How do people afford...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I could be this, minus the cars. When I was single, 25, and making probably $70k I inherited $100k which I put towards a down payment on a $400k condo with a very low mortgage rate. I sold it 8 years later for more than $1m. That was pure dumb luck. But it allowed me to put $1m down on a $1.5m condo, where I now live with my family. Our HHI is $300k but we're living within our means.

If your condo appreciated 150% in 8 years, I would agree that was pure dumb luck. Probably less likely than winning $600k on a Powerball ticket.

We bought a condo for $500k 8 years ago and could maybe sell it for $650k now. Maybe, with interest rates high, it's hurt the condo resale market because so many condo buyers are first-time buyers with no equity coming in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I get all the responses above, but the folks I am seeing are in the 'burbs and exurbs (Herndon, Chantilly, Ashburn, etc.) and they are mostly freshly immigrant population. Most of them work for software shops in the area. I don't think it is generational money. Still scratching my head to understand this.

Still family money in the form of loans from extended relatives overseas.

[Anonymous]

They make more money than you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 tech people might be clearing 600K per year.

According to the BLS, the median income of a software engineer in the US is $120K. Sure, if you both work for FAANG, then $600K is doable for two people, but those jobs represent a tiny fraction of all tech jobs and are by no means the norm in tech.

Let’s debunk the notion that there are all of these jobs with super high salaries and with benefits like WFH, etc. Sure, some exist but they’re few and far between.

I'm in a DC group that did an anonymous salary survey. The only individuals making over 200K were doctors, lawyers, business owners and tech.

[Anonymous]

$1m is actually on the low side of housing nowadays. If you want to live in a good school district, it will cost you much more than $2m.

[Anonymous]

*meant to say more than $1m.

[Anonymous]

We are able to live in our 1 million plus home because our first home - a condo - appreciated so much in 5 years - that extra $250,000 allowed us to buy our home without changing our living expenses too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You assume they are starting from $0. They probably had a previous house that they sold and made money on.

We put $600k down when buying our house.

+1 we bought a house in Shaw in 2004. We rolled that money into our new house. It is worth $1.5M but our mortgage is only about $4300 (including property tax escrow).

[Anonymous]

We have a high family income $250K and built up equity in our condo that we owned for 10 years - between that and our savings, we were able to put down $400K on our million dollar home. That said, we bought over the summer when interest rates were lower than they are now. If we were looking now, we'd probably be looking more in the $850 - $900K range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You assume they are starting from $0. They probably had a previous house that they sold and made money on.

We put $600k down when buying our house.

+1 we bought a house in Shaw in 2004. We rolled that money into our new house. It is worth $1.5M but our mortgage is only about $4300 (including property tax escrow).

This. We pay less than $5,000/ month on our $2.8M house. We put a lot down.

[Anonymous]

Family money. Everyone I know who lives in a 7 figure house under the age of 35 came from a wealthy family and only makes 1/4
- 1/2 of what they would need to support their lifestyle. Family makes up the difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seeing house prices as they are today, how do people afford the $1M+ houses/townhomes that will amount to nearly $9K-$10K/month mortgage? Plus I see them switching to newer cars every so often. These are two income software professionals in the household, and I don't understand the math. What am I missing?

Inheritance, investment, lottery or neck deep in loans.

None of the above.
Well paying jobs that go up over time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family money. Everyone I know who lives in a 7 figure house under the age of 35 came from a wealthy family and only makes 1/4
- 1/2 of what they would need to support their lifestyle. Family makes up the difference.

No one I know….
Lots of stock though from their companies that have vastly/crazily appreciated over time.

Listen you can never have this life if even one of you works for the government.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family money. Everyone I know who lives in a 7 figure house under the age of 35 came from a wealthy family and only makes 1/4
- 1/2 of what they would need to support their lifestyle. Family makes up the difference.

Bull$hit. Lots of us made our own money and did it alone. We owned two $1M+ houses at the age of 32. Absolutely no family money. We saved a ton when we were young n

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Debt.
Inheritance.
I used to puzzle over this, but now realize a lot of people in my very wealthy area have inherited wealth.
We a live modestly on our $300k HHI and feel poor!

A friend who spends like crazy on designer bags, clothes, nice cars revealed to me that she doesn’t have $6K to do some needed repairs to her house.
She has no idea how to cut back on her wasteful spending. It’s an ingrained lifestyle.

$300k is modest though for joint.
These people are each earning that w/stock. It’s the stock appreciation!!!