Remember how people used to have a bachelor pad, then an apartment together, then a starter home....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then finally after having children they would purchase their main 2-3 bedroom home.

Is this even possible anymore with the rents as high they are along with the high prices of purchasing real estate?

Are couples better off living at home with their parents, saving up their money, bypassing previous generation's housing stages to dive right in to their main 2-3 bedroom home right after getting married?

This mostly happened on tv.

Not really.

This was quite common before the year 2000.

Blame leverage and tons of people who see their home as a piggy bank. With Wall Street and hedge funds now buying SFHs to rent out, we are officially entering the age of Generation F#cked.

[Anonymous]

It's next to impossible to save for a down payment while paying for childcare. Buy the house before kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Then finally after having children they would purchase their main 2-3 bedroom home.

Is this even possible anymore with the rents as high they are along with the high prices of purchasing real estate?

Are couples better off living at home with their parents, saving up their money, bypassing previous generation's housing stages to dive right in to their main 2-3 bedroom home right after getting married?

I did this as a single female. Bought my own condo - appreciation is amazing thing. Now I've got two properties. When I'm ready to buy my main home with my DH (he has his own property) well...we're all set.

[Anonymous]

In Manhattan many years ago had a cheap rent stabilized 200 square foot bachelor pad.

My neighbor who was paying around 500 bucks rent in 1997got married then got a dog and then had a baby. It was insanity and it was crazy I could hear it through Wall. 200 square feet ok one person but even two gets crazy. He bought a house in Nj left 2008.

[Anonymous]

i met some chinese couples when i worked in tysons, they all bought their first and forever $1M+ home with help from both families in mclean/vienna/potomac

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i met some chinese couples when i worked in tysons, they all bought their first and forever $1M+ home with help from both families in mclean/vienna/potomac

Those couples will have two sets of grandparents living with them for 20+ years. They will definitely "earn" that downpayment help.

[Anonymous]

I has a two bedroom condo in Logan Circle for 15 years before we bought out house. I bought it for 300K. It was basically paid off when we decided to sell and move to the suburbs when our oldest started K. I was a single guy when I bought the unit, right out of law school. My wife moved in seven years ago when we got engaged. We had two kids in that unit. It was cramped, for sure, but we made it work. We sold it for 750K last spring.

That's how we were able to afford to live in North Arlington while being dual feds.

[Anonymous]

I like to keep a mental inventory of friends who buy vs. continue renting. Of my law school class of 2013, I know exactly one classmate who bought in the D.C. area. The rest of us, probably 9 or so, rent. Classmates in smaller cities all own something. Not a single renter. That's saying something. Back in DC we're all in biglaw until we pay off our loans and most of us plan on decamping for a smaller city. The D.C. calculus is no longer viable or worth it to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I has a two bedroom condo in Logan Circle for 15 years before we bought out house. I bought it for 300K. It was basically paid off when we decided to sell and move to the suburbs when our oldest started K. I was a single guy when I bought the unit, right out of law school. My wife moved in seven years ago when we got engaged. We had two kids in that unit. It was cramped, for sure, but we made it work. We sold it for 750K last spring.

That's how we were able to afford to live in North Arlington while being dual feds.

The real question is whether your 750k condo will be worth 1.4 in another 15 years. I have serious doubts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then finally after having children they would purchase their main 2-3 bedroom home.

Is this even possible anymore with the rents as high they are along with the high prices of purchasing real estate?

Are couples better off living at home with their parents, saving up their money, bypassing previous generation's housing stages to dive right in to their main 2-3 bedroom home right after getting married?

This mostly happened on tv.

Not really.

This was quite common before the year 2000.

For whom?
I was raised middle class, my spouse working class. We are in our 40's. I lived in college dorms, then rented with roommates after college. He moved rented with roommates after high school. When we got married, I moved in with him and his roommates and we saved everything for a house.

My parents were raised working class. They are in their 70's. They both lived at home during college. They got a small apartment during grad school. After grad school, my dad went to Vietnam and my mom moved in with her parents. When my dad finished his service obligation, they got another small apartment. It was years of saving before they could afford a home.

My DH's parents were raised poor/working class. They are in their 60's. His mom lived at home until she married which was shortly after high school. She and her husband got a small apartment. After they got a divorce, she moved back in with her parents and he moved back in with his.

The closest anyone I know had to a bachelor pad was living off-campus with friends, or other group housing after college or high school. Most people I know who own homes are in the home they purchased originally, unless they had to move for work.

There may be a particular culture that lives as you describe, but in my experience it's more "live in chaotic group housing during college / after high school, when you find a partner decide if you're going to live in their group housing or your group housing and try to find some place cheap enough where you can maybe have your own apartment, stay in an apartment until you save up enough for a downpayment for a house, die there."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my experience people are just buying their dream homes right out of the gate. No renting, no fixer upper.

The transaction costs are way too high. With a "starter" SFH in a good school district starting at $700K in the DC area, no way in hell I'm interested in paying nearly $100K in fees simply to trade-up. (In DC: $20K closing cost to buy, $50K in realtor fees to sell, another $15K in sellers' transfer tax, plus $20K closing costs to buy my "forever home").

-Millennial Married Renters in our mid-30s about to Buy Our First & Forever Home

That's why most people's first home is in Frederick or Manassas.

[Anonymous]

My DH and I did it that way. Though our starter home could very likely be our forever home as it meets our needs just fine. Not 100% perfect, but very good. We are priced out of the next step up and I don't really see that changing drastically. Since things keep getting more expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I has a two bedroom condo in Logan Circle for 15 years before we bought out house. I bought it for 300K. It was basically paid off when we decided to sell and move to the suburbs when our oldest started K. I was a single guy when I bought the unit, right out of law school. My wife moved in seven years ago when we got engaged. We had two kids in that unit. It was cramped, for sure, but we made it work. We sold it for 750K last spring.

That's how we were able to afford to live in North Arlington while being dual feds.

The real question is whether your 750k condo will be worth 1.4 in another 15 years. I have serious doubts.

I'll never know and don't care. We are staying put until we retire. And we have a fairly small mortgage and a pretty rad house in a nice school district. So, I'm happy with how things turned out. I never planned on making money on my condo. I just needed a place to live and the tax benefits made sense.

[Anonymous]

No one in the millennial generation will admit they are poor. It's the whole participation trophy thing. There are plenty of people who can afford to buy houses. Look around, they are selling everyday. If you can't afford to buy, it's because you don't make enough money, not that the entire system is flawed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one in the millennial generation will admit they are poor. It's the whole participation trophy thing. There are plenty of people who can afford to buy houses. Look around, they are selling everyday. If you can't afford to buy, it's because you don't make enough money, not that the entire system is flawed.

Way to speak in broad generalizations.