Is home ownership out of reach for people under 30?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bought my house as a single female, 29 years old, making $110k, no family money, in March 2020 for $300k. I had a 3% down payment that was leftover from using my annual bonus to pay off my car. My great motivation was 3 other friends that were also single females around 29/30 were doing the same thing.

I think it will be harder for those in the younger generation because of their own doing - I’ve had to hire a few recent grads in the past year and they have no work ethic and expect the company to cater to them (requests for alternative schedules because they “just can’t get up before 9am” or needing to be off by 3:30 to make it to a yoga class). The lack of willingness to perform means less bonuses, raises and promotions from me, and therefore less opportunity to save a down payment.

You know what they say. You can either pay in money or in flexibility. It sounds like your employees don’t get paid as well in money, so something’s gotta give.

[Anonymous]

We both had very good jobs and saved like crazy for five years and bought our first home at 28 or 29. But we didn’t spend money on cell phones, streaming, Starbucks, Door Dash or anything else because that stuff didn’t exist. We did put only 10% down which helped. We sold it three years later for a nice profit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m 35. We first bought at 25 in a townhouse. Best decision we made that set us up for success.

If we had bought at 25 we would have been buying a condo in PG county in 2005, peak of housing bubble. We would still be underwater.

As long as you can afford to buy a long term house (ie townhouse, SFH, something few simple with good schools and safe neighborhood), do it as early as you can, so that if values do decline you are still happy where you are.

I assume you had no student debt or have Big Jobs? A townhouse 10 years ago in DMV were still $750k, which is $150k in after tax cash savings and a $3k monthly payment. Hardly 3rd year Fed employee range of options.

So many people who comment about PG County without knowing about PG County. I have live in PG county for over 30 years and have owned 3 properties in PG county since 1995. The house we bought in 2006 was underwater from 2011 until 2018 and is now about 20% over our purchase value. Not great but considering that we now own about 70% of the property, and we have loved living here (we got a significantly bigger, newer and nicer home in PG County than we would have gotten in nearby counties and have enjoyed that for 18 years).

I know people who own and have owned condos in northern PG county and likewise, they were underwater for much of the 2010s, but I don't know anyone whose property has not risen to above their purchase price. And the money that they have paid has gone towards equity in their mortgage and many are mostly paid off. Only those people who had to sell in the 2010-2018 range had problems with being underwater on their homes. But those who could afford to wait it out have not gotten back to profitability in house value and now own a significant portion of their home so that they'll get money back at sale. They are much better off than those who rented the entire time.

[Anonymous]

In close in major metros, yes. Everywhere else, no. Just takes time and diligence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We both had very good jobs and saved like crazy for five years and bought our first home at 28 or 29. But we didn’t spend money on cell phones, streaming, Starbucks, Door Dash or anything else because that stuff didn’t exist. We did put only 10% down which helped. We sold it three years later for a nice profit.

FFS not another avocado toast screed.

I will say, not having a cell phone seems foolhardy. Was this 20 years ago?