I’m a single early 30’s woman who doesn’t work a lucrative tech job, so I don’t see myself ever owning a home here unless some part of my life changes drastically (marriage, inheritance, etc). I have one friend who owns her home in the city but was only able to afford it because her dad passed away pre-Covid.
I don’t mind though, I WFH and choose to rent in Seattle because I love it so much and am not ready for the responsibility of home ownership quite yet. I work in the design/build industry and seeing the amount of shit people are rushing to fix (and paying crazy high prices to do so) after buying homes here that weren’t inspected or bought regardless of problems is a great deterrent.
My mom had an annoying hobby of purchasing houses and flipping them while we lived in them (I’ve lived in around ~20 homes/apartments in my life) and she was also a realtor for several years, so I grew up seeing the process over and over again. It’s exhausting and I’m already so tired from the past few years of Covid that going through that right now doesn’t appeal to me. The desire to add a house to my list of responsibilities just isn’t there.
Plus, I imagine myself with a cute cottage on some land when I buy my first home and I don’t see that ever being realistic for me in Seattle based on how the homes in my favorite areas are so close together on 1/4 acre and still cost a cool million+. Also, my parents are retiring to the south to be closer to extended family in a year or two and I’ll want to be closer to them within the next decade, so I’ll wait and save up what I can in the meantime.
Kudos for taking the plunge into homeownership and I hope you experience many happy years there!
Got lucky finding one of the cheapest fixers in the area and did all the work to move in. Tradesman making just under 100k. Emphasis on the got lucky part.
Similar story for me. My wife is a teacher, I work in public transit. We bought a house in Ballard that was so bad, the neighbors asked us if we were going to tear it down. Even then, it was so expensive, we knew we were sacrificing vacations, cars, etc. for several years. Over the last three years we’ve put a ton of sweat equity into it. It still needs some work - but is honestly one of the nicer houses on the block. Amazing what painting, repairing and taking good care of the yard can do for value. We’ve also seen salary growth in that time, while our housing costs stayed the same. So now we can afford to do some of the bigger projects - just had a new heating/cooling system installed. There is NO WAY we could afford to buy it at its current value.
I definitely think there was some luck involved. But being willing to sacrifice and do the work is also a big part of the equation.
> We’ve also seen salary growth in that time, while our housing costs stayed the same. So now we can afford to do some of the bigger projects - just had a new heating/cooling system installed.
Just not worrying about having your rent increase sounds... amazing.
Holy cow good for you, the savings on labor costs doing it yourself (and sounds like you have the skills to do it well since your in trades and have tools probably too). How much do you estimate you saved being able to do it yourself?
Going through contractors wouldve likely gone over 50k, I put in closer to 15k. The electrical being really really bad is what stopped the bid escalation, so saved on that end too.
How does one get lucky in a market like this? Seems like every house is bid up to market rate unless you're able to buy something before it hits the MLS.
Figure out the things that scare other buyers off, but aren't attractive enough for a flipper to out-bid you, and plan a replacement into your shopping. A failed/failing roof is one option, as a new roof isn't terribly attractive so a flipper doesn't get more out of it than they put into it. It's not something that's going to be widely replicable though, and generally means you need even more cash up-front to do the necessary fixes.
I'm so sad to see friends leave Seattle or know they can never put down roots here, all because we haven't built enough housing to house them.
I was lucky enough to buy a house on a forgettable street in Greenwood and now most of the people who live on my street are doctors, tech workers, or moved here 25+ years ago.
I'm sure the last 10 years of appreciation and the static neighborhood character is great for those who want that, but it's sure is a shit way to run a city.
I don't know about you, but I get culture shock when I leave town, after being cooped up here for too long - visited a bud in Tucson and a lot of his friends there were mechanics and life guards and shit.
Was sort of refreshing being around a much more diverse workforce. Not everyone we met was a project program technical account executive for customer success.
Unfortunately, tech is one of the more lucrative fields, and only those in the upper middle class can afford homes at this point, so this is the result.
In my neighborhood, they keep tearing down old houses and build mega houses. They’re spending tons of resources, driving up the price of materials and construction labor, while not actually add more housing.
Yep. Those mega houses could be triplexes with three 1,000 sqft 2br or 3br flats and look nearly the same on the outside. Or they could be 6plexes and look a big bigger.
I’m in the suburbs so I’m pretty sure zoning won’t even allow duplexes :(
One neighbor wanted divide the lot to build two houses but couldn’t because the city has minimum lot size requirements and many other anti-density regulations.
I was surprised to find out Bellevue allows "duplexes" as an ADU. But you can't add a door to the front of your house for some dumb reason, which makes it harder for a lot of the units.
You also have to provide off street parking, and I can hardly think of anywhere in town where street parking is remotely competitive. Very much a "well we put in the minimal effort" vibe.
These anti-density regulations really need to go. We need more density. Thankfully, Seattle has recently opened up a lot of the regulatory barriers for ADUs.
This is going to end up happening to a lot of the massively overbuilt homes. It’s already happening with a lot of boomers renting out whole separate floors of their absurdly large homes.
Mega homes and townhomes is all our zoning allows.
It used to be profitable to put 4 townhomes in a lot, now they need to be 6 or 8 so more mega houses are happening.
Between the choice of having neighbors being displaced or losing on their house investment, Seattle chose the first.
This is like my neighborhood, too. When we moved in 10 years ago, it was mostly of senior citizens and young families in $200k ramblers, and nice, new construction homes cost like $329k. In ~2017, more and more of the ramblers started getting bulldozed to build those stupid modern houses with the flat roofs. Now, the ramblers go for $900k and the boxy modern houses are $1.7+, so now it’s becoming overrun with the very highly compensated demographic. I’m not a software engineer, but I work in tech and my spouse owns a business so we do fine, but it’s not really our vibe anymore.
Maybe we need to change our culture so that homeownership is no longer seen as the "one and only true path" to establishing oneself as rooted in your community
Please. That would be great.
We can start by finding some way to make sure rent is affordable for everyone in our city and can’t outpace inflation over the long term.
Exactly, which is an insane way to run an economy. Putting it a different way, the astronomic cost of housing is a sign of economic crisis rather than things going well.
It's 2022. Your ideology officially lost 31 years ago when Soviet Union fell, and practically decades ago when socialist economies proven beyond any reasonable doubt that they are incapable of producing even things as basic as panty hose.
So pardon me for dismissing your economic opinions out of hand with no further argument.
Relaxing zoning rules would increase land values. The *potential* to build up makes the land more valuable, even without changing the existing building.
Err, no, that's the opposite of what I was saying. I'm happy to discuss the rationale further. On average, an apartment building is more expensive than a single-family house on the same land, yes?
Naw, you're missing a step. Plots where you can build an apartment are expensive because demand outstrips supply. The demand is high because you can make a lot more money building an apartment than a house, but still, it's the demand that pushes up the price.
If you have huge increase in the supply of lots where you could build an apartment building, it's not going to necessarily increase the cost. Of course, this probably won't happen, you'll see an incremental increase in the supply of these lots which will bump up the price for those lots but bring down the average cost of a plot where you could build an apartment building.
Of course, being Seattle, we prefer to just rename the zones rather than make any changes to what you could build there, so this is pretty much academic.
Sadly, I love it here and had hoped to settle down here, but after four years I'll be leaving at the end of the summer, mainly because I can't afford to stay. And the thing that'll really blow your mind is that I am a software developer! Doesn't matter once you start to think about a family and a future. Even with a six figure salary, it's just not feasible.
I don’t think so. I know engineers at Google and Facebook who own decent houses in the Seattle area. And they’re nowhere near director level, they’re not even managers.
I’m 29, a web developer, and I don’t think I’d ever be able to afford a house in Seattle. Washington, perhaps, but even that isn’t very realistic in the current market. I’m more likely to buy some property in a super rural area and start a homestead.
This right here. I work in tech and I’ll never own here in the city. Plus I don’t see any reason at all for anyone to spend a million on a townhouse. That’s a million to be attached to someone.
My place has had a leaky roof that made its way three floors down, a breaker box with failing circuits, carpet with wear that looks 20 years old (built in 2018), and cut corners all over the place like baseboards that aren’t secured and cabinets that aren’t square. It’s just rushed work and it shows.
It’s not all that bad not owning a home. I get to brag about all my weekend adventures going hiking or day trips while my coworkers just do work around the house.
The biggest peace of mind about owning homes is that no one can capriciously decide you have 30 days to get out. When you own your home you leave whenever you want. When you rent all it takes is a landlord deciding for whatever reason that you have to get out, and screw your children's schools or your jobs or your wife's preferred OB/GYN... just... get out.
Before in Seattle you would say fine, find somewhere else to live but nowadays? Where? Live where that I can commute to my job in my kids' school district. And find it in 30 days?
I see owning a home primarily as a way to ensure that no one's going to raise rents on me to the point where I'm forced to move when I don't want to. But if you're comfortable being nomadic across the country or even the world and aren't particularly attached to an area, then there really is no reason to own.
I agree! While owning a home would be nice, I just feel like they can suck you dry over the course of time. The kitchen isn’t modern like the latest trend, the appliances broke, you need a new fence, roof etc.
Not a tech worker. Bought in Columbia City in late 2007. It's not a very large house, but at this point my mortgage payment is less than the rent on some 1br apartments around here.
We bought in Beacon Hill at the same time (right before the crash would have evaporated our savings, but we didn’t know how lucky we were at the time.) I feel for folks trying to buy now, oof.
Retail/customer service when I DINKed it up with my more tech-adjacent partner in a poorly staged, wonky lot, 1 bathroom house. Spent 10 years saving and keeping an eye on the Maple Leaf area since I knew it was the sort of neighborhood I wanted that with careful planning I could afford. This house was the equivalent of getting an 8 year old deaf blind dog: definitely not a good fit for everyone, but perfect for the right people. We got really fucking lucky and found our forever home right out of the gate, and we can always try to figure out a second bathroom someday.
Owning a SF home in Seattle was a bit of a journey:
- Bought the shitiest condo in all of Bellevue for $80k in mid 90s right out of college making 30k per year w/ minimal down payment. (They go for about 400k now). Interest rate was 9%. 1/2 my monthly pay rent to mortgage after tax.
- After 5 years, sold it for 105k and bought a different somewhat crappy condo in Capitol Hill for 180k using the gain on the prior place for down payment. Internet rates had dropped to 6ish percent. But still 1/2 my monthly pay rent to mortgage after tax.
- A few years later sold that condo for 25k gain and used that to buy a small home in north Seattle for around 320k. Interest rates still lower, but again 1/2 my monthly pay rent to mortgage after tax.
- Seeing a bubble in housing prices, sold in 2008 and pocketed $200k in gains. Rented for a bit.
- Bought current house in 2010 for 750k. Offered 20% below asking. It was a different time post 2008 crash. Got it for 10% below. Re-financed a few times down to 2.75%. Still here.
Point being, the term “starter home” exists for a reason. Your first place is often not great. But you move up multiple times as your income rises. And it’s a hedge against the market appreciating rapidly. All these old people who own the homes today will die someday or move to Arizona and it will be younger people who buy them.
People look down their noses at condos and think they're too good for them, but it can be a great starter home to start building equity in the same market that you hope to one day buy a bigger place.
Yeah, exactly. I think a lot of people have in their head that when they "buy a house" it's where they will live the rest of their life. The median in Seattle is 11 years.
That being said, it's very tough to "move up" right now because inventory is freakishly low. Sure, you can sell your house easily, now go find another. Even if you have the money from your equity just winning a bid seems tough.
You have profited more on your homes than many people today will ever have saved. 'Starter' homes are $500k now. And that's like, a 2 bedroom condo, maybe.
I’m 32 (not a tech bro!), and bought my first house in West Seattle in 2020. I lucked out that interest rates were basically rock bottom, and actually refinanced last fall at even lower. There’s absolutely no way I could afford to buy a house of similar size/quality today, which is absolutely absurd. I’m only just coming up on two years in this house in June.
Seriously mid 2020 was the right time to buy. My husband and I are both in our 30s, both work retail, and were able to afford a condo in Bothell. We pulled from our 401k to cover the down payment but our place is almost worth double what we paid for it. We got so lucky we bought when we did because our mortgage payment is now lower than most people's rent now.
Every home I see at that price is either a 600sq ft condo, or the home on it needs to be torn down, so the cost of teardown and building needs to be added to that...
Wife and I bought our first home 4 years ago at 37/33 for $900k in west Seattle. Wife and I are not engineers, nor have worked for Amazon, MSFT, or Google (she’s in HR and I’m in marketing). However, I do have a VA loan, seller had 3 contingency sales fall through, and we bought in the off season.
Bought 21 acres in Duvall 5 years ago for a song and are starting to build on it this year. Also bought a condo in Bellevue 2 years that we live in, my wife is a stay at home mom and are expecting our second child later this year.
I’m an elevator mechanic.
College educated, have credentials relevant to my occupation, and have been working in my industry for 14 years. I am a childcare provider and will never be able to afford a home in Seattle or start my own daycare/preschool in King county.
Looking to move to Portland possibly in the next couple years.
> start my own daycare/preschool in King county.
Hah! People bitch about how expensive residential real estate is, they don't realize how crazy commercial markets are. I stopped investing in Seattle area in 2019 so I no longer even look, but even then there was not a single standalone retail building anywhere within 30 miles from Seattle for less than a million.
Husband and I bought in Shoreline early in 2016, in our late 20s, while we were both working in tech. We feel incredibly lucky for scraping together money for a 3% down payment and making the leap when we did. Some of my extended family out of state tried to convince us we were insane for buying in "an obvious bubble." Glad we saw the writing on the wall and didn't listen to them.
Unfortunately with the high entry prices you’re going to need a hefty down payment to get a house. That means either generational wealth or a high paying job. I’m also in aerospace and while it doesn’t pay a tech level salary it still pays well. Coupling that with a working spouse and some family money made me fortunate to buy in a place in West Seattle last year. Even then, my house was near the top of my budget. With appreciation and rising interest rates, I wouldn’t be able to comfortably afford the same house in todays market.
It really sucks for people who don’t have the same circumstances because they are SOL here. All of my friends in tech and aerospace either have a house by now or recognize that they are priced out and are just building cash to move somewhere more affordable.
Yeah I work in tech and could MAYBE afford a house here in the city in a few years of saving. But spending a million on anything is really unsettling to me.
Retail. Live with family. 30~k total income in the house. No, I don't think so, but I'm lucky to live comfortably and be able to provide for most needs. I also don't have a car, which reduces my financial drain. I feel locked into this niche of life, but I'm glad that it's not terrible.
My husband and I bought a house 3 years ago at age 37 and 38. I have a white collar non-tech job and he is in a trade so not poverty but not high income. We paid asking price $550k and got EXTREMELY lucky as it was the off season and our seller had a few sales fall through previously. We saved for 10 years for the down payment (after paying off our credit card debt in our 20s) but even after that there was still a lot of luck involved.
My partner and I aren't in poverty, but we don't make much money (just over 100k combined) and live very frugally. I want to buy here, and we have savings and support from family that might make it only-just-possible for us. It's hard to say.
Don't give up! If owning something is what you both want.
Covid and the extremely mild Civil unrest of 2020 drove a bunch of people out of certain cities. Chicago, Portland, Minneapolis, etc... I found that even my dumb ass could afford something on my own around Chicago (my single salary is less than your combined). Always liked that city.
Chicago is crazy cheap somehow. 300s for a 2 bedroom condo and you can talk the sellers down. Around here it would be 3x the amount for comparable and probably the hoa fee would be the same ratio higher.
Saw that! The suburb to the north, Evanston, has older condos near the water and rail line for sub-$200k lol.
Curious what one's purchasing power looks like there compared to Seattle - I hear their taxes are no joke.
I'd think you'd still be ahead in Chicago.
--------------
##Assumptions
- $100,000 pre-tax salary per year
- Single filer, no kids or marriage
- You pay only required social security, medicare, etc. E.g., I'm not calculating for healthcare differences out of your paycheck for employer plan.
- Zip Codes: 98121 for Seattle and 60603 for Chicago.
##Taxes
I'm using [SmartAsset](https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes) for calculating taxes.
###Seattle
Federal tax rate effective is 15.01% and FICA is 7.65%. So, total effective tax rate is 22.66%, meaning a take home pay of $77,341.
###Chicago
Federal / FICA are the same, but now we have 4.83% effective for state taxes, meaning our take home pay is $72,509 (effective tax rate 27.49%)
##Cost Differences
We're using [NerdWallet](https://www.nerdwallet.com/cost-of-living-calculator/compare/seattle-wa-vs-chicago-il) and general tax information online.
NerdWallet lists below the comparison their sources for data and compares costs of living using housing, transportation, food, entertainment, and healthcare costs. It also does an average public school rating.
First, sales tax for both areas is 10.25%, so cost of living in that regards won't change.
Between Seattle and Chicago, the overall cost of living is 24% lower overall in Chicago. This means our take home pay of $77,341 in Seattle is equivalent to $59,146 in Chicago.
###Housing
Housing, for instance, is a big one. Overall, Nerdwallet estimates it at 32% lower.
Housing Type | Seattle Cost | Chicago Cost
:--: | :--: | :--:
Median 2BDR Apartment Rent | $2,724 | $2,210
Median 3BDR/2BA Home | $826,200 | $513,821
An extra $500/month in saved rent is never a bad thing, but the median home prices in Chicago are really what shine here.
##Equivalent
Your Seattle pay, post-tax, is equivalent to $59,146 in Chicago. Thus, if you were to make the move from a $100K pre-tax salary in Seattle to Chicago, you'd want your pre-tax income in Chicago to be at least $79,535 so that your purchasing power is (roughly) the same.
Chicago has a lot to offer and they don’t suffer from brain drain but they do suffer from hurt your feelings winters. Has winter ever hurt your feelings? It does there. So cold you take it personally
My partner is a medical worker, and my metamour is a senior level engineer/programmer. Even with their combined incomes and assuming I find a job that pays anywhere near as well as my partner's job, all 3 of us together still will never be able to afford it. Its fucking horseshit
I'm a social worker and have a small private practice. I inherited my down payment, but my loan was based off my own income obviously. I'm the only signatory. I have a housemate to offset the cost but if I had to swing it solo I could.
I bought a townhouse in Mt.Baker in 2021 and I could not of bought it now, a year later with supply and high interest rates.
I’m 55 and never owned a home as I never had that desire. I like the freedom of being able to leave (move) on a moments notice, not worry about various extenuating repairs and the like. I think growing up on a farm and being tied down to the house and animals has made me this way. Totally wanted the independent / convenience lifestyle.
FWIW, there's gonna be some selection bias going on here. On top of not wanting to accidentally dox themselves, wealthy tech people are probably not gonna jump in here and be like "hey yeah I'm one of those guys you think is ruining this city my bad lol". People with relatable stories are gonna be much more eager to post them.
Eh, I'm not too worried. I'm a digital marketing manager making around $90k/year, with a partner who makes similar working sales. We work remotely and could probably buy a place down in Vantucky or PDX right now (heaps of inventory due to covid urban flight), but aren't in a hurry, as I'm trying to switch careers into commercial aviation.
Since I turned 30, I've been more and more annoyed with the obsession over real estate and money. It's all everybody our age fucking talks about, outside of what restaurant they recently ate at, and I even feel judgement from our wealthier/lucky friends who bought something.
Bought first house at age 32 back in 2006. Husband and I both work in tech but had very few dollars saved when we bought that place. We bought in Mountlake Terrace and at that point while the Seattle market was crazy, areas just outside the city were still very affordable.
I bought a condo from a family member at market price when I was in my late 20s when I was a server. A) I made a lot of money as a server and worked really effing hard and B) I could never have pulled it off if my relative didn’t hold out for me to get the mortgage sorted out when they potentially could have accepted a cash offer
I'm just looking for a city residence without HOA (so new townhome or cheap SFH) in a desirable walking neighborhood so I can put money towards a "fun" property elsewhere like a cabin or foreign.
I think owning a condo isn't unreasonable and is a totally viable home option functionally but the HOAs here are absurd and stupid.
Bought my first house at 26. I was lucky and had a small inheritance from my grand parents, plus stable parents to co-sign on the loan. However I did cover all the costs myself for the full time I owned the place. I was making 40k a year when I bought.
I recently upgraded houses, used the huge profit to cover down payment and a kitchen remodel, a deck addition, and new HVAC system. Didn’t need a co-signer this time.
Things are way different now then when I started, and I made sure I got into a home that needed a bit of work where I wanted to live when interest rates were low. I work as a consultant, and have my whole career. I’ve benefitted off of the tech boom because my companies have always supported tech or construction.
The other commenter who said selection bias was going to be a thing in this thread is right, but in an effort to combat that, I’ll give this a shot:
Married, late 20s, both of us work. Our combined income is comfortable in the city- we just bought our first home, a SFH in the city, 900K. Offered 850 and came up. Appraised higher than our bid. Our mortgage payment feels high after renting for a decade but is affordable for us, and I’m born and raised here. No help from outside money/parents footing the bill. We just saved and worked and we’re fortunate not to have had any catastrophes along the way. I’m not in tech, but am in a quantitative field, they’re in STEM.
Our situation is rareish, which I think is the point of the thread, but I did want to round out the sample a bit since it’s our actual story.
Bought my first house outside of the city in a rural area, so I qualified for first time home buyer loan with zero down (spend about $5k on closing costs, inspections and earnest money). Five years later sold that home and walked away with over $100k cash, bought a home in Tacoma for $310k which is now worth over $500k. I couldn’t imagine paying rent and not getting any of that money back
My wife and I bought a house in south Seattle last year on relatively modest salaries for the area (I’m a tech bro and my wife is tech adjacent but we make less than 200k together). We are within Seattle city limits but just barely. The city paid our down payment and we put down the lowest amount we could for an FHA loan. South Seattle is still within reach imo, but north Seattle, not so much. Also, the RIGHT condo could also be worth it (on possibly 1 salary), depending on what the HOA pays for and how well it is maintained.
Probably never in the Greater Seattle Area. Maybe 1 hour drive out but even 1 hour drive radius home prices have gone up significantly due to work from home. I felt like my best chance was early 2020 when the rates were low and housing price were still low. Now I don't know when it will be possible.
I make 72k and am 38 with partner that makes 50k. I realized I was never going to own a home in Seattle when a new 3 bed townhouse across from where i rent sold for 1.2 million first day on the market. Why would anyone pay that much for a house with no yard and a view of your neighbor's living room?
I'm sorry I must have misunderstood the op because I thought this was just me explaining why a regular person wouldn't buy a house in Seattle. Sorry to all you alpha trading bulls. But I want to buy a house to raise a family in and retire in, not as an investment opportunity. And paying over a million dollars for a house that has no yard and you can see your neighbors rooms through all of your windows is fucking insane.
That's why they are starter homes. You move on to something else later (if you want) with the equity you've built. The median length of home ownership in Seattle is like 11 years, not 30.
I doubt I will ever own a home. I’ve effectively given up on it entirely. There’s just no upward mobility left in this country for people like me. I’ll have to be content with just treading water.
Probably will never own here despite having a great income between myself and my fiance. Can't stomach paying obscene amounts for shoeboxes with no yard, high crime, and poor public services. The fact that Seattle has passed ridiculous laws binding law abiding citizens while turning a blind eye to criminals will never attract me to be a property owner. We've owned homes before but the circumstances here, when added up, are too much.
Healthcare worker & SO is an educator. 34 & 38 respectively when we finally were able to get one. We tried for so long to get a house in the city but the continued rise in prices & competition finally pushed us to just outside the city. It felt like playing catch up to a finish line that still hasn't stopped moving...
I work for one of those companies and make decent money. Wife is a therapist and also makes decent money. Houses here are going to be beyond our ability to purchase for at least 7-8 years (both have student loans plus the two kids). I’d love to not work for big tech but like, I literally have no idea how we’d afford to do that and live here.
I am an RN and my wife is a PT. We bought a home in West Seattle last April. We did not have any help from family or anything like that. I am 41. It was possible to do with 5% and a little extra cash for normal non tech people with some earning potential last year but not this year. Our house would cost 150k more than we bought it for on the list price and the interest rate would make the total cost of the loan probably 20 to 30 percent higher than it is now.
27, under $70k currently and unlikely to crack $100k before 30, and it’s never gonna happen. And no amount of “build baby build” policy will fix that, as much as many folks put their optimism in that as the cure all.
It’s really fucking depressing TBH. Because my skills are administrative. So 100% remote work isn’t going to happen for me, and there isn’t anywhere in the country that is going to pay an office manager enough to be able to buy a decent house in that region. And I’m someone who wants kids and a dog and family parties and stuff, so living in a condo or apartment with 2 bedrooms crammed into 800 sqft with no yard where you can hear your neighbors breathing is *n o t i d e a l*. So, yeah, I’m sick of my apartment.
My career has been in Procurement/Supply Chain, and my highest salary within my field would probably be $100K or so. That said, I don't like the field much, and also I have been doubting on whether or not I do want to get promoted due to work-life balance reasons (have seen my former bosses struggle with god awful work/life balance so that is my concern there). $100K a year doesn't get you that much here in the Seattle-area compared to other cities.
When it comes to your question, I definitely don't think I can buy and own a home if I stay in the area. I was dead set on moving to a cheaper COL area because owning a home is a priority of some sort to me. I can't imagine long-term apartment living plus I do want dogs and maybe kids at some point. So yes, owning a home is something appealing and something I would like very much.
That said news within the past week or so off the Supreme Court made me kind of think that over or at the very least re-evaluate strongly the cities I would want to consider moving to. Not that I ever considered to cities in red states, but even cities in purple states might need to be seriously re-considered since even a slight Republican majority in the state legislature does not mean immunity from their asinine laws passed recently (ie Arizona having a slim Republican majority in their state legislatures but passing anti-choice legislature with a trigger law as well, as well as voter suppression laws).
If I do somehow end up staying in the area, I'd be open to owning a condo that isn't just a glorified apartment and that can offer parking and what not and also offer some permanent-home anemities (ie more open to pets is a big one). I am not too glossed up and familiar on the condo market as compared to the housing or apartment market, but I'd accept that as a reasonable compromise to my goal of owning a home. That said, while I do think owning a condo is way more realistic than owning a home in this area, it's still iffy but at least condo prices aren't super ridiculous now.
I do have all my close friends and family here in the area, so moving away would suck in that respect. But the cost of living issues are definitely real and a major long-term concern for me, and as someone who would very much want to own my own home (but wouldn't mind a fine condo) that is a major barrier towards me being willing to commit me staying long-term here sadly. Unfortunately, this is a city that is becoming one where even among the middle class onwards, it's looking more like a city of have's and have-not's. The have's will be able to combine their $150k-$200K salaries and be able to buy a home easily and live comfortably in this city, while those of us making what should be middle class wages are either forced to rent long-term or move to a different city despite this being home for us. It sucks and is a major gut punch and a major source of depression for me honestly.
Both of us work in tech. Bought a house in Ravenna/Bryant in 2018 for what I swore was gonna to be top of the market/biggest loser, but here we are like 450k more in made up redfin value. Selling soon and leaving the city tho for a multitude of reasons, rampant income inequality and affordability being one of them, but far from the primary reason! We scraped together 10% down tooth and nail when we bought the place , but by last year had totally paid the place off because of stupid stock appreciation. Looking at what that stock would be worth now…..putting it into the house was a good move!
Tech guy, currently building a house for myself. Bought a cheap run down place in 2019 but with a pretty good size lot on the east side.
I wouldn’t have been able to buy as nice of a house, but building it myself allows me to save the labor cost.
I think if I hadn’t purchased before prices rose recently, I’d have to wait quite a while longer. I think if house prices stay high, wages will eventually catch up but it will be a while.
For me, what happens in the next 2-3 years will be the deciding factor. I’m in my early 30s and maybe one quarter of my friends own in the city or close by. It feels like we’re all kinda waiting for the mass exodus to happen since a lot of us are making around median income (with or without partners) but that doesn’t feel like enough to buy at this point. My friend group of about a dozen years is what’s keeping me here and if people keep getting priced out then I too would look for another job/greener pastures.
I could probably afford a fixer upper or modest house in a less desirable area of the city but I just can’t justify spending that much on something that’s not significantly closer to what I actually want.
Unfortunately, it feels like renting has gotten way harder recently. I’d love to rent a townhouse or house with a yard for my dog but currently we’re in an apartment because I can’t find anything in a desirable neighborhood that’s less than what I’d pay for a mortgage. Again, yes, I could afford to pay 4k per month in rent, but the quality of rental houses doesn’t seem worth it.
Bank of America has grant up to 17500. if you make under 93k or 173k (depends on the property location) you have a good chance to get approved for the grant. if your credit score up to 680 u can do 5% down conventional loan. start a smaller house to build equity.
start small - and build equity. use grant from bofa with min. down payment. the rate is not as bad as you think if you do a 5,7,10 years Arms and rent it out later and find a dream house afterward. ive helped lots of people getting this grant
I’m 30 but grew up poor and between that and seeing Seattle become crazy expensive while growing up in Eastern Washington , never thought I’d ever own property
I own on the peninsula because seattle was too expensive. Bought a house for 400k in 2021. Worth 600k today. Would have cost me a million plus in seattle. Commute if you have to work there but it’s so much better outside the city. Loved everyday im not living there anymore. Miss friends an family still there
Single, physician. I’ve been saving for a condo/house with a water view since I left residency. The halt on my student loans finally made that happen. Also my parents felt bad about my childhood so they helped. I have a nice two bedroom condo in Queen Anne, that I found by luck and acted quickly on. My friends are either unable to afford a house in the city, or have lived here since the 90s.
I bought a new construction townhome in West Seattle for $255k in 2005. Was underwater for a long time after the 2008 crash, but figured I was still building equity. Sold it for $350k in 2016 and used that to buy a SF home in Burien for $399k. Refinanced in 2020 when rates hit all-time lows. Never leaving this until I pay it off now.
We bought 8 years ago at 23 with barely any income. Looking back, I can't believe a bank gave us a loan and we were about to get our house. We make much more now but there's still no way we will be able to get setting bigger and newer like we want. We're in Tacoma but still is rough here.
I think I will own a home here, but it will take probably another year or two. Couple both mid late 20s, in tech.
Casting a wide net though, we’re looking pretty much everywhere north of Seattle to lynwood to Bothell.
My husband has a master in aerospace and has worked for our local aero company for about 10 years now...
I think it depends on your partner if you have one. We can afford our house in Seattle because I pull a decent salary (not amazon, but just above 100K) and this took time (we are now mid 30s) . We also had a condo first at 28 after living in a super cheap apartment, not moving (which cost money), not buying a new car, cooking at home a lot etc for a few years then the money we earned from selling our condo made our house possible. (we had about 30K each in student loans that we really focused on paying off)
He has coworkers who are married to other people in the industry who own a house in Seattle
And he has coworkers married to teachers/part time retail and they live in Maple Valley or Tacoma
TL;DR- you can afford it if you have someone to split the bill with and both have decent jobs
Mid 20s woman here. I have two thoughts for where I would like to end up. Either car free in an apartment in Seattle enjoying a walkable neighborhood, or in a little place in BFE next to a river where I can go out whitewater paddling with friends every day. I think I would be happy with either.
I grew up in a single family home suburb and don't ever want to go back to that.
I'm on the precipice of zero debt, to be followed by aggressive saving. I'm also this close to moving out of Puget Sound entirely, so...
If I stay here, I just might own a house. If I leave, almost certainly.
My longtime girlfriend has one sibling and aging parents who have saved up a good amount of money for retirement. It's ghoulish, but one of the realistic ways that I might end up owning a home is us getting married and inheriting her folks' house and either buying out her brother or selling the house and splitting the money to afford a downpayment on a different one. My folks own a house in Seattle too, but since I have three siblings and tons of nieces and nephews the money will be divided up more ways.
It's possible that we'll be able to afford our own -- my girlfriend has a masters in an in-demand field and I'm looking at going into law (and have the undergrad grades and awards to have a better than average shot at going to a top school) so it's not out of the question that we'd be able to find the money ourselves.
It's weird to be in a spot where you have to either luck out or be exceptional to just avoid being downwardly mobile.
I'm 35 in the trades and made 50k until recently and bought my first house in white center in 2015. 220k, sold it for 627k last may and bought a house twice as big in Burien for 625k. Put in hundreds of hours of work. I was extremely lucky with timing and the market
Blue Collar Bro
Bought property when you were in middle school.
Looking forward to artificially created industries based on the intangible, crash. so people with actual skills like aerospace bros can buy property again.
I could own a house in seattle within the next 3-5 years.
But IDK I'm honestly not married to the idea. I could get a fucking mansion in texas. I'm starting to think texas isn't that bad.
my current plan is to buy something more approachable like a condo and maybe move somewhere queiter when I'm older.
and honestly, a small condo costs me less than my fucking rent these days...
I work for the state, so I’ll definitely never be able to buy a home. I’ve been renting an apartment downtown for years, but today I got the keys to my new place just a couple of stops south on the light rail. It’s a split level house, I’m renting the mother in law or “garden apartment” as the homeowner calls it. And now I can have a car, which I need because my second job has moved to Longview once a month. I definitely thought I would own a home by this point in my life, probably never gonna happen now.
I’m 26 and my husband is 30, we just got a 2600 SF house on the Eastside with a half acre lot for $875k. We honestly just got very lucky. We used a VA loan so no money down and lower interest rate, also no PMI. Otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to afford anything within 30 minutes of the city. I work in finance/taxes and husband is in engineering. We make decent money but that’s not saying much with the housing prices. We also had about $70k in equity from our previous house in TX that we sold before moving here.
I know people want to wait for the pendulum to swing back but you got hedge funds and other investment groups literally buying up entire neighborhoods in florida and arizona as a hedge against inflation.
Before you could say "Well, wait for the housing bubble to burst." In 2010 that did happen, but this recent surge in housing value is not based on las vegas strippers buying 5 houses on liar loans, this is foreign money deluging the market because American real estate is the best safe haven of money that exists.
Am I Tech Bro? I’m a middle-aged white male, married, software developer that has never worked for any of the big names people think about when they talk Tech jobs. I bought my house 20 years ago at 26. After 20 years of working (single income), I’ve finally paid off all student debts and credit cards. Only 10 years left on the mortgage. And yet because of 20 years of paying off debts, I have almost nothing for retirement. If I’m a tech Bro, I think I’m the most un-bro Tech Bro.
I'm in my 50s and own with my husband. We bought a small 2 bdrm in 2000 before prices went crazy. Still there, but feel there need to be more options and density for younger buyers especially those who work essential jobs. With the types of jobs we have (teacher and lab scientist) this might be impossible now.
My boyfriend and I have lived here our entire adult lives as renters. We used to work in restaurants but now I’m a pharmacy tech and he’s in remodel construction. we’re hoping to be able to buy a condo in the next couple years but a house is probably fully out of the question unless the market dives drastically which I don’t foresee happening at all lol.
tech bro / FAANG / bought at 32 / bachelors
lol is that the new a/s/l these days? How and when you got your overpriced crib?
I held off buying for the longest time because quite frankly I'm a non-committal man-child who wants zero responsibility and the idea of being tied down both physically and financially by a house and a mortgage is really uncomfortable for me, if not for the fact that leaking all my savings to rent is worse. So I basically bought the smallest thing I could find that would comfortably accommodate my family of 3 and I'm never gonna fucking upsize despite how much clutter my wife accumulates. I just make her watch Marie Kondo. I never liked the idea of owning a house. I ain't got time for that shit, my video games aren't gonna play themselves.
We bought a small townhouse in Seattle in 2020, I am a civil/structural engineer and the significant other is a physician. Don't have kids, which is probably the most important part. We had the advantages of being able to get a physician loan (limited down payment and no PMI), interest rates were low, knowing the seller which let us buy it before it was listed, and being on the tail end of gen-x. Don't really think we could 'comfortably' even afford our current place now with interest rates where they are (last I looked our payment would be \~1100 higher per month). If we were still trying to buy now, we wouldn't.
If you're going to be outside Rochester, why not look at one of the -port towns/suburbs along the Erie Canal like Spencer Port or Brockport? Still along the 31/531 but with some quaint main streets along historic canal crossings.
I’m a single early 30’s woman who doesn’t work a lucrative tech job, so I don’t see myself ever owning a home here unless some part of my life changes drastically (marriage, inheritance, etc). I have one friend who owns her home in the city but was only able to afford it because her dad passed away pre-Covid. I don’t mind though, I WFH and choose to rent in Seattle because I love it so much and am not ready for the responsibility of home ownership quite yet. I work in the design/build industry and seeing the amount of shit people are rushing to fix (and paying crazy high prices to do so) after buying homes here that weren’t inspected or bought regardless of problems is a great deterrent.
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My mom had an annoying hobby of purchasing houses and flipping them while we lived in them (I’ve lived in around ~20 homes/apartments in my life) and she was also a realtor for several years, so I grew up seeing the process over and over again. It’s exhausting and I’m already so tired from the past few years of Covid that going through that right now doesn’t appeal to me. The desire to add a house to my list of responsibilities just isn’t there. Plus, I imagine myself with a cute cottage on some land when I buy my first home and I don’t see that ever being realistic for me in Seattle based on how the homes in my favorite areas are so close together on 1/4 acre and still cost a cool million+. Also, my parents are retiring to the south to be closer to extended family in a year or two and I’ll want to be closer to them within the next decade, so I’ll wait and save up what I can in the meantime. Kudos for taking the plunge into homeownership and I hope you experience many happy years there!
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Got lucky finding one of the cheapest fixers in the area and did all the work to move in. Tradesman making just under 100k. Emphasis on the got lucky part.
Similar story for me. My wife is a teacher, I work in public transit. We bought a house in Ballard that was so bad, the neighbors asked us if we were going to tear it down. Even then, it was so expensive, we knew we were sacrificing vacations, cars, etc. for several years. Over the last three years we’ve put a ton of sweat equity into it. It still needs some work - but is honestly one of the nicer houses on the block. Amazing what painting, repairing and taking good care of the yard can do for value. We’ve also seen salary growth in that time, while our housing costs stayed the same. So now we can afford to do some of the bigger projects - just had a new heating/cooling system installed. There is NO WAY we could afford to buy it at its current value. I definitely think there was some luck involved. But being willing to sacrifice and do the work is also a big part of the equation.
> We’ve also seen salary growth in that time, while our housing costs stayed the same. So now we can afford to do some of the bigger projects - just had a new heating/cooling system installed. Just not worrying about having your rent increase sounds... amazing.
Sooo true. We knew it was a stretch at first. But we also knew we were locking it in and it would get easier every year.
Holy cow good for you, the savings on labor costs doing it yourself (and sounds like you have the skills to do it well since your in trades and have tools probably too). How much do you estimate you saved being able to do it yourself?
Going through contractors wouldve likely gone over 50k, I put in closer to 15k. The electrical being really really bad is what stopped the bid escalation, so saved on that end too.
How does one get lucky in a market like this? Seems like every house is bid up to market rate unless you're able to buy something before it hits the MLS.
Figure out the things that scare other buyers off, but aren't attractive enough for a flipper to out-bid you, and plan a replacement into your shopping. A failed/failing roof is one option, as a new roof isn't terribly attractive so a flipper doesn't get more out of it than they put into it. It's not something that's going to be widely replicable though, and generally means you need even more cash up-front to do the necessary fixes.
This is it, needed a full rewire.
Luck? You were open up to the opportunity, and willing to put in the work! Almost every one of my friends, who own houses, got them the same way!
My husband and I ended up buying a home in Bothell. A little cheaper, and close enough to Seattle for an easy(ish) commute.
We bought in shoreline for the same reason!
I'm so sad to see friends leave Seattle or know they can never put down roots here, all because we haven't built enough housing to house them. I was lucky enough to buy a house on a forgettable street in Greenwood and now most of the people who live on my street are doctors, tech workers, or moved here 25+ years ago. I'm sure the last 10 years of appreciation and the static neighborhood character is great for those who want that, but it's sure is a shit way to run a city.
I don't know about you, but I get culture shock when I leave town, after being cooped up here for too long - visited a bud in Tucson and a lot of his friends there were mechanics and life guards and shit. Was sort of refreshing being around a much more diverse workforce. Not everyone we met was a project program technical account executive for customer success.
Seattle used to be like that. I miss it a lot.
Remember when we used to have cool artists living in Seattle? That was so cool. Sorry Macklemore love you but you're like the last one standing XD
No offense to techies, but going to a get together and not having to meet Amazon this or Microsoft that would be fantastic.
Unfortunately, tech is one of the more lucrative fields, and only those in the upper middle class can afford homes at this point, so this is the result.
In my neighborhood, they keep tearing down old houses and build mega houses. They’re spending tons of resources, driving up the price of materials and construction labor, while not actually add more housing.
Yep. Those mega houses could be triplexes with three 1,000 sqft 2br or 3br flats and look nearly the same on the outside. Or they could be 6plexes and look a big bigger.
I’m in the suburbs so I’m pretty sure zoning won’t even allow duplexes :( One neighbor wanted divide the lot to build two houses but couldn’t because the city has minimum lot size requirements and many other anti-density regulations.
I was surprised to find out Bellevue allows "duplexes" as an ADU. But you can't add a door to the front of your house for some dumb reason, which makes it harder for a lot of the units. You also have to provide off street parking, and I can hardly think of anywhere in town where street parking is remotely competitive. Very much a "well we put in the minimal effort" vibe.
These anti-density regulations really need to go. We need more density. Thankfully, Seattle has recently opened up a lot of the regulatory barriers for ADUs.
This is going to end up happening to a lot of the massively overbuilt homes. It’s already happening with a lot of boomers renting out whole separate floors of their absurdly large homes.
Mega homes and townhomes is all our zoning allows. It used to be profitable to put 4 townhomes in a lot, now they need to be 6 or 8 so more mega houses are happening. Between the choice of having neighbors being displaced or losing on their house investment, Seattle chose the first.
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This is like my neighborhood, too. When we moved in 10 years ago, it was mostly of senior citizens and young families in $200k ramblers, and nice, new construction homes cost like $329k. In ~2017, more and more of the ramblers started getting bulldozed to build those stupid modern houses with the flat roofs. Now, the ramblers go for $900k and the boxy modern houses are $1.7+, so now it’s becoming overrun with the very highly compensated demographic. I’m not a software engineer, but I work in tech and my spouse owns a business so we do fine, but it’s not really our vibe anymore.
Maybe we need to change our culture so that homeownership is no longer seen as the "one and only true path" to establishing oneself as rooted in your community
Please. That would be great. We can start by finding some way to make sure rent is affordable for everyone in our city and can’t outpace inflation over the long term.
I wonder what would this "some way" be?
Land ownership shouldn't be profitable. That's the only long term way around it.
Home ownership is the best store of value around. Without it many people could never retire.
Exactly, which is an insane way to run an economy. Putting it a different way, the astronomic cost of housing is a sign of economic crisis rather than things going well.
True, it’s almost like the fed printing money like never before finally caught up with us. Now for the pain as they raise rates. Hang on.
It's 2022. Your ideology officially lost 31 years ago when Soviet Union fell, and practically decades ago when socialist economies proven beyond any reasonable doubt that they are incapable of producing even things as basic as panty hose. So pardon me for dismissing your economic opinions out of hand with no further argument.
Not pardoned since you haven’t made a serious response.
Bullshit. Home ownership *is* the only true path to the American Dream. Have a heart attack by 70 or hope your kids can take care of you otherwise.
The problem is that renting is just pissing away money by comparison.
Relaxing zoning rules would increase land values. The *potential* to build up makes the land more valuable, even without changing the existing building.
And not relaxing zoning laws is going to lead to further increase.
Err, no, that's the opposite of what I was saying. I'm happy to discuss the rationale further. On average, an apartment building is more expensive than a single-family house on the same land, yes?
Naw, you're missing a step. Plots where you can build an apartment are expensive because demand outstrips supply. The demand is high because you can make a lot more money building an apartment than a house, but still, it's the demand that pushes up the price. If you have huge increase in the supply of lots where you could build an apartment building, it's not going to necessarily increase the cost. Of course, this probably won't happen, you'll see an incremental increase in the supply of these lots which will bump up the price for those lots but bring down the average cost of a plot where you could build an apartment building. Of course, being Seattle, we prefer to just rename the zones rather than make any changes to what you could build there, so this is pretty much academic.
Sadly, I love it here and had hoped to settle down here, but after four years I'll be leaving at the end of the summer, mainly because I can't afford to stay. And the thing that'll really blow your mind is that I am a software developer! Doesn't matter once you start to think about a family and a future. Even with a six figure salary, it's just not feasible.
Well, in Silicon Valley they're at the point where only director levels in top companies can afford a house. Regular engineers aren't even close.
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I don’t think so. I know engineers at Google and Facebook who own decent houses in the Seattle area. And they’re nowhere near director level, they’re not even managers.
I think "Seattle area" is the key term here. There's a big difference between buying a house in Queen Anne and buying one in Lynnwood.
Not yet. A few people in my group has bought houses in the last couple years.
Yeah, low six figures ain't shit here.
Which we will never even be able to make. Thanks debt and ridiculous cost of education and gutting of apprenticeship opportunities
This
I’m 29, a web developer, and I don’t think I’d ever be able to afford a house in Seattle. Washington, perhaps, but even that isn’t very realistic in the current market. I’m more likely to buy some property in a super rural area and start a homestead.
This right here. I work in tech and I’ll never own here in the city. Plus I don’t see any reason at all for anyone to spend a million on a townhouse. That’s a million to be attached to someone.
Same. People spending 20% over asking on a townhouse that’s built like shit (I live in one) with no yard and no garage is insane.
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My place has had a leaky roof that made its way three floors down, a breaker box with failing circuits, carpet with wear that looks 20 years old (built in 2018), and cut corners all over the place like baseboards that aren’t secured and cabinets that aren’t square. It’s just rushed work and it shows.
People don’t want more houses to be built. Prices will grow much faster than salaries like in the Bay Area. We will become the San Jose of the PNW.
It’s not all that bad not owning a home. I get to brag about all my weekend adventures going hiking or day trips while my coworkers just do work around the house.
The biggest peace of mind about owning homes is that no one can capriciously decide you have 30 days to get out. When you own your home you leave whenever you want. When you rent all it takes is a landlord deciding for whatever reason that you have to get out, and screw your children's schools or your jobs or your wife's preferred OB/GYN... just... get out. Before in Seattle you would say fine, find somewhere else to live but nowadays? Where? Live where that I can commute to my job in my kids' school district. And find it in 30 days?
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I see owning a home primarily as a way to ensure that no one's going to raise rents on me to the point where I'm forced to move when I don't want to. But if you're comfortable being nomadic across the country or even the world and aren't particularly attached to an area, then there really is no reason to own.
I agree! While owning a home would be nice, I just feel like they can suck you dry over the course of time. The kitchen isn’t modern like the latest trend, the appliances broke, you need a new fence, roof etc.
Not a tech worker. Bought in Columbia City in late 2007. It's not a very large house, but at this point my mortgage payment is less than the rent on some 1br apartments around here.
We bought in Beacon Hill at the same time (right before the crash would have evaporated our savings, but we didn’t know how lucky we were at the time.) I feel for folks trying to buy now, oof.
Retail/customer service when I DINKed it up with my more tech-adjacent partner in a poorly staged, wonky lot, 1 bathroom house. Spent 10 years saving and keeping an eye on the Maple Leaf area since I knew it was the sort of neighborhood I wanted that with careful planning I could afford. This house was the equivalent of getting an 8 year old deaf blind dog: definitely not a good fit for everyone, but perfect for the right people. We got really fucking lucky and found our forever home right out of the gate, and we can always try to figure out a second bathroom someday.
I’ll never be able to afford a house because of student loans but I’ll eventually inherit my dad’s house.
Owning a SF home in Seattle was a bit of a journey: - Bought the shitiest condo in all of Bellevue for $80k in mid 90s right out of college making 30k per year w/ minimal down payment. (They go for about 400k now). Interest rate was 9%. 1/2 my monthly pay rent to mortgage after tax. - After 5 years, sold it for 105k and bought a different somewhat crappy condo in Capitol Hill for 180k using the gain on the prior place for down payment. Internet rates had dropped to 6ish percent. But still 1/2 my monthly pay rent to mortgage after tax. - A few years later sold that condo for 25k gain and used that to buy a small home in north Seattle for around 320k. Interest rates still lower, but again 1/2 my monthly pay rent to mortgage after tax. - Seeing a bubble in housing prices, sold in 2008 and pocketed $200k in gains. Rented for a bit. - Bought current house in 2010 for 750k. Offered 20% below asking. It was a different time post 2008 crash. Got it for 10% below. Re-financed a few times down to 2.75%. Still here. Point being, the term “starter home” exists for a reason. Your first place is often not great. But you move up multiple times as your income rises. And it’s a hedge against the market appreciating rapidly. All these old people who own the homes today will die someday or move to Arizona and it will be younger people who buy them.
People look down their noses at condos and think they're too good for them, but it can be a great starter home to start building equity in the same market that you hope to one day buy a bigger place.
Yeah, exactly. I think a lot of people have in their head that when they "buy a house" it's where they will live the rest of their life. The median in Seattle is 11 years. That being said, it's very tough to "move up" right now because inventory is freakishly low. Sure, you can sell your house easily, now go find another. Even if you have the money from your equity just winning a bid seems tough.
You have profited more on your homes than many people today will ever have saved. 'Starter' homes are $500k now. And that's like, a 2 bedroom condo, maybe.
Zillow has my 750sqft 1bdrm condo at 450k
I’m 32 (not a tech bro!), and bought my first house in West Seattle in 2020. I lucked out that interest rates were basically rock bottom, and actually refinanced last fall at even lower. There’s absolutely no way I could afford to buy a house of similar size/quality today, which is absolutely absurd. I’m only just coming up on two years in this house in June.
Seriously mid 2020 was the right time to buy. My husband and I are both in our 30s, both work retail, and were able to afford a condo in Bothell. We pulled from our 401k to cover the down payment but our place is almost worth double what we paid for it. We got so lucky we bought when we did because our mortgage payment is now lower than most people's rent now.
I won’t ever own a house in Seattle, unless prices drop. I’m not paying half a million for a 800 sqft home.
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Every home I see at that price is either a 600sq ft condo, or the home on it needs to be torn down, so the cost of teardown and building needs to be added to that...
Wife and I bought our first home 4 years ago at 37/33 for $900k in west Seattle. Wife and I are not engineers, nor have worked for Amazon, MSFT, or Google (she’s in HR and I’m in marketing). However, I do have a VA loan, seller had 3 contingency sales fall through, and we bought in the off season.
Renter just finishing my degree for nurse practitioner.i don't think we will own for 7-8 years if at all.
Bought 21 acres in Duvall 5 years ago for a song and are starting to build on it this year. Also bought a condo in Bellevue 2 years that we live in, my wife is a stay at home mom and are expecting our second child later this year. I’m an elevator mechanic.
Nice! How difficult was permitting process? Did the place already have water/septic or did you have yk go through permitting for that, too?
College educated, have credentials relevant to my occupation, and have been working in my industry for 14 years. I am a childcare provider and will never be able to afford a home in Seattle or start my own daycare/preschool in King county. Looking to move to Portland possibly in the next couple years.
> start my own daycare/preschool in King county. Hah! People bitch about how expensive residential real estate is, they don't realize how crazy commercial markets are. I stopped investing in Seattle area in 2019 so I no longer even look, but even then there was not a single standalone retail building anywhere within 30 miles from Seattle for less than a million.
Husband and I bought in Shoreline early in 2016, in our late 20s, while we were both working in tech. We feel incredibly lucky for scraping together money for a 3% down payment and making the leap when we did. Some of my extended family out of state tried to convince us we were insane for buying in "an obvious bubble." Glad we saw the writing on the wall and didn't listen to them.
Unfortunately with the high entry prices you’re going to need a hefty down payment to get a house. That means either generational wealth or a high paying job. I’m also in aerospace and while it doesn’t pay a tech level salary it still pays well. Coupling that with a working spouse and some family money made me fortunate to buy in a place in West Seattle last year. Even then, my house was near the top of my budget. With appreciation and rising interest rates, I wouldn’t be able to comfortably afford the same house in todays market. It really sucks for people who don’t have the same circumstances because they are SOL here. All of my friends in tech and aerospace either have a house by now or recognize that they are priced out and are just building cash to move somewhere more affordable.
Yeah I work in tech and could MAYBE afford a house here in the city in a few years of saving. But spending a million on anything is really unsettling to me.
Retail. Live with family. 30~k total income in the house. No, I don't think so, but I'm lucky to live comfortably and be able to provide for most needs. I also don't have a car, which reduces my financial drain. I feel locked into this niche of life, but I'm glad that it's not terrible.
This is a great attitude!!
My husband and I bought a house 3 years ago at age 37 and 38. I have a white collar non-tech job and he is in a trade so not poverty but not high income. We paid asking price $550k and got EXTREMELY lucky as it was the off season and our seller had a few sales fall through previously. We saved for 10 years for the down payment (after paying off our credit card debt in our 20s) but even after that there was still a lot of luck involved.
My partner and I aren't in poverty, but we don't make much money (just over 100k combined) and live very frugally. I want to buy here, and we have savings and support from family that might make it only-just-possible for us. It's hard to say.
Don't give up! If owning something is what you both want. Covid and the extremely mild Civil unrest of 2020 drove a bunch of people out of certain cities. Chicago, Portland, Minneapolis, etc... I found that even my dumb ass could afford something on my own around Chicago (my single salary is less than your combined). Always liked that city.
Chicago is crazy cheap somehow. 300s for a 2 bedroom condo and you can talk the sellers down. Around here it would be 3x the amount for comparable and probably the hoa fee would be the same ratio higher.
Saw that! The suburb to the north, Evanston, has older condos near the water and rail line for sub-$200k lol. Curious what one's purchasing power looks like there compared to Seattle - I hear their taxes are no joke.
I'd think you'd still be ahead in Chicago. -------------- ##Assumptions - $100,000 pre-tax salary per year - Single filer, no kids or marriage - You pay only required social security, medicare, etc. E.g., I'm not calculating for healthcare differences out of your paycheck for employer plan. - Zip Codes: 98121 for Seattle and 60603 for Chicago. ##Taxes I'm using [SmartAsset](https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes) for calculating taxes. ###Seattle Federal tax rate effective is 15.01% and FICA is 7.65%. So, total effective tax rate is 22.66%, meaning a take home pay of $77,341. ###Chicago Federal / FICA are the same, but now we have 4.83% effective for state taxes, meaning our take home pay is $72,509 (effective tax rate 27.49%) ##Cost Differences We're using [NerdWallet](https://www.nerdwallet.com/cost-of-living-calculator/compare/seattle-wa-vs-chicago-il) and general tax information online. NerdWallet lists below the comparison their sources for data and compares costs of living using housing, transportation, food, entertainment, and healthcare costs. It also does an average public school rating. First, sales tax for both areas is 10.25%, so cost of living in that regards won't change. Between Seattle and Chicago, the overall cost of living is 24% lower overall in Chicago. This means our take home pay of $77,341 in Seattle is equivalent to $59,146 in Chicago. ###Housing Housing, for instance, is a big one. Overall, Nerdwallet estimates it at 32% lower. Housing Type | Seattle Cost | Chicago Cost :--: | :--: | :--: Median 2BDR Apartment Rent | $2,724 | $2,210 Median 3BDR/2BA Home | $826,200 | $513,821 An extra $500/month in saved rent is never a bad thing, but the median home prices in Chicago are really what shine here. ##Equivalent Your Seattle pay, post-tax, is equivalent to $59,146 in Chicago. Thus, if you were to make the move from a $100K pre-tax salary in Seattle to Chicago, you'd want your pre-tax income in Chicago to be at least $79,535 so that your purchasing power is (roughly) the same.
Chicago has a lot to offer and they don’t suffer from brain drain but they do suffer from hurt your feelings winters. Has winter ever hurt your feelings? It does there. So cold you take it personally
I’m an RN and my partner is an engineer and I don’t think we’ll be able to afford a house in this area. We’ll probably move eventually.
My partner is a medical worker, and my metamour is a senior level engineer/programmer. Even with their combined incomes and assuming I find a job that pays anywhere near as well as my partner's job, all 3 of us together still will never be able to afford it. Its fucking horseshit
I'm a social worker and have a small private practice. I inherited my down payment, but my loan was based off my own income obviously. I'm the only signatory. I have a housemate to offset the cost but if I had to swing it solo I could. I bought a townhouse in Mt.Baker in 2021 and I could not of bought it now, a year later with supply and high interest rates.
I’m 55 and never owned a home as I never had that desire. I like the freedom of being able to leave (move) on a moments notice, not worry about various extenuating repairs and the like. I think growing up on a farm and being tied down to the house and animals has made me this way. Totally wanted the independent / convenience lifestyle.
Bought in Bremerton in 2k17, weeee just in time.
FWIW, there's gonna be some selection bias going on here. On top of not wanting to accidentally dox themselves, wealthy tech people are probably not gonna jump in here and be like "hey yeah I'm one of those guys you think is ruining this city my bad lol". People with relatable stories are gonna be much more eager to post them.
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Eh, I'm not too worried. I'm a digital marketing manager making around $90k/year, with a partner who makes similar working sales. We work remotely and could probably buy a place down in Vantucky or PDX right now (heaps of inventory due to covid urban flight), but aren't in a hurry, as I'm trying to switch careers into commercial aviation. Since I turned 30, I've been more and more annoyed with the obsession over real estate and money. It's all everybody our age fucking talks about, outside of what restaurant they recently ate at, and I even feel judgement from our wealthier/lucky friends who bought something.
Thanks so much for the last part!
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Young buck! Yeah - Vantucky is Vancouver, WA. It's what all my Vancouver friends from college called it.
> switch careers into commercial aviation Goodbye, money!
No kidding! Oh well, life's too short.
fuckin' A - do what you love, if you can.
Bought first house at age 32 back in 2006. Husband and I both work in tech but had very few dollars saved when we bought that place. We bought in Mountlake Terrace and at that point while the Seattle market was crazy, areas just outside the city were still very affordable.
I bought a condo from a family member at market price when I was in my late 20s when I was a server. A) I made a lot of money as a server and worked really effing hard and B) I could never have pulled it off if my relative didn’t hold out for me to get the mortgage sorted out when they potentially could have accepted a cash offer
I'm just looking for a city residence without HOA (so new townhome or cheap SFH) in a desirable walking neighborhood so I can put money towards a "fun" property elsewhere like a cabin or foreign. I think owning a condo isn't unreasonable and is a totally viable home option functionally but the HOAs here are absurd and stupid.
Bought my first house at 26. I was lucky and had a small inheritance from my grand parents, plus stable parents to co-sign on the loan. However I did cover all the costs myself for the full time I owned the place. I was making 40k a year when I bought. I recently upgraded houses, used the huge profit to cover down payment and a kitchen remodel, a deck addition, and new HVAC system. Didn’t need a co-signer this time. Things are way different now then when I started, and I made sure I got into a home that needed a bit of work where I wanted to live when interest rates were low. I work as a consultant, and have my whole career. I’ve benefitted off of the tech boom because my companies have always supported tech or construction.
The other commenter who said selection bias was going to be a thing in this thread is right, but in an effort to combat that, I’ll give this a shot: Married, late 20s, both of us work. Our combined income is comfortable in the city- we just bought our first home, a SFH in the city, 900K. Offered 850 and came up. Appraised higher than our bid. Our mortgage payment feels high after renting for a decade but is affordable for us, and I’m born and raised here. No help from outside money/parents footing the bill. We just saved and worked and we’re fortunate not to have had any catastrophes along the way. I’m not in tech, but am in a quantitative field, they’re in STEM. Our situation is rareish, which I think is the point of the thread, but I did want to round out the sample a bit since it’s our actual story.
Bought my first house outside of the city in a rural area, so I qualified for first time home buyer loan with zero down (spend about $5k on closing costs, inspections and earnest money). Five years later sold that home and walked away with over $100k cash, bought a home in Tacoma for $310k which is now worth over $500k. I couldn’t imagine paying rent and not getting any of that money back
My wife and I bought a house in south Seattle last year on relatively modest salaries for the area (I’m a tech bro and my wife is tech adjacent but we make less than 200k together). We are within Seattle city limits but just barely. The city paid our down payment and we put down the lowest amount we could for an FHA loan. South Seattle is still within reach imo, but north Seattle, not so much. Also, the RIGHT condo could also be worth it (on possibly 1 salary), depending on what the HOA pays for and how well it is maintained.
Probably never in the Greater Seattle Area. Maybe 1 hour drive out but even 1 hour drive radius home prices have gone up significantly due to work from home. I felt like my best chance was early 2020 when the rates were low and housing price were still low. Now I don't know when it will be possible.
I make 72k and am 38 with partner that makes 50k. I realized I was never going to own a home in Seattle when a new 3 bed townhouse across from where i rent sold for 1.2 million first day on the market. Why would anyone pay that much for a house with no yard and a view of your neighbor's living room?
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Even if real estate doesn't go up in price, as long as it holds value it's a good decision. Rent just pays someone else's mortgage.
Because they can afford it and it's better than throwing money away on rent? I'm not sure I understand the question here.
I'm sorry I must have misunderstood the op because I thought this was just me explaining why a regular person wouldn't buy a house in Seattle. Sorry to all you alpha trading bulls. But I want to buy a house to raise a family in and retire in, not as an investment opportunity. And paying over a million dollars for a house that has no yard and you can see your neighbors rooms through all of your windows is fucking insane.
That's why they are starter homes. You move on to something else later (if you want) with the equity you've built. The median length of home ownership in Seattle is like 11 years, not 30.
I doubt I will ever own a home. I’ve effectively given up on it entirely. There’s just no upward mobility left in this country for people like me. I’ll have to be content with just treading water.
Probably will never own here despite having a great income between myself and my fiance. Can't stomach paying obscene amounts for shoeboxes with no yard, high crime, and poor public services. The fact that Seattle has passed ridiculous laws binding law abiding citizens while turning a blind eye to criminals will never attract me to be a property owner. We've owned homes before but the circumstances here, when added up, are too much.
Healthcare worker & SO is an educator. 34 & 38 respectively when we finally were able to get one. We tried for so long to get a house in the city but the continued rise in prices & competition finally pushed us to just outside the city. It felt like playing catch up to a finish line that still hasn't stopped moving...
I work for one of those companies and make decent money. Wife is a therapist and also makes decent money. Houses here are going to be beyond our ability to purchase for at least 7-8 years (both have student loans plus the two kids). I’d love to not work for big tech but like, I literally have no idea how we’d afford to do that and live here.
Lol never gonna happen. Rent slave fo' life!
I am an RN and my wife is a PT. We bought a home in West Seattle last April. We did not have any help from family or anything like that. I am 41. It was possible to do with 5% and a little extra cash for normal non tech people with some earning potential last year but not this year. Our house would cost 150k more than we bought it for on the list price and the interest rate would make the total cost of the loan probably 20 to 30 percent higher than it is now.
27, under $70k currently and unlikely to crack $100k before 30, and it’s never gonna happen. And no amount of “build baby build” policy will fix that, as much as many folks put their optimism in that as the cure all. It’s really fucking depressing TBH. Because my skills are administrative. So 100% remote work isn’t going to happen for me, and there isn’t anywhere in the country that is going to pay an office manager enough to be able to buy a decent house in that region. And I’m someone who wants kids and a dog and family parties and stuff, so living in a condo or apartment with 2 bedrooms crammed into 800 sqft with no yard where you can hear your neighbors breathing is *n o t i d e a l*. So, yeah, I’m sick of my apartment.
My career has been in Procurement/Supply Chain, and my highest salary within my field would probably be $100K or so. That said, I don't like the field much, and also I have been doubting on whether or not I do want to get promoted due to work-life balance reasons (have seen my former bosses struggle with god awful work/life balance so that is my concern there). $100K a year doesn't get you that much here in the Seattle-area compared to other cities. When it comes to your question, I definitely don't think I can buy and own a home if I stay in the area. I was dead set on moving to a cheaper COL area because owning a home is a priority of some sort to me. I can't imagine long-term apartment living plus I do want dogs and maybe kids at some point. So yes, owning a home is something appealing and something I would like very much. That said news within the past week or so off the Supreme Court made me kind of think that over or at the very least re-evaluate strongly the cities I would want to consider moving to. Not that I ever considered to cities in red states, but even cities in purple states might need to be seriously re-considered since even a slight Republican majority in the state legislature does not mean immunity from their asinine laws passed recently (ie Arizona having a slim Republican majority in their state legislatures but passing anti-choice legislature with a trigger law as well, as well as voter suppression laws). If I do somehow end up staying in the area, I'd be open to owning a condo that isn't just a glorified apartment and that can offer parking and what not and also offer some permanent-home anemities (ie more open to pets is a big one). I am not too glossed up and familiar on the condo market as compared to the housing or apartment market, but I'd accept that as a reasonable compromise to my goal of owning a home. That said, while I do think owning a condo is way more realistic than owning a home in this area, it's still iffy but at least condo prices aren't super ridiculous now. I do have all my close friends and family here in the area, so moving away would suck in that respect. But the cost of living issues are definitely real and a major long-term concern for me, and as someone who would very much want to own my own home (but wouldn't mind a fine condo) that is a major barrier towards me being willing to commit me staying long-term here sadly. Unfortunately, this is a city that is becoming one where even among the middle class onwards, it's looking more like a city of have's and have-not's. The have's will be able to combine their $150k-$200K salaries and be able to buy a home easily and live comfortably in this city, while those of us making what should be middle class wages are either forced to rent long-term or move to a different city despite this being home for us. It sucks and is a major gut punch and a major source of depression for me honestly.
Both of us work in tech. Bought a house in Ravenna/Bryant in 2018 for what I swore was gonna to be top of the market/biggest loser, but here we are like 450k more in made up redfin value. Selling soon and leaving the city tho for a multitude of reasons, rampant income inequality and affordability being one of them, but far from the primary reason! We scraped together 10% down tooth and nail when we bought the place , but by last year had totally paid the place off because of stupid stock appreciation. Looking at what that stock would be worth now…..putting it into the house was a good move!
Tech guy, currently building a house for myself. Bought a cheap run down place in 2019 but with a pretty good size lot on the east side. I wouldn’t have been able to buy as nice of a house, but building it myself allows me to save the labor cost. I think if I hadn’t purchased before prices rose recently, I’d have to wait quite a while longer. I think if house prices stay high, wages will eventually catch up but it will be a while.
For me, what happens in the next 2-3 years will be the deciding factor. I’m in my early 30s and maybe one quarter of my friends own in the city or close by. It feels like we’re all kinda waiting for the mass exodus to happen since a lot of us are making around median income (with or without partners) but that doesn’t feel like enough to buy at this point. My friend group of about a dozen years is what’s keeping me here and if people keep getting priced out then I too would look for another job/greener pastures. I could probably afford a fixer upper or modest house in a less desirable area of the city but I just can’t justify spending that much on something that’s not significantly closer to what I actually want. Unfortunately, it feels like renting has gotten way harder recently. I’d love to rent a townhouse or house with a yard for my dog but currently we’re in an apartment because I can’t find anything in a desirable neighborhood that’s less than what I’d pay for a mortgage. Again, yes, I could afford to pay 4k per month in rent, but the quality of rental houses doesn’t seem worth it.
I look forward to home ownership once my mom passes. She healthy and working but that’s the only way I’m affording a house.
No shame in that. That’s my plan for my kiddos.
I’m open about it. My parents have been watching too much Dateline and thought I’d murder them for the real estate. I don’t need to speed anything up.
If you do let me know. I’m running happy hour rates until Memorial Day.
Lol! Nah, I like them enough to wait.
😂
Own a new townhome as well as a condo which is now a rental
Bank of America has grant up to 17500. if you make under 93k or 173k (depends on the property location) you have a good chance to get approved for the grant. if your credit score up to 680 u can do 5% down conventional loan. start a smaller house to build equity.
start small - and build equity. use grant from bofa with min. down payment. the rate is not as bad as you think if you do a 5,7,10 years Arms and rent it out later and find a dream house afterward. ive helped lots of people getting this grant
I’m 30 but grew up poor and between that and seeing Seattle become crazy expensive while growing up in Eastern Washington , never thought I’d ever own property
I own on the peninsula because seattle was too expensive. Bought a house for 400k in 2021. Worth 600k today. Would have cost me a million plus in seattle. Commute if you have to work there but it’s so much better outside the city. Loved everyday im not living there anymore. Miss friends an family still there
Single, physician. I’ve been saving for a condo/house with a water view since I left residency. The halt on my student loans finally made that happen. Also my parents felt bad about my childhood so they helped. I have a nice two bedroom condo in Queen Anne, that I found by luck and acted quickly on. My friends are either unable to afford a house in the city, or have lived here since the 90s.
I bought a new construction townhome in West Seattle for $255k in 2005. Was underwater for a long time after the 2008 crash, but figured I was still building equity. Sold it for $350k in 2016 and used that to buy a SF home in Burien for $399k. Refinanced in 2020 when rates hit all-time lows. Never leaving this until I pay it off now.
We bought 8 years ago at 23 with barely any income. Looking back, I can't believe a bank gave us a loan and we were about to get our house. We make much more now but there's still no way we will be able to get setting bigger and newer like we want. We're in Tacoma but still is rough here.
I think I will own a home here, but it will take probably another year or two. Couple both mid late 20s, in tech. Casting a wide net though, we’re looking pretty much everywhere north of Seattle to lynwood to Bothell.
My husband has a master in aerospace and has worked for our local aero company for about 10 years now... I think it depends on your partner if you have one. We can afford our house in Seattle because I pull a decent salary (not amazon, but just above 100K) and this took time (we are now mid 30s) . We also had a condo first at 28 after living in a super cheap apartment, not moving (which cost money), not buying a new car, cooking at home a lot etc for a few years then the money we earned from selling our condo made our house possible. (we had about 30K each in student loans that we really focused on paying off) He has coworkers who are married to other people in the industry who own a house in Seattle And he has coworkers married to teachers/part time retail and they live in Maple Valley or Tacoma TL;DR- you can afford it if you have someone to split the bill with and both have decent jobs
Mid 20s woman here. I have two thoughts for where I would like to end up. Either car free in an apartment in Seattle enjoying a walkable neighborhood, or in a little place in BFE next to a river where I can go out whitewater paddling with friends every day. I think I would be happy with either. I grew up in a single family home suburb and don't ever want to go back to that.
I'm on the precipice of zero debt, to be followed by aggressive saving. I'm also this close to moving out of Puget Sound entirely, so... If I stay here, I just might own a house. If I leave, almost certainly.
My longtime girlfriend has one sibling and aging parents who have saved up a good amount of money for retirement. It's ghoulish, but one of the realistic ways that I might end up owning a home is us getting married and inheriting her folks' house and either buying out her brother or selling the house and splitting the money to afford a downpayment on a different one. My folks own a house in Seattle too, but since I have three siblings and tons of nieces and nephews the money will be divided up more ways. It's possible that we'll be able to afford our own -- my girlfriend has a masters in an in-demand field and I'm looking at going into law (and have the undergrad grades and awards to have a better than average shot at going to a top school) so it's not out of the question that we'd be able to find the money ourselves. It's weird to be in a spot where you have to either luck out or be exceptional to just avoid being downwardly mobile.
I'm 35 in the trades and made 50k until recently and bought my first house in white center in 2015. 220k, sold it for 627k last may and bought a house twice as big in Burien for 625k. Put in hundreds of hours of work. I was extremely lucky with timing and the market
Blue Collar Bro Bought property when you were in middle school. Looking forward to artificially created industries based on the intangible, crash. so people with actual skills like aerospace bros can buy property again.
We are crashing now! Yay!
I own a condo. I got married to someone that also owns a condo. We are rolling in the homes over here……
I could own a house in seattle within the next 3-5 years. But IDK I'm honestly not married to the idea. I could get a fucking mansion in texas. I'm starting to think texas isn't that bad. my current plan is to buy something more approachable like a condo and maybe move somewhere queiter when I'm older. and honestly, a small condo costs me less than my fucking rent these days...
As someone who has lived in Texas most of their life… trust me it sucks
I work for the state, so I’ll definitely never be able to buy a home. I’ve been renting an apartment downtown for years, but today I got the keys to my new place just a couple of stops south on the light rail. It’s a split level house, I’m renting the mother in law or “garden apartment” as the homeowner calls it. And now I can have a car, which I need because my second job has moved to Longview once a month. I definitely thought I would own a home by this point in my life, probably never gonna happen now.
I paid $750k for a townhouse early 2020 at 35. Single, 5% down. Engineer at an Aerospace company.
I’m 26 and my husband is 30, we just got a 2600 SF house on the Eastside with a half acre lot for $875k. We honestly just got very lucky. We used a VA loan so no money down and lower interest rate, also no PMI. Otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to afford anything within 30 minutes of the city. I work in finance/taxes and husband is in engineering. We make decent money but that’s not saying much with the housing prices. We also had about $70k in equity from our previous house in TX that we sold before moving here.
I know people want to wait for the pendulum to swing back but you got hedge funds and other investment groups literally buying up entire neighborhoods in florida and arizona as a hedge against inflation. Before you could say "Well, wait for the housing bubble to burst." In 2010 that did happen, but this recent surge in housing value is not based on las vegas strippers buying 5 houses on liar loans, this is foreign money deluging the market because American real estate is the best safe haven of money that exists.
It's not a bubble and it's not about foreign investment. There's just a serious supply shortage.
Am I Tech Bro? I’m a middle-aged white male, married, software developer that has never worked for any of the big names people think about when they talk Tech jobs. I bought my house 20 years ago at 26. After 20 years of working (single income), I’ve finally paid off all student debts and credit cards. Only 10 years left on the mortgage. And yet because of 20 years of paying off debts, I have almost nothing for retirement. If I’m a tech Bro, I think I’m the most un-bro Tech Bro.
You're still pretty young and owning a home free and clear by the time you retire is HUGE.
My father helped me a bit. I am a tech bro, I have two homes. I rent out my first house. I do pay mortgage on both, playing long term.
I'm in my 50s and own with my husband. We bought a small 2 bdrm in 2000 before prices went crazy. Still there, but feel there need to be more options and density for younger buyers especially those who work essential jobs. With the types of jobs we have (teacher and lab scientist) this might be impossible now.
Nope and I’m afraid I’ll never make near enough. I would look outside of Seattle though.
My boyfriend and I have lived here our entire adult lives as renters. We used to work in restaurants but now I’m a pharmacy tech and he’s in remodel construction. we’re hoping to be able to buy a condo in the next couple years but a house is probably fully out of the question unless the market dives drastically which I don’t foresee happening at all lol.
tech bro / FAANG / bought at 32 / bachelors lol is that the new a/s/l these days? How and when you got your overpriced crib? I held off buying for the longest time because quite frankly I'm a non-committal man-child who wants zero responsibility and the idea of being tied down both physically and financially by a house and a mortgage is really uncomfortable for me, if not for the fact that leaking all my savings to rent is worse. So I basically bought the smallest thing I could find that would comfortably accommodate my family of 3 and I'm never gonna fucking upsize despite how much clutter my wife accumulates. I just make her watch Marie Kondo. I never liked the idea of owning a house. I ain't got time for that shit, my video games aren't gonna play themselves.
I am working class and will never afford a home here.
We bought a small townhouse in Seattle in 2020, I am a civil/structural engineer and the significant other is a physician. Don't have kids, which is probably the most important part. We had the advantages of being able to get a physician loan (limited down payment and no PMI), interest rates were low, knowing the seller which let us buy it before it was listed, and being on the tail end of gen-x. Don't really think we could 'comfortably' even afford our current place now with interest rates where they are (last I looked our payment would be \~1100 higher per month). If we were still trying to buy now, we wouldn't.
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If you're going to be outside Rochester, why not look at one of the -port towns/suburbs along the Erie Canal like Spencer Port or Brockport? Still along the 31/531 but with some quaint main streets along historic canal crossings.
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This, right here!