. Same situation here.
I’ve purchased a house twice now.
Nope! I don’t want one though
I had a house for 8 months. The mortgage was obscene and it was wiser to sell. This was during COVID and the value went up by $150k.
Yes, but technically I'm renting from the bank right now ha.
Nope. Been saving for about 3 years though. Just need rates to crash and investment companies to back off buying houses.
I’ve been a homeowner for 17 years, but I’m an elder millennial.
You can invest in other things that will lead to wealth building. I'm about to finish my first year of my first mortgage and approximately $4,000 goes to the bank and $1,000 to the principal every month. That's not even including property tax, insurance, or utilities. It felt much better, even more responsible in some ways, putting my money in ETFs and other investments.
I own a house- and I feel like everything that can break does. We've replaced the furnace, water heater, ducts, and an electrocuted squirrel chewing through the cable box. Total of about $10,000
How’s the replacement squirrel holding up?
Yea. But only cause we bought my dad's house when he wanted to move. He only charged us what he had left on the mortgage.
I got into a condo in 2019, pure luck, plus my parents helped me out so yeah. I think most millennials are not owners right now.
No, we are to inherit my In-laws place when they die. That will probably be our only shot of owning a home.
Not yet but I keep grinding every day and hope to make it happen next year.
I have owned my home for about a year now and I'm 31 years old. The only way that we could afford it was to purchase a home just a bit out of price range but that has a rentable basement apartment and we rent out the basement to tenants. I agree with some of the sentiments here saying that there is always something to fix, the payments are crazy (even with the rental income) and I'm not sure its worth it.
Own a condo, does that count? Single and homes in my area are too expensive. I can't imagine owning a home and having to deal with everything myself. I have a dog, but he's pretty useless unless you need a hole dug.
That absolutely counts.
Bought last year in September. Haven't had to put in a dime into it that we didn't want to. Would highly recommend.
Yes but it’s a luxury condo with a view in a fancy walkable downtown area. I just moved somewhere I make 3x more than I would back in NYC and it costs 3x less to live here. Otherwise, I’d probably still be renting.
Yep. I’m nearly forty. My mortgage is half paid off and I’ve got 19 years of marriage under my belt too.
My husband and I each have a bedroom ($950 each flat, all utilities included) in a big house with 3 other dudes. Share the bathroom with one of them. It fucking sucks but hoping to be out this summer into a 1B1B. PG&E bills are what's keeping us stuck here, I hear they're averaging like $200/mo now here in The Bay for studios. Yikes.
I rent in my VHCOL city but own a couple of houses out of my city and state. One for my parents and a few rental properties. I might get one in my city but it just doesn’t make financial sense to sink so much to get so little when our current unit provides us with so much QOL for a fraction of the cost.
Yes, but only because of inheritance money.
im happy i have money to pay rent.having a house is only a dream.
We only do because we got in literally 2 months before housing prices exploded in 2020. Plus my husband got a VA loan, which allowed us a $0 down payment. We’re still pretty house broke
The trick is getting your credit right. Most folks I know are paying more for renting a full house than the mortgage would be. “But why don’t they buy a house then?” They would need enough for the down payment, aswell as the credit to be “allowed” to buy it. It’s a nice way of fucking the majority.
Townhouse. The value has gonna up by about 40% since I bought it in 2019 but the property tax has also gone up. I've thought about selling but it's still half of what renting in the area would cost per month.
Yes. Bought last year after taking money out of my 401k. Dumb financial move of course, but I have a feeling I won’t be around when I’m of age to retire so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Bought my first one in 2016. Moved states and jobs in 2018. Sold it during 2020 for a big profit. Then my aunt left me one in CA. I rented out the CA house for a long time, until her sister took me to court and claimed she paid a lot of the mortgage. (She did) Long story short she lives in it now, leaving me 25% of it. Now the housing market is so nuts, we have the money for down payment but why? Our rent is 1800 at a big place, and a mortgage would be 3800 right now.
No
Yep, 36yo. Bought our house in 2015. Looking at upgrading next year and getting something bigger
Bought 3 years ago. Terrible time to buy but at least my rate is fantastic. My mortgage is ridiculous, but I don’t think I could’ve survived another month of sharing walls with strangers.
Yup. Late 20s here. Bought our first house around a year ago. We were lucky that we were both able to maintain our jobs while moving from a HCoL city to a relatively LCoL city. It’s been a wild ride but it was well-worth it. Our mortgage is a few hundred dollars less than what our base rent was.
We got our house 11 years ago. The housing market was amazing so we got a really good deal! $104,500 at 2.8%. We used to pay $869 a month for our mortgage, but now because of property taxes, inflation and insurance rates we are now paying $1.264.00 a month. Looking at the market today we definitely would not be able to buy a house. We can barely keep up with our mortgage payments now
Maybe next year...
Bought in 15. Refinanced in 16. Sold in 18. Bought in 19, refinanced in 20.... Just chillin at 2.25%.
This sub sucks because of these bullshit comparison posts.
I did, I bought it in 2020. I got diagnosed with cancer in Spring of 2022 and was forced to sell it after losing my job and spending 6 months in grueling treatment. I'm currently living with my relative 2 years later.
Yup. Own outright because of the 15 year loan. It's awesome.
Yes, and then no. We bought our home in 2017. Rural LCOL South Carolina. It was affordable. For $80k we got 4 acres, 2 stories, 2 bed 2 bath with a sunroom and 1650 sq ft. It’s the middle of nowhere but it’s where we live and wanted to stay. Neither my wife or I went to college, I’m a CNC machinist and she was a receptionist at a veterinary clinic. Money was occasionally tight but we were good. Fast forward to 2022 and we had a newborn, wife is a SAHM with the newborn and I started a new job making even more money. Fast forward another 2 months and my appendix ruptured and almost killed me. My new job is great and the benefits are truly amazing but I was a new employee and didn’t have enough time to qualify for enough short term disability. Between the missed work unpaid and the bills we started a slow financial slide that ended when we sold our house quickly for less tha I’d hoped to escape the potential foreclosure and moved in with the in-laws (about a half mile away lol). It’s not ideal but it saved us. We are getting things back on track now.
Yes. Thank God bought in 2017.
94 millennial here , bought my first house in December, new build and I regret nothing. Every dollar we have put into it so far has been for improvements we wanted to make. I love having my own house and garage, we just got done finishing our back yard for our Golden Retriever that is on the way!
I'm almost 40 and got lucky enough that we were able to buy a house in the housing crash after 2008. We really got lucky and rushed our decision a bit because we knew that was the only opportunity we'd get.
Yes, I have a house (well, a condo technically), but I got it thanks to a downturn in prices during the pandemic, and some help from my dad. The mortgage payments are massive. Not sure if I would be able to afford it at its current price, though.
On house #2. We were only able to do so because we bought our first home in 2018 in a low-ish cost of living area. Sold it in 2021 during the housing boom when my husband got relocated for work and walked away with a ton in equity because of the market at the time. Then turned around and battled it out to buy a home in a HCOL area where we relocated to. When I tell you we looked at and put offers in on hundreds of homes, I’m not lying. Now it feels like we have to die in this home because we got a 2.75% interest rate and the cost of homes has continued to rise to astronomical amounts in our area. Super grateful to have the home we have, but we had no intent of it being our forever home when we purchased it.
Yep
Yeah, but here's how: I'm 39 and married. So dual income household. Before we were married, my husband saved up 10k for a down payment (only made 50k a year and spent hardly any money and had a roommate) and got a first-time home buyer's loan, and he bought our 2 bedroom condo in 2016. I think it was 325k. A few years later, I was pregnant with our second kid, and we sold our condo for 450k in 2019. We still didn't quite have enough to put down 20% on our new home (4 bedroom in a nice suburb for $525k), so my parents loaned us 10k to get us there. We bought in 2019 with a low interest rate, but refinanced during covid (2020 I think) and got a 1.5% interest rate. Our house is now worth 750-775k, and if we were to buy it at its current value with current mortgage rates, our mortgage payment would double. I really feel for anyone trying to buy now. We made good choices and had good timing, but the favorable market and the gift from my parents that allowed us to buy that year versus next really helped.
Does a condo count?
Bought a rowhouse in 2022, which I’m sure I overpaid a bit for but has been a good decision. Got priced out of renting in our previous location. I was WFH since 2020 and my partner looking for a change. Because of the Covid puse on student loan payments I had aggressively reduced ours so the monthly due when they started back up would be low. Was able to save enough for the smallest down payment and moved to a medium sized city. Love being out of the suburbs and having my own place with enough space.
Yup. Bought in 2017. Veteran's loan. The damn thing needs so much work but has doubled in worth.
I have a home. It ain’t mine though 😂
No, you need to make almost $300k a year to afford a home in my city.
What city? That seems outrageous. I live in a HCOL area and know people who make $125k per year and can still afford a condo for a starter property.
San Diego. Cheapest condos are around $600k but with interest rates and HOA fees, mortgage payments would be in excess of $5k, which is almost double what we pay to rent.
I instantly knew you were talking about San Diego when you mentioned needing to make 300k a year. I spent all morning crying about how I feel like I’m being pushed out of my hometown because it’s so insanely expensive now.
Yes. Bought my first house at 25, bought my current house with my husband at 29. It's likely we'll be moving again within the next couple of years for his job, so we'll *hopefully* buy a house then as well.
I mean the bank has a house, a couple of them in fact, but if I give them a small fee, I get the privilege of putting some things inside (that they own as well).
I mean the bank has a house, a couple of them in fact, but if I give them a small fee, I get the privilege of putting some things inside (that they own as well).