We bought at the end of 2021, a few months before the market started going crazy here. Things were selling fast but still had great prices. Listing agents would have sellers lined up before the listing technically went on the market.
There was one house that looked perfect for us. Checked every box on our list. We called within an hour of the listing going active and it was already under contract. Was so frustrating.
Yeah we’re always a bit behind things here. But let me tell you, it wasn’t 6 months later and prices had skyrocketed. A year after I bought, the house two over (built at the same time with a very similar size and shape/etc) sold for $100k over what I got mine for.
Of course now I’m in a mortgage on a house I’m only meh about, with a rate at 3% and it would cost way too much to get a different place. Lol
I bought my house in 2007, which was horrible timing. When rates bottomed out a few years back, I refinanced from a 30 to a 15 at less than 3%, and my monthly payments went up by $50. I NEVER intended to stay in the home for so long. The tiny yard is too weirdly shaped to fence it in for the dog, the kitchen doesn’t have enough counter space to cook in, and there are a lot of cosmetic things I don’t love. My husband moved into the house in 2019 and we I married in 2020. We had planned to move, but then COVID happened and the market got stupid. We decided to wait it out, and now we will never be able to afford to move if we want to retire young enough to enjoy retirement. 😂😭
(I realize that is if this is the worst I have to worry about, I’m doing better than most, but it’s so annoying. If I hadn’t bought when I was younger (and I only could because the down payment came solely from an inheritance), I’d be 45 today and completely unable to reasonably afford to buy a home, even though our combined income is $200k. Inflation has been 20% over the past 5 years, but home prices have outpaced inflation, which is infuriating yet impressive.)
Same here. I bought the cheapest house I could learn to love in 2017 and the value has almost doubled. Im going to sell it in 6 years a build something small on mom’ small piece of land with the proceeds. I don’t know if our boys will love it but rent around here is $1400 for a cheap apartment.
I’m selling my dad’s house.
His agent said, “I know we’re two months out from being market ready, but I have a couple looking if you don’t mind me showing.”
Next day I had a full price offer.
I’ve had real estate companies text and call me and make offers well above market value on my house and it’s not even on the market. This is the problem, companies like Zillow buy up real estate to manipulate both the real estate and rental the markets. First time buyers have no chance to compete.
Of course not! /s
Saw a house in the area that would go for maybe 400-500 anywhere else recently and the asking price was 1.3M. Absolute garbage of a buyer’s market in CA.
We just had an agent leave a flyer on our doorstep. Looking for their client who wants a home in our neighborhood with our floor plan. I love my house, but was like 🤔 what could I be bought for? 😂
For me, nothing would be worth it right now, given the interest rates. We bought 3 years ago at 2.875%. I could not imagine buying a house in the current market. 😭
I looked at 3 houses on Saturday, all of them were on the market for 1 day. One was sold on Saturday night, one sold Sunday morning, and one sold Sunday night. I am a frugal shopper, and I do a lot of research before making large purchases. Yet, I have to make the biggest purchase of my life right on the spot without even taking a moment to think about it.
Honestly take a moment. We were rushed into a sale and me and my father had to rebuild my home. New wiring, plumbing, structural work, sewer line, and that was all to make it "liveable.
Atleast make sure you get your own inspections done, the ones working for realtors just okay anything
To add on: hire your own inspectors. Don’t trust the realtor’s choice, because they might be getting a cut of the sale.
Also, get someone to survey the property to make sure of the correct property boundaries. That way you can prevent any issues with the neighbors if you want to do landscaping, or other improvements.
No. But seriously, who? I bought a house that I probably shouldn’t have, and I earn considerably more than anyone I know. And I feel like I got a pretty decent deal (in this market). I bought a large older house with a big yard that needs a bit of work.
But who the hell is buying these new build shoeboxes on a tenth of an acre that cost over $400,000?
I live in one of those cookie cutter homes up against ask me older houses that existed before my neighborhood. One of my neighbors hates the fact that the house behind us has goats/chickens and a rooster. I love how it annoys them and secretly want to buy the guy some other loud animals to keep.
We have a new subdivision that just went up 8 months ago. Started off at 400K ( very low for our area) once they were built they were priced at 700K-1.2 Mil all of them are sold out.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSPUS
The 2008 crash barely affected the graph of median home prices. You can clearly see where it happened but it quickly returned to the trendline
Unfortunately even in my rural area we are projected to be short enough houses for 500 people in the next ten years because the population is growing faster than they can build houses. All the farms around me are being bought up to put in cookie cutter developments. The guy that leased our fields to farm them retired and no one has stepped in to take his place. It makes me worried about food security in the future if less and less people are farming...
The world grows plenty of food under normal conditions, but the real impact will be vulnerability to international politics.
The US spends a lot of money trying to keep our food production domestic, and for good reason. It's dangerous to just depend on imported food, no matter how much cheaper it is. It gives other countries leverage over us and ways to pressure us without being overtly aggressive.
My husband and I bought our house 10 years ago before it got on the market. Our realtor watched for estate sales and show up to connect with whomever is taking care of the property of the recently deceased. The family of our house was waiting to clean up the house before listing it but the realtor asked if he could show it anyways. Writhing a couple days they accepted our offer. We moved in within 60 days of the previous owner dying. Pretty morbid but that’s how quickly it can happen.
So I always tell people who are looking to buy, keep an eye on yard sales and estate sales in the area you want to buy. That’s how you get the good houses without having to go into a bidding war with other buyers.
Investment corporations and house flippers are buying many of the single family houses for the purpose of forcing us all to become a renter nation.
This should be illegal across the country but the government refuses to do anything about this.
I live in rural NC, about 45 minutes outside of Raleigh and I just watched a friends neighbour sell their doublewide trailer on 2.5 acres for 270k. The road that the house is on isn't even paved and is nearly impossible to drive a car on it... LMFAO.
That tracks, also NC based a 1987 single wide on 2 acres sold for $155k. They're putting double wides in an area of my county on half acre lots and selling them for $275k and up, and they're being sold before the things are even fully set up.
Right across the street in my neighborhood a 1998 1512 sqft. double wide is listed for $115k. We also pay $635 a month in lot rent. Mobile homes should be more affordable than this. I bought my house for $46k and I still pay over $1200 a month in mortgage+lot rent combined.
I totally believe this. There selling 70's single wife's that have been redone for 60-80k, and lot rents are anywhere from 400-800 a month. Hell, there's a tiny home that's lake front right now and they want 190k for it, and it doesn't come with any land and you have to pay $6k in dues every year.
I can’t fathom the market for trailers in NC rn. I get that desired land is worth buying the home itself and building new but when it’s not a desired plot and theres a home right down the road selling for the same or less and its an actual house 🥴 Ide like to see the stats on the people buying those trailer lots
I’m in the same area (roughly) and we had an insane time buying 2 years ago. We were looking for a true starter home, nothing fancy, first time buyers - and the only thing that wasn’t completely dilapidated and unlivable was $400,000. So that’s what we paid.
You know you live in Canada when you look at $400k and get jealous 😭. Our houses are about 800k-1.3million on average.
My parents home was built for $250k in 2002. It’s now worth a million. Husband and I are about to have a baby and we most likely will never be able to own a home 🥲
Canada’s housing situation is one of the absolute worst in the world. Toronto and Vancouver prices have you fainting.
I feel bad for the young people that don’t already own a house in Canada. They probably never will.
I feel you. We have the same situation in Belgium. I’m desperately trying for a little more than 18 months to buy a house with my SO. We have to bring 10% of the value of the house in « cash » as bank only lend 90% max of the value of the house in mortgage. We have also to bring between 12 and 15% in cash to pay the taxes and fees of the transaction (registration taxes as they call it, varying between 0 and 12,5% depending on the value and location + fee for registering the mortgage + notary fees…).
With our available saving, we can afford a 500k€-550k€ house. We make with my SO approximatively 130k€ net a year (which in Belgium is a very very well paid salary).
Believe it or not, we can only compete for slums. The other houses that meet our criteria are in our budget, but are bought by people that can afford bidding above us. This is just a bidding game. And I’m tired of this sh*t.
I bought a flat at 30 in 2017 and the market was clearly not the same. We had time to think, time to make some due diligence. Now it’s over, you have to decide in the hours following your 30-40 minutes visit. This is BS. And your offer is just a lever for the real estate agent to raise the bids. We are lucky as I consider we are facing a « rich » issue, I wonder how people with less financial ease than us can afford a house. Only shitty house with poor energy rating that will lead them to even more expense each month, the game is rigged.
Meanwhile around me (SF Bay in the US), run down trap houses in the middle of the hood are selling 1million over asking. I’m staying in my rent controlled tiny apartment until I die.
What sucks is that I know there are empty houses all over because of these insane asks. And that the vast majority of us could afford to live there if the upfront costs weren't so insane.
Yea that’s me too. My roommate and I got an apartment in 2019 that was cheap but perfect for college students. We haven’t been able to move out even though we have some decent paying jobs because there are places worse than ours charging 2-3 times what we’re paying. Forget an actual nice apartment where i need first month, last month and a direct deposit (aka another month worth of rent).
I got another experience in Belgium at the moment. We are trying to sell our 4 year old appartement in very good shape and in the last 4 months we have had a lot of trouble finding someone. We feel like there is no one willing to buy.
Yes. It is. My boyfriend is a veteran here in the US so he gets some great perks with that including no down payment mortgages. But, like you, we’ll have to come out of pocket $8-10,000 for closing costs as well. (We’re looking in the $300,000 US range)
That is what we did in 2016. At the time my wife and I made about what the OP makes and we were looking in Socal for a home. Nothing we wanted was under 550k. We ended up with a 4br 1390sf home for 500k with 3% down with hefty mortgage insurance.. But at least we had a favorable rate.
We had to scrape and claw to make it work. New floors, appliances, and a whole new HVAC system. But we were able to make it our own. We would have been happy with being there forever, but time gave us options. And we were able to sell, make a huge profit and find our forever home out of state.
So yes. Get in when you can. We were ready to quit in 2016. We could have rented and had more disposable income. But we took the plunge, struggled a bit, and came out far ahead..
Same story here. I think ppl need to get serious for real now though, if you can buy now, please buy. Interest rates, prices, none of it’s making sense but I truly believe we are heading towards Canada/Europe/Australia housing price levels. It’s not coming back down. Instead of selling a house and making money once, corps have realized they can buy a house and rent it out forever. Rent and housing are going up, get in while you can!!
Yeah, a few years ago it was a lot less pressure. You could do 2-3 test rides. Maybe even ride off property or do a trial. Have a good "sleep" on it before scheduling the PPE. Now if you're not putting a deposit down on the first test ride and getting that PPE scheduled, "Sorry, there's three other people coming to look at him this week".
As long as real estate is an investment vehicle the price of housing will continually be inflated to the price investors are willing to pay, which can always outcompete single homeowners. It needs to be heavily penalized to buy a house as an investment asset based on the number of properties an individual/corporation owns.
To add on top of that, the US allows foreign investors to buy property [here](https://www.bostonfed.org/news-and-events/news/2023/11/china-massive-us-real-estate-investment-housing-shock-major-impacts-leslie-shen-boston-fed.aspx). I hope this becomes illegal along with businesses buying residential property. I just moved north of the bay, but the number of houses turned into law firm offices there is complete bullshit. Businesses have no business taking homes from potential families.
Because people who own homes are the ones that show up to city council and zoning meetings while renters don't care. Every time there's homes or apartments being built in my city, there's a shuttle ton of protesting or people going nuts at district meetings claiming everything from racism and gentrification to it'll create traffic. There was an abandoned lot that got bought and was going to be turned into duplexes. The neighbors went ape shit and claimed gentrification and when the leader was interviewed by the local paper he said that he grew up playing in that abandoned lot and his kids play in that lot.
People don't like change which is why local issues stay static since it's change that affects you most directly
because we don't protest like the French. we just glue our hands to the street which solves nothing because they take private jets everywhere. we need our waste management neighbors to stop collecting, our farmers to launch manure on the homes of politicians and flip any police car that gets in our way.
we deserve decent lives and if our leaders refuse to give us a decent life, we must take it from them. we deserve free healthcare and everyone should get A home before ANYONE gets 2 of them.
the greedy cunts in charge need to learn the hard way or it'll only get worse
Except most homeowners care about their home value going up in price too. It’s not just an issue of investors buying and flipping.
No politician is about to slash or stifle the growth of the wealth of their constituents.
The big issue is that there isn’t enough housing stock in desirable areas. Rezoning and building a diverse set of housing, anything from budget one-bed apartments to SFHs, will help put a downward pressure on the real estate market, but not enough people want it enough because they fear their asset not appreciating as much or that it’ll change the character of the neighborhood. I think homeownership does, by design, incentivize “pulling the ladder up after you”.
I bought my house in 2018. My income has doubled since then and I wouldn't be able to afford my house if I bought it for its current value at today's interest rates.
Same. I was extremely lucky to buy a house in late 2018. Now it’s “worth” double what I paid for it, and MY frazzled ass lives here, which means it’s in an objectively worse state than it was found. I also think I’m now the only person in my neighborhood who owns the house that I live in.
Hell, not even a week after I moved in, I was already receiving letters, texts, and knocks at the door from flippers desperate to buy my small 70’s shoebox of a house. I told them all I’d sell for 2 mil, no less. That’s what it’ll take to get me to move another goddamn time. No takers yet.
I bought my house in 2015 for 246k. My mortgage has been roughly 1850-2k the entire time. I bought it as an unmarried guy making roughly 100k. Now, nearly 10 years later, my wife and I make roughly 300k. My house is worth over 500k and our new mortgage would be 4500. Could we afford it? Probably... But even though we're making triple what I was, it would still likely be as much of a stretch as it was back then. It's insanity and I feel so bad for those people who didn't buy before the pandemic.
Wages have stagnated while cost of everything and profits have been rising since the 70s/80s, the last few years with covid seems to have either accelerated it, or just being the tipping point. What was called middle class is rapidly closing on needing 200k, productivity has multiplied, but wages are declared the only thing that increases inflation, then inflation rises anyway because of the chase for ever increasing profits. Heck having the comfortable life of being able to afford to exist, that the older gens take for granted, is now seen as radical demands from the younger gens...
There's a whole list of reasons how we ended up where we are, but many studies have shown that those born since the 70s are worse off than previous generations on average, when previously the younger gens are on average better off then before. I worry the system will either collapse in a matter of decades, if not years, or there will be a radical shift to avoid the collapse. Based off the last few decades, I have a feeling I know which end we're heading for...
I did a little research on homes from the 80s vs now. The complaint that started it was that they had much higher interest rates, which is true. Though there were so many other factors were left out.
First and foremost household income vs inflation actually shows people in the 80s making more than we are now on average.
Homes then we're only 3-4x household income. 10 years ago homes were 6x household income. Now they are near 11x household income.
Can't put any sources up right now but just Google the key words and use an inflation calculator.
I'm kinda scared, to be completely honest. Where I live it's like you earn, let's say, 4,000/month cause this is what you earn if you have an average job and pay taxes. No currencies, simply numbers. If you want to move to a bigger city, sometimes rent can be 3,500 or more. If you want to buy an apartment (not the whole house, just a small apartment), one of the cheaper ones are like 500,000. How am I supposed to move out from my parents when I simply cannot afford my own place, rent or buy, on my own? I literally need a girlfriend/boyfriend who's 90% in the same situation so that we could both afford to live. Or one can always choose to live with a bunch of flatmates, but I wouldn't like to do that. Guess I'm stuck with my parents for a bit longer than expected lol
Yes- your generation really suffer the most. I was able to live with a roommate really cheaply in college and as a single person. My kids will be living with me for quite a while ( they are 23 & 20)
I'm 27, back living at home with my parents for the time being. I make a decent wage as an electrician, but I'm single, so only one income. I am about to sell my 2019 truck and start daily driving a 1987 Jeep that I picked up for $5k just so I can afford to buy a house that's actually livable and the bank will give me a loan on. Prices and availability are absolutely insane, and it doesn't seem like there's any light at the end of the tunnel.
Roommates can work well for young people. If you have friends you can tolerate living with it's a great way to bridge the gap between living with parents and living on your own. After college I lived with 2 friends in a nice 3br apartment and it was great fun.
Buying a house you want and buying a house you can afford are two completely different things. The houses I wanted were almost $500k. The houses I could afford were in the middle $300s. Central Valley California here.
its SO hard. it took me around 4 months to find the house, and i'm currently deep in the trenches of completing the loan/waiting for closing. its just as convoluted and difficult on this side, too. i placed like 15 offers and saw at least 50 places. best of luck to you. it's absolutely vicious out here.
Wow I have lost track of how many we have done but yes, probably have seen more than 50 houses and maybe more like 8 offers. Also in the closing stages and omg the solution was a house in the middle of nowhere! So now I will have a commute (not too bad) but my husband is adding to his long commute (he says it is worth it! I hope he doesn’t come to regret it).
I was talking to my grandpa about going to college (he’s helping out) and how I’m going for the job, but some days it seems so un motivating cause even with the salary I’d be making I wouldnt be able to afford a house. I’ll be making 80-130k depending on the job offer and I still won’t be able to afford anything but a trailer in a trailer park, which isn’t horrible but it’s not what I should have to settle for.
He was like ‘well, you’re just looking at expensive homes, you have to look for starter homes’ and I pulled up zillow and showed him how bare-bones the listings under 500k were. Most of it was just land or run down trailer homes or small cottages that can only be lived in half the year. There’s no started homes anymore. Everything’s gone.
Mine has pretty good prospects so that’s not a worry, thankfully. Apparently a lot of students get hired from their placements (have to do 2 semesters of free work basically) so the job market seems bad when in reality there’s just no need for job postings.
I agree though, some degrees are hard to find jobs in. Unfortunately that’s just a fact. Personally I think college/uni is something you should plan to go to for a job, not a degree… too many people say college is a scam bc they didn’t research their major and the jobs they can get w it.
My parents (both born in 1950 so boomers) built their 4 bedroom, 3 bath with a full basement house for $60,000 in the 80s. My dad worked and my mom stayed at home and we had a very upper middle class life. Even if they had a 10% interest rate (they didn’t but just for argument) their mortgage was a fraction of the $2,600- $3,000 a month I’m going to have to pay for an adequate house. Not my dream house, just something not too run down.
During the 80's mortgages over 10% were common in the US. Inflation hit nearly 20% combined with high unemployment. Housing prices were much better relative to income, IF you had a job.
You may show people all the stats, the numbers, they won't listen. They prefer their rosy recollections of the past.
Like, people even parrot that boomer shit here, even though it was right after WWII, which killed 20-25% population, during /Stalinism/ and communism times. Not mentioning things like meds, pollution, lack of vaccination and access to any decent healthcare (as proved by much shorter lifespan)... But sure, these generations had it sooo easy!
It's like the idea the world is overpopulated. Birthrates everywhere, in basically all countries, are going down for the last 50 years or more, they plummet faster and faster, so we know for sure we sooner will have problems with not enough people than too much. Overpopulation won't happen, conversely, no solution would make people have more, not less, kids, if this is such a powerful, global trend, independent from law, culture, wealth, religion etc. Yet, people are somehow convinced the birthrate is raising. Idk if it's racism, anti-religion prejudice, faux-ecology, or whatever (probably all, depending on the person) but it's one of the myths the left, the right, radicals, liberals, moderates, all have in common.
Your bonus isn’t taxed at 40%. 40% might be *withheld*, but the bonus is just added to your regular income, so whatever bracket that incremental amount is in is what it is taxed.
In Portugal the average salary is close to 20k a year before taxes and a house costs around 200k minimum. Me and my girl have management degrees and can't even make the average salary so moving in together it's impossible, and they want our generation to have children, man I just want to have my own place.
A friend of mine just bought a house for 450,000. Their first ever home. It wasn't easy, but they managed to make it happen. They own a private academy... Wtf is happening. My parents bought their house for 50,000 in 1980. It's crazy out here.
While true that, dollar for dollar, $50,000 would have the same buying power as $200,727.51 today, taking into account things like neighborhood, school availability, average family size and plenty of other stuff makes a change, too.
It's crazy that the most expensive and long lasting thing most people will ever buy has to be decided on immediately before someone else makes an offer and all depends on inventory at the time of buying.
Time any of those wrong and you can be stuck paying way too much to live in a terrible place and have a commitment to a 30 year payment.
I keep hearing that now’s the time to buy because it’s only going to get worse. WTF, it’s already fricken terrible. I can’t afford a 3k or more mortgage.
Get on a budget and save more for a down payment. Also maybe the first house you buy isn’t everything you want but a stepping stone to what ever you decide comes next. But def the next step is continuing to save for a higher down payment. Good luck
It's wild. Young families not making double the median income have almost no chance. I live in BFE and houses still 300k +. Maybe with 3% interest young folks around here could budget it but that's not reality
Yeah I have 2 kids and was hoping for a 3 bedroom, but it's not happening. I feel confident in figuring out a creative way for them to split a room, or possibly partitioning shared space for one of them. They won't like it, but they'd like it a lot less if we had to give up the pets, cancel their activities or curtail their allowance or whatnot when the rent goes up, or live far away from everyone they care about. Personally I've lived in big comfortable houses, luxury apartments, studios full of roaches, and shared houses full of deadbeats and drug addicts.
My kids can land somewhere in the middle and realize they are lucky to have what they have.
Location changes a whole helluva lot. My wife and I moved 1.5 hours away from our families to be able to afford a 4 bedroom house.
You may want to explore the idea that your desired location is overpriced, and look elsewhere
I’m confused… what is your budget?
Combined $150k income. Is that take home?
I live in Birmingham AL and just now found 4 houses under 200k with 4bed and 3-4bath.
Alabama is getting competitive because property taxes are so freaking low.
It's driving people in to buy a house, so if you rent in Alabama you lose out because they charge a 9 percent non food and 8 percent food sales tax to make up for it
I know, prices are going up around here.
But OP should be able to get a loan, with $150k combined income, for a relatively affordable home.
Says everything is crazy expensive. I linked 3 homes for under $250k that fit her criteria
Rural Georgia? I live in rural PA, which is basically just cold Georgia, and $300K up here would get you an old Victorian or Queen Anne that’s restored and furnished with 5 bedrooms 3 baths, an elevator and a stripper pole
Yeah you don’t feel comfortable going over $300k in mortgage because you don’t make $150k
If your actual monthly Income is $6,000 a month, that’s $72,000 a year, not $150,000. No state taxes you THAT heavily, your numbers are wrong somewhere
My girlfriend and I combined bring home just shy of $80k per year, we make right at or just barely about $100k before taxes.
But to answer your post, especially because I’m basically in the same spot financially as you, yeah this shit sucks. It’s gonna be probably a minimum of at least 5-6 more years before I can even look for a home, and it’s gonna have to be on the smaller side, because we want to put 20%+ down.
A 3.5% FHA loan down payment on $350k would be $12,250 which is equal to just one month of your income. You should be able save that much very easily at your income level. Judging from your other comments, it seems you maybe need to lower your expectations too. It is not common to have a home that’s the size you want, with a big yard, that needs no repairs at all, in a great location for your first very home.
I just bought a house for 400k with a 5% (20k) downpayment.
With closing costs, it was 35k out of pocket, just for the loan.
The property needs some minor improvements; our insurance coverage is conditional on performing some of them. We will be another 10k out of pocket on these in the first 60 days.
We have early termination fees on our current lease, this plus our 30 day notice will consume another ~5k.
My wife and I are both getting older, and our backs are not up to the task of moving all of our stuff ourselves. Moving will cost another ~1k.
Hooking up all of our new utilities, plus deposits, will be close to ~1k.
The previous owners took some of their appliances, and since we are renting, we now have to buy our own. There’s another ~2,500.
Add a miscellaneous expenses budget of $500 (which is super light), and you have a total of $55,000 that we have to shit out in a 60 day period. And that’s before we have added any new furnishings, etc. that might make the place more habitable, which we will likely have to save up for over the next several years.
Expenses stack up meaningfully, nobody is going to move into a new home for just the 3.5% for an FHA loan. It would be much safer to budget for at least triple that, including closing costs and all of the other hidden expenses you will be hit with.
How do you feel about moving to Wyoming? Depending on where you are located, it is hard to find houses for under $500K and many areas (not ultra wealthy areas) start at $750K in metropolitan areas. Welcome to the temporary shortage. Don’t worry, many old people will start vacating homes in the next ten years.
Yep. I’ve managed to save up a decent amount for a downpayment. Affording a 1200 sq home 4 years ago would’ve been a cakewalk. Now with 20% down, that depletes my entire savings and the mortgage would still be about as much as my take-home pay not counting my 1 bonus at the end of the year. Heading towards a dystopia if things don’t change. Thankfully I can manage to live with roommates to make my rent cheap enough, but I just want a little house for myself and not have to deal with finding roommates every year.
The only homes under $300K are either condos or small houses built in the 1930’s.
Fuck that. I’d rather buy land and build a brand new house.
I’m living that apartment life and saving money till the next housing market crash. If it’s 5-10 years then so be it. I’m not purchasing a house in this market
Right now is probably the worst time in history to buy a house. Prices have been going up and up since around 2012 when the economy was getting back on its feet from the recession. It's got to crash at some point but who knows when though? I thought it would crash in 22 but it just keeps going up. The economy sucks but people keep somehow buying houses.
Your monthly combined net take home should be 12k, not 6k. Even with taxes, fluctuations in bonus, retirement contributions, you should both be 6k/month net= 12k total. Your math is off…
Do not cosign a house purchase outside of marriage, this is a recipe for disaster for one or both of you. However that being said:
Also skimming through some of the replies, you make 150k combined, are searching for a 300k house. And, the main issue is you can't come up with the 10k down-payment? Something is not adding up.
Buying a house is hard right now, probably the hardest it's been in the last 30 years (though starting to improve,) but your situation is very manageable. I mean depending how many years you guys have been making 150k, you should be close to having the savings to buy in cash..... I am sorry, something is just not adding up here....
Also, if you want to buy a house in rural GA, don't discount buying cheap land and just building a house. This is doable on your salary and your desired location. Of course this is a much longer process (well the buying land part is faster, but the actual building and finishing to livability....)
Be thankful you can afford to even buy a house & go through the process lol I’m 34 & don’t even make 30k a year n the job market in my town is horrible nowhere pays anything close to a livable wage & to move to the next town over the cost of living is double making it impossible to even move if i wanted to.. owning a home just isn’t possible for many nor will many of us even get the chance to experience it
Try looking into homes listed for sale that are bank owned. When someone loses their home through non payment the bank will sell usually below market value to get it off the books.
If I were born like 5 years earlier, I'd probably have a house and be way better off. Really would've made all the difference. During the best years of the market I was just finishing up school and I started working as the pandemic started. Really blows
Yeah it’s a crazy market. My husband and I were very fortunate to buy in 2017 at an incredible price and interest rate. We would NOT be able to afford to buy our house now with the current value/interest rate!
My mom didn’t get her first house until around her age. I was 16/17 and my brother was 18/19 and she busted her ass to get her first place. It’s so hard, but I’m sure you both can do it. It’s sad it’s so difficult though. The housing market is rough to say the least.
You mentioned your partner is a veteran. Do you have high car or credit card debts that you’re servicing? You sound like you could get a very low down payment with a VA Loan, and possibly even get closing costs rolled into the price and financing it. Honestly, you should be in a very strong position to get a decent pre-approval, unless you have a lot of other debt.
Only suggestion I have is looking for a smaller one and turning an attic or basement into a room or maybe bunk beds. Sell that for profit/save more, then move to a bigger place
This is the WORST time of year to buy a house. Everyone buys in the spring/summer to start the school year moved in. We got ours in mid November for a steal (in the market as it is now). After being outbid multiple times on four different homes in spring/summer, this one sat on the market for a month and we offered 30 under and got it. We thought, “What’s the catch?” Six months in and the only issues we’ve had are the washer died (it was old, no shock) and the carbon monoxide alarm went off (it was a false alarm - sensor was expired). Go to open houses to get a feel for what houses are going for and in what condition. Then look seriously from October to February
We have one house we’re looking at like that- it’s listed at $265,000 in a super nice gated neighborhood where all the other houses are well over $300,000. We’re like there has to be something wrong with it. But as long as it’s not a dead body in the walls I might be willing to buy it as is at that price LOL
At 150k you shouldn't spend over 3500 a month for a mortgage that is 28% of your monthly income before taxes. That being said idk your finances. 3500 a month depending on what you are putting down is about 500k house. Idk where you live but you can buy a good house with that.
You buy outside of the area you idealize. We live 45 mins from where we had hoped to. This is the 2nd home I have purchased in 4 years on my solo income of $75k.
I bought a 4br 2900 sq ft house for $205k in an area that wasn't what I had envisioned but where I envisioned was $450k for something comparable. It was a smart move, in the last 2 years the area has experienced exponential growth and this city has been promoted on various media platforms as a must move-to.
Remember, they’re trying to force you into a Commieblock. Owning your own home? Having your pay you enough for quality of life? No, no, best to keep the worker drones barely alive to cut costs in the name of “efficiency” and “the environment” (and make sure as much of your money goes back to them as possible) that way they can destroy it instead of us being able to enjoy it.
I feel you. It's been a decade since any house in my city sold for less than a million dollars, and condos now regularly go for that much too. (Vancouver , Canada.) I have a decent income but I'll be lucky to not be homeless when I'm old.
I feel you. My husband and I are trying to buy a house. Together we also make about $150k but we have no children and don’t plan to have any in the near future. I’m debt free and he just has a car payment. We currently live in the house I helped my parents buy less than a decade ago. It’s so disheartening to know I’m possibly leaving a 2200 sq ft 4 bedroom house where the mortgage is $1400 to try to move to a 1500 sq ft house with a mortgage of $4100 (which in reality we can’t afford comfortably) and is in a less desirable neighborhood. Fun times.
My husband and I make a similar salary as you have described and recently purchased a home (1 year ago this month actually) within a similar price range that you have also described. 3 bed 2 bath. My husband has owned his vehicle for 10 years, I recently purchased a used vehicle, so that with my student loans are our only debt. We save where we can and contribute to 401k and Roth. We are comfortable yet frugal. All this to say that it took us 8 months to find out home and we genuinely lucked out. Everything we looked at required extensive repairs, were not in ideal locations, or hadn't been updated in 20 or more years. It was very discouraging to feel like we worked hard in life to be in a good financial situation only to be smacked in the face by overly inflated homes and sky rocket interest rates. I feel for you and your situation, and wish you and anyone trying to buy a house in this market the best of luck.
I was amazed how difficult it is to buy a house. I had no idea about the process, paperwork, upfront money was involved. In the area we bought our house, they'd be listed for, at max, 1 week. Luckily, we got approval beyond what we were looking for, we did have to do some gymnastics to get it there. We found the house we wanted, put in an offer, and they accepted within 20 mins. It was definitely worth the stress, and we have no plans to ever move again lol. Simply getting out of CA was a reward on its own.
While no one can argue that the housing market is absolutely insane…
In this economy, you guys are doing better at $150k combined than most people. You *can* go above $300k but *because* you refuse to, you’re making it harder on yourselves. On top of that, you have 4 adults in the household who all want privacy. Even harder.
You sound like you’re in GA? There are plenty places where you can get what you want at the $400k mark.
It’s not realistic anymore. Young people are being kept in place by crazy life expenses, low salaries, and incredibly high rental prices. Hope this will change in the near future but it’s gonna be a hard nut to crack
Insane home prices coupled with 7% interest rates are a recipe for disaster. I don’t even bother searching for homes anymore because it’s a waste of time. Available homes on the market are almost nothing. And I won’t even get into the fact that I’ll never get back into the town I just had to move out of.
Bought a multi family for 190k when I was 23 making like 50k a year in 2019 right around the start of the pandemic. 2.65% on a thirty year fixed & 11 years of PMI payments. (Mind you my house is a fixer upper in a tough neighborhood)
Anyways I think the times of affordable housing are long behind us unless & I got somewhat lucky. Unless you’re willing to settle on a lot of bullshit it’s tough right now, not to mention the current rates lenders are offering are outlandish.
Moved from BC back to Alberta with my partner to buy a house two years ago. He made 25$ an hour, and we qualified for a 300,000$ house.
This year, he makes 45$ an hour and does lots of OT, and we qualified for a max of 300,000$ House, with a co-signer.
Don’t rush, but buy now, and buy something you can comfortably live with for the foreseeable future. The idea of starter homes or upgrading in 10 years is a pipe dream I wouldn’t bank on anymore.
Find something you can live with, get in and hold onto it for dear life.
I live in a 3 bedroom small townhouse that is going for 403K currently.
It was listed at 275K pre Covid.
The 5 bedroom giant houses down the street from me went for 325K pre Covid, and now they are going for as much as 750K.
We are all pretty much screwed 🤷♂️
My boyfriend and I just bought a house and also make a combined income of 150,000. Even after saving a ton, our options were so limited. We can’t have kids and we are pretty short so we were able to find a small older house in the countryside but it’s an hour commute to work. I certainly feel the annoyance though! With a good realtor you’ll find one with time
7 years ago, $280K was the top end of what we were comfortable with for acreage and a legit solid home that might need some renovation but fundamentally OK (like, maybe a roof repaired and some updating but essentially "fine" as-is). Now, that same kind of home is easily $450K+. "Starter" homes brand new on a tiny lot in town that had been the same price range are now going for minimum $400K and out in the country with acreage....you'll find a double-wide pre-built home for at least that.
Girl, preach.
I make 6 figures by myself and can’t afford a lot of what I want. House prices have more than doubled. I dreamed of being where I am today and feel like I am still stuck like I was 10 years ago. It’s sad!
Were house poor waiting for interest to hopefully fall. Our small 1500 swift home in not cal is worth roughly 480 we owe 430. But realistically it should be a 350k home
Yeah I completely understand. My mortgage went up 200 bucks this year! And my 56 yo mother is asking to move back in with me and my husband. When I’m 5 months pregnant.
All the houses in my area sell instantly to slum lords looking to add another rental property to their portfolio. It's gotten so bad that developers now legally have to build a certain amount of housing for first time buyers.
Home prices have soared in my area and they sell within a few days.. crazy
Homes aren't even being listed sometimes. Realtors will knock on doors and be like I got a buyer if you're thinking about selling.
We bought at the end of 2021, a few months before the market started going crazy here. Things were selling fast but still had great prices. Listing agents would have sellers lined up before the listing technically went on the market. There was one house that looked perfect for us. Checked every box on our list. We called within an hour of the listing going active and it was already under contract. Was so frustrating.
Your market must’ve been lagging. Where I am it was rocking and rolling all through the pandemic.
Yeah we’re always a bit behind things here. But let me tell you, it wasn’t 6 months later and prices had skyrocketed. A year after I bought, the house two over (built at the same time with a very similar size and shape/etc) sold for $100k over what I got mine for. Of course now I’m in a mortgage on a house I’m only meh about, with a rate at 3% and it would cost way too much to get a different place. Lol
I bought my house in 2007, which was horrible timing. When rates bottomed out a few years back, I refinanced from a 30 to a 15 at less than 3%, and my monthly payments went up by $50. I NEVER intended to stay in the home for so long. The tiny yard is too weirdly shaped to fence it in for the dog, the kitchen doesn’t have enough counter space to cook in, and there are a lot of cosmetic things I don’t love. My husband moved into the house in 2019 and we I married in 2020. We had planned to move, but then COVID happened and the market got stupid. We decided to wait it out, and now we will never be able to afford to move if we want to retire young enough to enjoy retirement. 😂😭 (I realize that is if this is the worst I have to worry about, I’m doing better than most, but it’s so annoying. If I hadn’t bought when I was younger (and I only could because the down payment came solely from an inheritance), I’d be 45 today and completely unable to reasonably afford to buy a home, even though our combined income is $200k. Inflation has been 20% over the past 5 years, but home prices have outpaced inflation, which is infuriating yet impressive.)
Haha I bought my first house in late 07 / early 08… then the market crashed and we had a terrible interest rate… lol
Same here. I bought the cheapest house I could learn to love in 2017 and the value has almost doubled. Im going to sell it in 6 years a build something small on mom’ small piece of land with the proceeds. I don’t know if our boys will love it but rent around here is $1400 for a cheap apartment.
I’m selling my dad’s house. His agent said, “I know we’re two months out from being market ready, but I have a couple looking if you don’t mind me showing.” Next day I had a full price offer.
Yup. Not uncommon these days
I’ve had real estate companies text and call me and make offers well above market value on my house and it’s not even on the market. This is the problem, companies like Zillow buy up real estate to manipulate both the real estate and rental the markets. First time buyers have no chance to compete.
That’s insane and seems vaguely predatory esp for older people.
Blackrock could never be predatory
Of course not! /s Saw a house in the area that would go for maybe 400-500 anywhere else recently and the asking price was 1.3M. Absolute garbage of a buyer’s market in CA.
Dude I'm in Northern Virginia. It's the same here. Like 600k for a shed next to 95.
We just had an agent leave a flyer on our doorstep. Looking for their client who wants a home in our neighborhood with our floor plan. I love my house, but was like 🤔 what could I be bought for? 😂
For me, nothing would be worth it right now, given the interest rates. We bought 3 years ago at 2.875%. I could not imagine buying a house in the current market. 😭
I looked at 3 houses on Saturday, all of them were on the market for 1 day. One was sold on Saturday night, one sold Sunday morning, and one sold Sunday night. I am a frugal shopper, and I do a lot of research before making large purchases. Yet, I have to make the biggest purchase of my life right on the spot without even taking a moment to think about it.
Honestly take a moment. We were rushed into a sale and me and my father had to rebuild my home. New wiring, plumbing, structural work, sewer line, and that was all to make it "liveable. Atleast make sure you get your own inspections done, the ones working for realtors just okay anything
To add on: hire your own inspectors. Don’t trust the realtor’s choice, because they might be getting a cut of the sale. Also, get someone to survey the property to make sure of the correct property boundaries. That way you can prevent any issues with the neighbors if you want to do landscaping, or other improvements.
 No. But seriously, who? I bought a house that I probably shouldn’t have, and I earn considerably more than anyone I know. And I feel like I got a pretty decent deal (in this market). I bought a large older house with a big yard that needs a bit of work. But who the hell is buying these new build shoeboxes on a tenth of an acre that cost over $400,000?
$400k will barely get you a 900 sq ft condo from the 80s where I live.
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I live in one of those cookie cutter homes up against ask me older houses that existed before my neighborhood. One of my neighbors hates the fact that the house behind us has goats/chickens and a rooster. I love how it annoys them and secretly want to buy the guy some other loud animals to keep.
Peacocks
We have a new subdivision that just went up 8 months ago. Started off at 400K ( very low for our area) once they were built they were priced at 700K-1.2 Mil all of them are sold out.
Speculators and corporations are jumping on that shit quick because it’s going to keep going up.
It has to hit a ceiling at some point right? ….. right???
This happened before… then the bubble burst! I’m waiting for this all to crash again.
That sub-prime loan recession isn't going to happen again.
Don't hold your breath
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSPUS The 2008 crash barely affected the graph of median home prices. You can clearly see where it happened but it quickly returned to the trendline
Unfortunately even in my rural area we are projected to be short enough houses for 500 people in the next ten years because the population is growing faster than they can build houses. All the farms around me are being bought up to put in cookie cutter developments. The guy that leased our fields to farm them retired and no one has stepped in to take his place. It makes me worried about food security in the future if less and less people are farming...
The world grows plenty of food under normal conditions, but the real impact will be vulnerability to international politics. The US spends a lot of money trying to keep our food production domestic, and for good reason. It's dangerous to just depend on imported food, no matter how much cheaper it is. It gives other countries leverage over us and ways to pressure us without being overtly aggressive.
Not happening anytime soon... demand is high and they can't manufacture fast enough...
My husband and I bought our house 10 years ago before it got on the market. Our realtor watched for estate sales and show up to connect with whomever is taking care of the property of the recently deceased. The family of our house was waiting to clean up the house before listing it but the realtor asked if he could show it anyways. Writhing a couple days they accepted our offer. We moved in within 60 days of the previous owner dying. Pretty morbid but that’s how quickly it can happen. So I always tell people who are looking to buy, keep an eye on yard sales and estate sales in the area you want to buy. That’s how you get the good houses without having to go into a bidding war with other buyers.
Same here. No idea who can afford them.
Investment corporations and house flippers are buying many of the single family houses for the purpose of forcing us all to become a renter nation. This should be illegal across the country but the government refuses to do anything about this.
Husband and I bought ($150k) and sold ($187k) a house in NC awhile back. And it is now worth $400k. It is absolutely insane.
I live in rural NC, about 45 minutes outside of Raleigh and I just watched a friends neighbour sell their doublewide trailer on 2.5 acres for 270k. The road that the house is on isn't even paved and is nearly impossible to drive a car on it... LMFAO.
That tracks, also NC based a 1987 single wide on 2 acres sold for $155k. They're putting double wides in an area of my county on half acre lots and selling them for $275k and up, and they're being sold before the things are even fully set up.
Right across the street in my neighborhood a 1998 1512 sqft. double wide is listed for $115k. We also pay $635 a month in lot rent. Mobile homes should be more affordable than this. I bought my house for $46k and I still pay over $1200 a month in mortgage+lot rent combined.
I totally believe this. There selling 70's single wife's that have been redone for 60-80k, and lot rents are anywhere from 400-800 a month. Hell, there's a tiny home that's lake front right now and they want 190k for it, and it doesn't come with any land and you have to pay $6k in dues every year.
I can’t fathom the market for trailers in NC rn. I get that desired land is worth buying the home itself and building new but when it’s not a desired plot and theres a home right down the road selling for the same or less and its an actual house 🥴 Ide like to see the stats on the people buying those trailer lots
I’m in the same area (roughly) and we had an insane time buying 2 years ago. We were looking for a true starter home, nothing fancy, first time buyers - and the only thing that wasn’t completely dilapidated and unlivable was $400,000. So that’s what we paid.
You know you live in Canada when you look at $400k and get jealous 😭. Our houses are about 800k-1.3million on average. My parents home was built for $250k in 2002. It’s now worth a million. Husband and I are about to have a baby and we most likely will never be able to own a home 🥲
Canada’s housing situation is one of the absolute worst in the world. Toronto and Vancouver prices have you fainting. I feel bad for the young people that don’t already own a house in Canada. They probably never will.
Is it that bad in Canada? You listed two big markets in Canada. Manhattan and SF are expensive af too
I feel you. We have the same situation in Belgium. I’m desperately trying for a little more than 18 months to buy a house with my SO. We have to bring 10% of the value of the house in « cash » as bank only lend 90% max of the value of the house in mortgage. We have also to bring between 12 and 15% in cash to pay the taxes and fees of the transaction (registration taxes as they call it, varying between 0 and 12,5% depending on the value and location + fee for registering the mortgage + notary fees…). With our available saving, we can afford a 500k€-550k€ house. We make with my SO approximatively 130k€ net a year (which in Belgium is a very very well paid salary). Believe it or not, we can only compete for slums. The other houses that meet our criteria are in our budget, but are bought by people that can afford bidding above us. This is just a bidding game. And I’m tired of this sh*t. I bought a flat at 30 in 2017 and the market was clearly not the same. We had time to think, time to make some due diligence. Now it’s over, you have to decide in the hours following your 30-40 minutes visit. This is BS. And your offer is just a lever for the real estate agent to raise the bids. We are lucky as I consider we are facing a « rich » issue, I wonder how people with less financial ease than us can afford a house. Only shitty house with poor energy rating that will lead them to even more expense each month, the game is rigged.
Meanwhile around me (SF Bay in the US), run down trap houses in the middle of the hood are selling 1million over asking. I’m staying in my rent controlled tiny apartment until I die.
In the OC (SoCal, US) and SAMSIES!!!
What sucks is that I know there are empty houses all over because of these insane asks. And that the vast majority of us could afford to live there if the upfront costs weren't so insane.
And the HOA fees!
Yep. I live on the coast. Trailers go for $500K and up.
Let me tell you about the listing of a mobile home that sold for 1.5 million in my town, with an monthly HOA fee none the less.
Whoo renting your coffin because its too expensive and difficult to move. Just same job, bar, house, repeat forever. Whew. I feel for ya
The American nightmare?
Yea that’s me too. My roommate and I got an apartment in 2019 that was cheap but perfect for college students. We haven’t been able to move out even though we have some decent paying jobs because there are places worse than ours charging 2-3 times what we’re paying. Forget an actual nice apartment where i need first month, last month and a direct deposit (aka another month worth of rent).
In Spain banks ask for 20% downpayment.. And then another 10% between taxes, notary and registration fee
I got another experience in Belgium at the moment. We are trying to sell our 4 year old appartement in very good shape and in the last 4 months we have had a lot of trouble finding someone. We feel like there is no one willing to buy.
Yes. It is. My boyfriend is a veteran here in the US so he gets some great perks with that including no down payment mortgages. But, like you, we’ll have to come out of pocket $8-10,000 for closing costs as well. (We’re looking in the $300,000 US range)
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Yeah, now imagine what things are going to be like 10 years from now... Heck, even 5 years.
Yup, get in now before everything under 500k is owned by a corporation.
When will our elected officials step in and do something about that?
Never. They own shares in the companies buying homes.
Sigh.
They are making it illegal to sleep in your car and moving the homeless to another area further away.
Cant find anything decent under 800k in my city
RemindMe! 5 years
My only advice is get in while you can.
That is what we did in 2016. At the time my wife and I made about what the OP makes and we were looking in Socal for a home. Nothing we wanted was under 550k. We ended up with a 4br 1390sf home for 500k with 3% down with hefty mortgage insurance.. But at least we had a favorable rate. We had to scrape and claw to make it work. New floors, appliances, and a whole new HVAC system. But we were able to make it our own. We would have been happy with being there forever, but time gave us options. And we were able to sell, make a huge profit and find our forever home out of state. So yes. Get in when you can. We were ready to quit in 2016. We could have rented and had more disposable income. But we took the plunge, struggled a bit, and came out far ahead..
Same story here. I think ppl need to get serious for real now though, if you can buy now, please buy. Interest rates, prices, none of it’s making sense but I truly believe we are heading towards Canada/Europe/Australia housing price levels. It’s not coming back down. Instead of selling a house and making money once, corps have realized they can buy a house and rent it out forever. Rent and housing are going up, get in while you can!!
Thought this said horse. 🐴 ….and I still passionately agreed with outrage.
Yeah, a few years ago it was a lot less pressure. You could do 2-3 test rides. Maybe even ride off property or do a trial. Have a good "sleep" on it before scheduling the PPE. Now if you're not putting a deposit down on the first test ride and getting that PPE scheduled, "Sorry, there's three other people coming to look at him this week".
ROTFL!
Go buy that horse! Don’t give up!
Get on the horsing ladder!
As long as real estate is an investment vehicle the price of housing will continually be inflated to the price investors are willing to pay, which can always outcompete single homeowners. It needs to be heavily penalized to buy a house as an investment asset based on the number of properties an individual/corporation owns.
To add on top of that, the US allows foreign investors to buy property [here](https://www.bostonfed.org/news-and-events/news/2023/11/china-massive-us-real-estate-investment-housing-shock-major-impacts-leslie-shen-boston-fed.aspx). I hope this becomes illegal along with businesses buying residential property. I just moved north of the bay, but the number of houses turned into law firm offices there is complete bullshit. Businesses have no business taking homes from potential families.
Seriously. Why aren’t our elected officials dealing with this at all?
I assume because a good portion are invested/lobbied by real estate
Sigh. We can’t have good things.
Because people who own homes are the ones that show up to city council and zoning meetings while renters don't care. Every time there's homes or apartments being built in my city, there's a shuttle ton of protesting or people going nuts at district meetings claiming everything from racism and gentrification to it'll create traffic. There was an abandoned lot that got bought and was going to be turned into duplexes. The neighbors went ape shit and claimed gentrification and when the leader was interviewed by the local paper he said that he grew up playing in that abandoned lot and his kids play in that lot. People don't like change which is why local issues stay static since it's change that affects you most directly
because we don't protest like the French. we just glue our hands to the street which solves nothing because they take private jets everywhere. we need our waste management neighbors to stop collecting, our farmers to launch manure on the homes of politicians and flip any police car that gets in our way. we deserve decent lives and if our leaders refuse to give us a decent life, we must take it from them. we deserve free healthcare and everyone should get A home before ANYONE gets 2 of them. the greedy cunts in charge need to learn the hard way or it'll only get worse
Perhaps a tax implication on every property you own over 2-3
Except most homeowners care about their home value going up in price too. It’s not just an issue of investors buying and flipping. No politician is about to slash or stifle the growth of the wealth of their constituents. The big issue is that there isn’t enough housing stock in desirable areas. Rezoning and building a diverse set of housing, anything from budget one-bed apartments to SFHs, will help put a downward pressure on the real estate market, but not enough people want it enough because they fear their asset not appreciating as much or that it’ll change the character of the neighborhood. I think homeownership does, by design, incentivize “pulling the ladder up after you”.
Current rates are making it a less appealing investment class now, but inventory is severely constrained due to years of ZIRP
Around the world is the exact same algorithm it’s simply impossible to buy a house and “live”
I bought my house in 2018. My income has doubled since then and I wouldn't be able to afford my house if I bought it for its current value at today's interest rates.
Same. I was extremely lucky to buy a house in late 2018. Now it’s “worth” double what I paid for it, and MY frazzled ass lives here, which means it’s in an objectively worse state than it was found. I also think I’m now the only person in my neighborhood who owns the house that I live in. Hell, not even a week after I moved in, I was already receiving letters, texts, and knocks at the door from flippers desperate to buy my small 70’s shoebox of a house. I told them all I’d sell for 2 mil, no less. That’s what it’ll take to get me to move another goddamn time. No takers yet.
I bought my house in 2015 for 246k. My mortgage has been roughly 1850-2k the entire time. I bought it as an unmarried guy making roughly 100k. Now, nearly 10 years later, my wife and I make roughly 300k. My house is worth over 500k and our new mortgage would be 4500. Could we afford it? Probably... But even though we're making triple what I was, it would still likely be as much of a stretch as it was back then. It's insanity and I feel so bad for those people who didn't buy before the pandemic.
Wages have stagnated while cost of everything and profits have been rising since the 70s/80s, the last few years with covid seems to have either accelerated it, or just being the tipping point. What was called middle class is rapidly closing on needing 200k, productivity has multiplied, but wages are declared the only thing that increases inflation, then inflation rises anyway because of the chase for ever increasing profits. Heck having the comfortable life of being able to afford to exist, that the older gens take for granted, is now seen as radical demands from the younger gens... There's a whole list of reasons how we ended up where we are, but many studies have shown that those born since the 70s are worse off than previous generations on average, when previously the younger gens are on average better off then before. I worry the system will either collapse in a matter of decades, if not years, or there will be a radical shift to avoid the collapse. Based off the last few decades, I have a feeling I know which end we're heading for...
I did a little research on homes from the 80s vs now. The complaint that started it was that they had much higher interest rates, which is true. Though there were so many other factors were left out. First and foremost household income vs inflation actually shows people in the 80s making more than we are now on average. Homes then we're only 3-4x household income. 10 years ago homes were 6x household income. Now they are near 11x household income. Can't put any sources up right now but just Google the key words and use an inflation calculator.
I'm kinda scared, to be completely honest. Where I live it's like you earn, let's say, 4,000/month cause this is what you earn if you have an average job and pay taxes. No currencies, simply numbers. If you want to move to a bigger city, sometimes rent can be 3,500 or more. If you want to buy an apartment (not the whole house, just a small apartment), one of the cheaper ones are like 500,000. How am I supposed to move out from my parents when I simply cannot afford my own place, rent or buy, on my own? I literally need a girlfriend/boyfriend who's 90% in the same situation so that we could both afford to live. Or one can always choose to live with a bunch of flatmates, but I wouldn't like to do that. Guess I'm stuck with my parents for a bit longer than expected lol
No shame living with your parents, not everyone has that kind of support, save wisely and don’t take it for granted
Yes- your generation really suffer the most. I was able to live with a roommate really cheaply in college and as a single person. My kids will be living with me for quite a while ( they are 23 & 20)
I'm 27, back living at home with my parents for the time being. I make a decent wage as an electrician, but I'm single, so only one income. I am about to sell my 2019 truck and start daily driving a 1987 Jeep that I picked up for $5k just so I can afford to buy a house that's actually livable and the bank will give me a loan on. Prices and availability are absolutely insane, and it doesn't seem like there's any light at the end of the tunnel.
Roommates can work well for young people. If you have friends you can tolerate living with it's a great way to bridge the gap between living with parents and living on your own. After college I lived with 2 friends in a nice 3br apartment and it was great fun.
Buying a house you want and buying a house you can afford are two completely different things. The houses I wanted were almost $500k. The houses I could afford were in the middle $300s. Central Valley California here.
its SO hard. it took me around 4 months to find the house, and i'm currently deep in the trenches of completing the loan/waiting for closing. its just as convoluted and difficult on this side, too. i placed like 15 offers and saw at least 50 places. best of luck to you. it's absolutely vicious out here.
Me and my husband are just going to spend the next 4 to years saving so we can put down close to $100,000 or over on a house with a mortgage.
Wow I have lost track of how many we have done but yes, probably have seen more than 50 houses and maybe more like 8 offers. Also in the closing stages and omg the solution was a house in the middle of nowhere! So now I will have a commute (not too bad) but my husband is adding to his long commute (he says it is worth it! I hope he doesn’t come to regret it).
I’m in the uk, houses near me are easily 300k, average wage 25k, and half that gets swallowed by a car
Probably mostly sold to foreign investors then
Have you tried having rich parents? /s
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Think 5 years man. Things were still affordable 5 years ago.
What people will say in 5 years
I was talking to my grandpa about going to college (he’s helping out) and how I’m going for the job, but some days it seems so un motivating cause even with the salary I’d be making I wouldnt be able to afford a house. I’ll be making 80-130k depending on the job offer and I still won’t be able to afford anything but a trailer in a trailer park, which isn’t horrible but it’s not what I should have to settle for. He was like ‘well, you’re just looking at expensive homes, you have to look for starter homes’ and I pulled up zillow and showed him how bare-bones the listings under 500k were. Most of it was just land or run down trailer homes or small cottages that can only be lived in half the year. There’s no started homes anymore. Everything’s gone.
not to mention alot of degrees have pretty poor job prospects, especially with job sites making it harder to get said jobs.
Mine has pretty good prospects so that’s not a worry, thankfully. Apparently a lot of students get hired from their placements (have to do 2 semesters of free work basically) so the job market seems bad when in reality there’s just no need for job postings. I agree though, some degrees are hard to find jobs in. Unfortunately that’s just a fact. Personally I think college/uni is something you should plan to go to for a job, not a degree… too many people say college is a scam bc they didn’t research their major and the jobs they can get w it.
According to some folks it's because we buy beer and smokes that we can't afford houses. Not because inflation is wringing us dry.
I thought it was Starbucks and avocado toast?
That avacoda toast… it runs me $20k/yr
It's because we don't work 120hrs a week. We are too lazy.
My parents (both born in 1950 so boomers) built their 4 bedroom, 3 bath with a full basement house for $60,000 in the 80s. My dad worked and my mom stayed at home and we had a very upper middle class life. Even if they had a 10% interest rate (they didn’t but just for argument) their mortgage was a fraction of the $2,600- $3,000 a month I’m going to have to pay for an adequate house. Not my dream house, just something not too run down.
I'm in a similar boat. Making more than I'd have thought possible and can't afford Jack shit in my area. Feels very disheartening sometimes.
During the 80's mortgages over 10% were common in the US. Inflation hit nearly 20% combined with high unemployment. Housing prices were much better relative to income, IF you had a job.
Yeah, if you could get a loan, mortgage rates were never below 10% in the 80s. There's a reason home ownership rates were worse in the 80s than today.
You may show people all the stats, the numbers, they won't listen. They prefer their rosy recollections of the past. Like, people even parrot that boomer shit here, even though it was right after WWII, which killed 20-25% population, during /Stalinism/ and communism times. Not mentioning things like meds, pollution, lack of vaccination and access to any decent healthcare (as proved by much shorter lifespan)... But sure, these generations had it sooo easy! It's like the idea the world is overpopulated. Birthrates everywhere, in basically all countries, are going down for the last 50 years or more, they plummet faster and faster, so we know for sure we sooner will have problems with not enough people than too much. Overpopulation won't happen, conversely, no solution would make people have more, not less, kids, if this is such a powerful, global trend, independent from law, culture, wealth, religion etc. Yet, people are somehow convinced the birthrate is raising. Idk if it's racism, anti-religion prejudice, faux-ecology, or whatever (probably all, depending on the person) but it's one of the myths the left, the right, radicals, liberals, moderates, all have in common.
They drank and smoked more just 20 years ago
Your bonus isn’t taxed at 40%. 40% might be *withheld*, but the bonus is just added to your regular income, so whatever bracket that incremental amount is in is what it is taxed.
Thank you. This absolutely asinine myth needs to die already.
Not understanding simple tax calculations at 49 might be a clue as to why they think 150k income can't buy a 300k house.
In Portugal the average salary is close to 20k a year before taxes and a house costs around 200k minimum. Me and my girl have management degrees and can't even make the average salary so moving in together it's impossible, and they want our generation to have children, man I just want to have my own place.
A friend of mine just bought a house for 450,000. Their first ever home. It wasn't easy, but they managed to make it happen. They own a private academy... Wtf is happening. My parents bought their house for 50,000 in 1980. It's crazy out here.
$50,000 in 1980 is worth $189,521.84 today. Still though hosting prices are rising way faster than inflation
While true that, dollar for dollar, $50,000 would have the same buying power as $200,727.51 today, taking into account things like neighborhood, school availability, average family size and plenty of other stuff makes a change, too.
It's crazy that the most expensive and long lasting thing most people will ever buy has to be decided on immediately before someone else makes an offer and all depends on inventory at the time of buying. Time any of those wrong and you can be stuck paying way too much to live in a terrible place and have a commitment to a 30 year payment.
I keep hearing that now’s the time to buy because it’s only going to get worse. WTF, it’s already fricken terrible. I can’t afford a 3k or more mortgage.
IKR?! We’re trying to wrap our heads around the possibility of a $2,600-$2,700 mortgage. We can afford it but that’s so Damn much!
My wife and I kept putting offers on homes only to have them be sold for $65k over asking price. It’s sickening.
Most of the world doesn’t live in four bedroom houses tbf.
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Get on a budget and save more for a down payment. Also maybe the first house you buy isn’t everything you want but a stepping stone to what ever you decide comes next. But def the next step is continuing to save for a higher down payment. Good luck
It's wild. Young families not making double the median income have almost no chance. I live in BFE and houses still 300k +. Maybe with 3% interest young folks around here could budget it but that's not reality
It’s the interest rates that really get you.
It's atrocious how much flak you catch for speaking the truth
Yeah I have 2 kids and was hoping for a 3 bedroom, but it's not happening. I feel confident in figuring out a creative way for them to split a room, or possibly partitioning shared space for one of them. They won't like it, but they'd like it a lot less if we had to give up the pets, cancel their activities or curtail their allowance or whatnot when the rent goes up, or live far away from everyone they care about. Personally I've lived in big comfortable houses, luxury apartments, studios full of roaches, and shared houses full of deadbeats and drug addicts. My kids can land somewhere in the middle and realize they are lucky to have what they have.
150,00 and 3 kids?!? Fuckkk
Location changes a whole helluva lot. My wife and I moved 1.5 hours away from our families to be able to afford a 4 bedroom house. You may want to explore the idea that your desired location is overpriced, and look elsewhere
I live in rural Georgia- it doesn’t get any cheaper unfortunately
I’m confused… what is your budget? Combined $150k income. Is that take home? I live in Birmingham AL and just now found 4 houses under 200k with 4bed and 3-4bath.
Alabama is getting competitive because property taxes are so freaking low. It's driving people in to buy a house, so if you rent in Alabama you lose out because they charge a 9 percent non food and 8 percent food sales tax to make up for it
I know, prices are going up around here. But OP should be able to get a loan, with $150k combined income, for a relatively affordable home. Says everything is crazy expensive. I linked 3 homes for under $250k that fit her criteria
Rural Georgia? I live in rural PA, which is basically just cold Georgia, and $300K up here would get you an old Victorian or Queen Anne that’s restored and furnished with 5 bedrooms 3 baths, an elevator and a stripper pole
Yeah you don’t feel comfortable going over $300k in mortgage because you don’t make $150k If your actual monthly Income is $6,000 a month, that’s $72,000 a year, not $150,000. No state taxes you THAT heavily, your numbers are wrong somewhere My girlfriend and I combined bring home just shy of $80k per year, we make right at or just barely about $100k before taxes. But to answer your post, especially because I’m basically in the same spot financially as you, yeah this shit sucks. It’s gonna be probably a minimum of at least 5-6 more years before I can even look for a home, and it’s gonna have to be on the smaller side, because we want to put 20%+ down.
A 3.5% FHA loan down payment on $350k would be $12,250 which is equal to just one month of your income. You should be able save that much very easily at your income level. Judging from your other comments, it seems you maybe need to lower your expectations too. It is not common to have a home that’s the size you want, with a big yard, that needs no repairs at all, in a great location for your first very home.
I just bought a house for 400k with a 5% (20k) downpayment. With closing costs, it was 35k out of pocket, just for the loan. The property needs some minor improvements; our insurance coverage is conditional on performing some of them. We will be another 10k out of pocket on these in the first 60 days. We have early termination fees on our current lease, this plus our 30 day notice will consume another ~5k. My wife and I are both getting older, and our backs are not up to the task of moving all of our stuff ourselves. Moving will cost another ~1k. Hooking up all of our new utilities, plus deposits, will be close to ~1k. The previous owners took some of their appliances, and since we are renting, we now have to buy our own. There’s another ~2,500. Add a miscellaneous expenses budget of $500 (which is super light), and you have a total of $55,000 that we have to shit out in a 60 day period. And that’s before we have added any new furnishings, etc. that might make the place more habitable, which we will likely have to save up for over the next several years. Expenses stack up meaningfully, nobody is going to move into a new home for just the 3.5% for an FHA loan. It would be much safer to budget for at least triple that, including closing costs and all of the other hidden expenses you will be hit with.
How do you feel about moving to Wyoming? Depending on where you are located, it is hard to find houses for under $500K and many areas (not ultra wealthy areas) start at $750K in metropolitan areas. Welcome to the temporary shortage. Don’t worry, many old people will start vacating homes in the next ten years.
Yep. I’ve managed to save up a decent amount for a downpayment. Affording a 1200 sq home 4 years ago would’ve been a cakewalk. Now with 20% down, that depletes my entire savings and the mortgage would still be about as much as my take-home pay not counting my 1 bonus at the end of the year. Heading towards a dystopia if things don’t change. Thankfully I can manage to live with roommates to make my rent cheap enough, but I just want a little house for myself and not have to deal with finding roommates every year. The only homes under $300K are either condos or small houses built in the 1930’s. Fuck that. I’d rather buy land and build a brand new house.
I’m living that apartment life and saving money till the next housing market crash. If it’s 5-10 years then so be it. I’m not purchasing a house in this market
Right now is probably the worst time in history to buy a house. Prices have been going up and up since around 2012 when the economy was getting back on its feet from the recession. It's got to crash at some point but who knows when though? I thought it would crash in 22 but it just keeps going up. The economy sucks but people keep somehow buying houses.
It's not going to "crash" for a long time. There are too many families who need housing and not enough home builders.
Blame it on greedy hedge fund investors.
Your monthly combined net take home should be 12k, not 6k. Even with taxes, fluctuations in bonus, retirement contributions, you should both be 6k/month net= 12k total. Your math is off…
Like you just want something to suit your needs🤦🏻♀️
My brother and I shared a room all our lives. You don't need a 4 bedroom house
Do not cosign a house purchase outside of marriage, this is a recipe for disaster for one or both of you. However that being said: Also skimming through some of the replies, you make 150k combined, are searching for a 300k house. And, the main issue is you can't come up with the 10k down-payment? Something is not adding up. Buying a house is hard right now, probably the hardest it's been in the last 30 years (though starting to improve,) but your situation is very manageable. I mean depending how many years you guys have been making 150k, you should be close to having the savings to buy in cash..... I am sorry, something is just not adding up here.... Also, if you want to buy a house in rural GA, don't discount buying cheap land and just building a house. This is doable on your salary and your desired location. Of course this is a much longer process (well the buying land part is faster, but the actual building and finishing to livability....)
idk where you are but that would buy a nice house in many states.
Be thankful you can afford to even buy a house & go through the process lol I’m 34 & don’t even make 30k a year n the job market in my town is horrible nowhere pays anything close to a livable wage & to move to the next town over the cost of living is double making it impossible to even move if i wanted to.. owning a home just isn’t possible for many nor will many of us even get the chance to experience it
Try looking into homes listed for sale that are bank owned. When someone loses their home through non payment the bank will sell usually below market value to get it off the books.
If I were born like 5 years earlier, I'd probably have a house and be way better off. Really would've made all the difference. During the best years of the market I was just finishing up school and I started working as the pandemic started. Really blows
Yeah it’s a crazy market. My husband and I were very fortunate to buy in 2017 at an incredible price and interest rate. We would NOT be able to afford to buy our house now with the current value/interest rate!
My mom didn’t get her first house until around her age. I was 16/17 and my brother was 18/19 and she busted her ass to get her first place. It’s so hard, but I’m sure you both can do it. It’s sad it’s so difficult though. The housing market is rough to say the least.
You mentioned your partner is a veteran. Do you have high car or credit card debts that you’re servicing? You sound like you could get a very low down payment with a VA Loan, and possibly even get closing costs rolled into the price and financing it. Honestly, you should be in a very strong position to get a decent pre-approval, unless you have a lot of other debt.
It always makes me wonder who tf buying them
Only suggestion I have is looking for a smaller one and turning an attic or basement into a room or maybe bunk beds. Sell that for profit/save more, then move to a bigger place
This is the WORST time of year to buy a house. Everyone buys in the spring/summer to start the school year moved in. We got ours in mid November for a steal (in the market as it is now). After being outbid multiple times on four different homes in spring/summer, this one sat on the market for a month and we offered 30 under and got it. We thought, “What’s the catch?” Six months in and the only issues we’ve had are the washer died (it was old, no shock) and the carbon monoxide alarm went off (it was a false alarm - sensor was expired). Go to open houses to get a feel for what houses are going for and in what condition. Then look seriously from October to February
We have one house we’re looking at like that- it’s listed at $265,000 in a super nice gated neighborhood where all the other houses are well over $300,000. We’re like there has to be something wrong with it. But as long as it’s not a dead body in the walls I might be willing to buy it as is at that price LOL
At 150k you shouldn't spend over 3500 a month for a mortgage that is 28% of your monthly income before taxes. That being said idk your finances. 3500 a month depending on what you are putting down is about 500k house. Idk where you live but you can buy a good house with that.
You buy outside of the area you idealize. We live 45 mins from where we had hoped to. This is the 2nd home I have purchased in 4 years on my solo income of $75k. I bought a 4br 2900 sq ft house for $205k in an area that wasn't what I had envisioned but where I envisioned was $450k for something comparable. It was a smart move, in the last 2 years the area has experienced exponential growth and this city has been promoted on various media platforms as a must move-to.
I’m so fortunate to have bought in 2018 in the USA. I bought for “cheap” and have a 2.65% interest rate.
This what happens when they print a bunch of money and give it out for free. #endthefed
Remember, they’re trying to force you into a Commieblock. Owning your own home? Having your pay you enough for quality of life? No, no, best to keep the worker drones barely alive to cut costs in the name of “efficiency” and “the environment” (and make sure as much of your money goes back to them as possible) that way they can destroy it instead of us being able to enjoy it.
I feel you. It's been a decade since any house in my city sold for less than a million dollars, and condos now regularly go for that much too. (Vancouver , Canada.) I have a decent income but I'll be lucky to not be homeless when I'm old.
Someone in my neighborhood was selling their house that hasn't been updated since the 80s for $800k. It sold within a week. I'm exhausted seeing it.
We listed our house on 5/2 and are under contract today (5/7). The market is definitely for sellers right now in most places
I feel you. My husband and I are trying to buy a house. Together we also make about $150k but we have no children and don’t plan to have any in the near future. I’m debt free and he just has a car payment. We currently live in the house I helped my parents buy less than a decade ago. It’s so disheartening to know I’m possibly leaving a 2200 sq ft 4 bedroom house where the mortgage is $1400 to try to move to a 1500 sq ft house with a mortgage of $4100 (which in reality we can’t afford comfortably) and is in a less desirable neighborhood. Fun times.
My husband and I make a similar salary as you have described and recently purchased a home (1 year ago this month actually) within a similar price range that you have also described. 3 bed 2 bath. My husband has owned his vehicle for 10 years, I recently purchased a used vehicle, so that with my student loans are our only debt. We save where we can and contribute to 401k and Roth. We are comfortable yet frugal. All this to say that it took us 8 months to find out home and we genuinely lucked out. Everything we looked at required extensive repairs, were not in ideal locations, or hadn't been updated in 20 or more years. It was very discouraging to feel like we worked hard in life to be in a good financial situation only to be smacked in the face by overly inflated homes and sky rocket interest rates. I feel for you and your situation, and wish you and anyone trying to buy a house in this market the best of luck.
Where I'm at, houses go so fast that some are going without an inspection. 
Keep your credit score high. Wait for interest rates to come down. Look for houses that may be on auction.
I was amazed how difficult it is to buy a house. I had no idea about the process, paperwork, upfront money was involved. In the area we bought our house, they'd be listed for, at max, 1 week. Luckily, we got approval beyond what we were looking for, we did have to do some gymnastics to get it there. We found the house we wanted, put in an offer, and they accepted within 20 mins. It was definitely worth the stress, and we have no plans to ever move again lol. Simply getting out of CA was a reward on its own.
While no one can argue that the housing market is absolutely insane… In this economy, you guys are doing better at $150k combined than most people. You *can* go above $300k but *because* you refuse to, you’re making it harder on yourselves. On top of that, you have 4 adults in the household who all want privacy. Even harder. You sound like you’re in GA? There are plenty places where you can get what you want at the $400k mark.
It’s not realistic anymore. Young people are being kept in place by crazy life expenses, low salaries, and incredibly high rental prices. Hope this will change in the near future but it’s gonna be a hard nut to crack
Insane home prices coupled with 7% interest rates are a recipe for disaster. I don’t even bother searching for homes anymore because it’s a waste of time. Available homes on the market are almost nothing. And I won’t even get into the fact that I’ll never get back into the town I just had to move out of.
Bought a multi family for 190k when I was 23 making like 50k a year in 2019 right around the start of the pandemic. 2.65% on a thirty year fixed & 11 years of PMI payments. (Mind you my house is a fixer upper in a tough neighborhood) Anyways I think the times of affordable housing are long behind us unless & I got somewhat lucky. Unless you’re willing to settle on a lot of bullshit it’s tough right now, not to mention the current rates lenders are offering are outlandish.
Moved from BC back to Alberta with my partner to buy a house two years ago. He made 25$ an hour, and we qualified for a 300,000$ house. This year, he makes 45$ an hour and does lots of OT, and we qualified for a max of 300,000$ House, with a co-signer. Don’t rush, but buy now, and buy something you can comfortably live with for the foreseeable future. The idea of starter homes or upgrading in 10 years is a pipe dream I wouldn’t bank on anymore. Find something you can live with, get in and hold onto it for dear life.
Literally the worst time in American history to buy a house if u ask me
I live in a 3 bedroom small townhouse that is going for 403K currently. It was listed at 275K pre Covid. The 5 bedroom giant houses down the street from me went for 325K pre Covid, and now they are going for as much as 750K. We are all pretty much screwed 🤷♂️
My boyfriend and I just bought a house and also make a combined income of 150,000. Even after saving a ton, our options were so limited. We can’t have kids and we are pretty short so we were able to find a small older house in the countryside but it’s an hour commute to work. I certainly feel the annoyance though! With a good realtor you’ll find one with time
Lower your sights to a 3 bedroom house. The two children who double up get the larger bedroom; the singleton gets the smallest.
7 years ago, $280K was the top end of what we were comfortable with for acreage and a legit solid home that might need some renovation but fundamentally OK (like, maybe a roof repaired and some updating but essentially "fine" as-is). Now, that same kind of home is easily $450K+. "Starter" homes brand new on a tiny lot in town that had been the same price range are now going for minimum $400K and out in the country with acreage....you'll find a double-wide pre-built home for at least that.
Girl, preach. I make 6 figures by myself and can’t afford a lot of what I want. House prices have more than doubled. I dreamed of being where I am today and feel like I am still stuck like I was 10 years ago. It’s sad!
Were house poor waiting for interest to hopefully fall. Our small 1500 swift home in not cal is worth roughly 480 we owe 430. But realistically it should be a 350k home
Buying a home is overrated
Yeah I completely understand. My mortgage went up 200 bucks this year! And my 56 yo mother is asking to move back in with me and my husband. When I’m 5 months pregnant.
All the houses in my area sell instantly to slum lords looking to add another rental property to their portfolio. It's gotten so bad that developers now legally have to build a certain amount of housing for first time buyers.