How does someone buy a 2M+ house in their 20’s just a few years out of grad school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate how everyone assumes this is family help. My dh and I both graduated w/ zero debt and took high paying jobs right out of school where we had crazy hours so spent barely any money and stashed everything away. We also had each saved a lot from our jobs before senior year and working senior year. Add to that our sign on bonuses, which we both invested. I bought a coop my first year out of undergrad and had a great turn on it. Sold it 3 years later and combined that profit with what each of us had saved up. We used that for the down payment on a $2.2M house and my half of the monthly expenses were not any higher than what my monthly carrying cost for my 2 bedroom coop had been. The new property was a DC row house w/ a legal basement apartment that we rented out for I think $2200.
It annoyed me to no end when I’d hear people say must be nice to have generous parents or whatever. This was all on us while the bitter friends were going on endless instagram worthy trips right out of college. Yes our hours sucked for the first 5/6 years but we knew they would get better so we just kept our heads down and sticking money away. We were definitely lucky with both the stock market and real estate market timing, too.

Great, it's still family money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate how everyone assumes this is family help. My dh and I both graduated w/ zero debt and took high paying jobs right out of school where we had crazy hours so spent barely any money and stashed everything away. We also had each saved a lot from our jobs before senior year and working senior year. Add to that our sign on bonuses, which we both invested. I bought a coop my first year out of undergrad and had a great turn on it. Sold it 3 years later and combined that profit with what each of us had saved up. We used that for the down payment on a $2.2M house and my half of the monthly expenses were not any higher than what my monthly carrying cost for my 2 bedroom coop had been. The new property was a DC row house w/ a legal basement apartment that we rented out for I think $2200.
It annoyed me to no end when I’d hear people say must be nice to have generous parents or whatever. This was all on us while the bitter friends were going on endless instagram worthy trips right out of college. Yes our hours sucked for the first 5/6 years but we knew they would get better so we just kept our heads down and sticking money away. We were definitely lucky with both the stock market and real estate market timing, too.

Great, it's still family money.

DP. How is that “family money”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate how everyone assumes this is family help. My dh and I both graduated w/ zero debt and took high paying jobs right out of school where we had crazy hours so spent barely any money and stashed everything away. We also had each saved a lot from our jobs before senior year and working senior year. Add to that our sign on bonuses, which we both invested. I bought a coop my first year out of undergrad and had a great turn on it. Sold it 3 years later and combined that profit with what each of us had saved up. We used that for the down payment on a $2.2M house and my half of the monthly expenses were not any higher than what my monthly carrying cost for my 2 bedroom coop had been. The new property was a DC row house w/ a legal basement apartment that we rented out for I think $2200.
It annoyed me to no end when I’d hear people say must be nice to have generous parents or whatever. This was all on us while the bitter friends were going on endless instagram worthy trips right out of college. Yes our hours sucked for the first 5/6 years but we knew they would get better so we just kept our heads down and sticking money away. We were definitely lucky with both the stock market and real estate market timing, too.

What year did you graduate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate how everyone assumes this is family help. My dh and I both graduated w/ zero debt and took high paying jobs right out of school where we had crazy hours so spent barely any money and stashed everything away. We also had each saved a lot from our jobs before senior year and working senior year. Add to that our sign on bonuses, which we both invested. I bought a coop my first year out of undergrad and had a great turn on it. Sold it 3 years later and combined that profit with what each of us had saved up. We used that for the down payment on a $2.2M house and my half of the monthly expenses were not any higher than what my monthly carrying cost for my 2 bedroom coop had been. The new property was a DC row house w/ a legal basement apartment that we rented out for I think $2200.
It annoyed me to no end when I’d hear people say must be nice to have generous parents or whatever. This was all on us while the bitter friends were going on endless instagram worthy trips right out of college. Yes our hours sucked for the first 5/6 years but we knew they would get better so we just kept our heads down and sticking money away. We were definitely lucky with both the stock market and real estate market timing, too.

Well simply because the majority of time, it cannot be done without some outside financial help. very few people/couples have a HHI that they can save $400-500K downpayment and qualify for a $1.6M house loan at age 30. It would require all schooling paid for (no loans) and extreme dedication and high salaries from age 25+ that are mostly saved and invested.

I agree it can be done. By age 26, we had paid off $85K in student loans, saved $30K for a house. By age 30 we had another $200K saved (this was 30+ years ago, so equivalent to $500K now). But we were diligent, willing to live like grad students for an extra 2-3 years and both had good paying jobs.
Very few people have all that line up

You absolutely don’t need a 20% down payment. Most people don’t. Doctors and lawyers can get no or low PMI loans with 5-10% down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate how everyone assumes this is family help. My dh and I both graduated w/ zero debt and took high paying jobs right out of school where we had crazy hours so spent barely any money and stashed everything away. We also had each saved a lot from our jobs before senior year and working senior year. Add to that our sign on bonuses, which we both invested. I bought a coop my first year out of undergrad and had a great turn on it. Sold it 3 years later and combined that profit with what each of us had saved up. We used that for the down payment on a $2.2M house and my half of the monthly expenses were not any higher than what my monthly carrying cost for my 2 bedroom coop had been. The new property was a DC row house w/ a legal basement apartment that we rented out for I think $2200.
It annoyed me to no end when I’d hear people say must be nice to have generous parents or whatever. This was all on us while the bitter friends were going on endless instagram worthy trips right out of college. Yes our hours sucked for the first 5/6 years but we knew they would get better so we just kept our heads down and sticking money away. We were definitely lucky with both the stock market and real estate market timing, too.

Great, it's still family money.

DP. How is that “family money”?

DP. They had no student loan debt. They clearly had sufficient equity straight out of school to make a down payment and probably had fortuitous timing in the market. No one is buying a $2 million home much less a $700-$800k row house straight of out school without some help, even if it’s the bank of mom and dad paying for tuition and housing while in school. And frankly, who cares? They’re an extreme exception. Their smug and self satisfied take that this is somehow easy and available if others were just better with money is what I take issue with. It’s not. Not by a long shot.

[Anonymous]

I always wonder if a parent paid a big down payment or bankrolled the entire house, does the couple have a pre-nup or is the house in the parent’s name. Otherwise, if the marriage doesn’t make it, the spouse (without the money) would own 50% of the home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate how everyone assumes this is family help. My dh and I both graduated w/ zero debt and took high paying jobs right out of school where we had crazy hours so spent barely any money and stashed everything away. We also had each saved a lot from our jobs before senior year and working senior year. Add to that our sign on bonuses, which we both invested. I bought a coop my first year out of undergrad and had a great turn on it. Sold it 3 years later and combined that profit with what each of us had saved up. We used that for the down payment on a $2.2M house and my half of the monthly expenses were not any higher than what my monthly carrying cost for my 2 bedroom coop had been. The new property was a DC row house w/ a legal basement apartment that we rented out for I think $2200.
It annoyed me to no end when I’d hear people say must be nice to have generous parents or whatever. This was all on us while the bitter friends were going on endless instagram worthy trips right out of college. Yes our hours sucked for the first 5/6 years but we knew they would get better so we just kept our heads down and sticking money away. We were definitely lucky with both the stock market and real estate market timing, too.

Great, it's still family money.

DP. How is that “family money”?

I was responding more to the OP than this poster, but I bet they still had family money as well to take on such risks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate how everyone assumes this is family help. My dh and I both graduated w/ zero debt and took high paying jobs right out of school where we had crazy hours so spent barely any money and stashed everything away. We also had each saved a lot from our jobs before senior year and working senior year. Add to that our sign on bonuses, which we both invested. I bought a coop my first year out of undergrad and had a great turn on it. Sold it 3 years later and combined that profit with what each of us had saved up. We used that for the down payment on a $2.2M house and my half of the monthly expenses were not any higher than what my monthly carrying cost for my 2 bedroom coop had been. The new property was a DC row house w/ a legal basement apartment that we rented out for I think $2200.
It annoyed me to no end when I’d hear people say must be nice to have generous parents or whatever. This was all on us while the bitter friends were going on endless instagram worthy trips right out of college. Yes our hours sucked for the first 5/6 years but we knew they would get better so we just kept our heads down and sticking money away. We were definitely lucky with both the stock market and real estate market timing, too.

Great, it's still family money.

DP. How is that “family money”?

t

It’s not explicitly family money, but in this day and age, graduating with no college debt is a form of advantage if you have parents who can fully cover it.

Then again, graduating with no debt is also not value neutral: some people choose cheaper colleges deliberately to be frugal, some people have merit scholarships, but also! some people win those merit scholarships *because* they had other advantages…honestly the whole system kinda falls apart when you scrutinize it and try to bean-count.

I was in a PhD program where we all received fixed stipends, yet people had wildly different advantages: some had parents sending them rent money, some had partners bankrolling them…it made me crazy but all of these things are some combo of both choices AND privileges

But I think we can all agree housing prices in this area are out of control lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate how everyone assumes this is family help. My dh and I both graduated w/ zero debt and took high paying jobs right out of school where we had crazy hours so spent barely any money and stashed everything away. We also had each saved a lot from our jobs before senior year and working senior year. Add to that our sign on bonuses, which we both invested. I bought a coop my first year out of undergrad and had a great turn on it. Sold it 3 years later and combined that profit with what each of us had saved up. We used that for the down payment on a $2.2M house and my half of the monthly expenses were not any higher than what my monthly carrying cost for my 2 bedroom coop had been. The new property was a DC row house w/ a legal basement apartment that we rented out for I think $2200.
It annoyed me to no end when I’d hear people say must be nice to have generous parents or whatever. This was all on us while the bitter friends were going on endless instagram worthy trips right out of college. Yes our hours sucked for the first 5/6 years but we knew they would get better so we just kept our heads down and sticking money away. We were definitely lucky with both the stock market and real estate market timing, too.

Great, it's still family money.

DP. How is that “family money”?

t

It’s not explicitly family money, but in this day and age, graduating with no college debt is a form of advantage if you have parents who can fully cover it.

Then again, graduating with no debt is also not value neutral: some people choose cheaper colleges deliberately to be frugal, some people have merit scholarships, but also! some people win those merit scholarships *because* they had other advantages…honestly the whole system kinda falls apart when you scrutinize it and try to bean-count.

I was in a PhD program where we all received fixed stipends, yet people had wildly different advantages: some had parents sending them rent money, some had partners bankrolling them…it made me crazy but all of these things are some combo of both choices AND privileges

But I think we can all agree housing prices in this area are out of control lol

You’re 100% right and people just like to pretend they didn’t have help. If I had graduated from undergrad and law school with no student loans I would have been able to buy a home much faster.

[Anonymous]

I love the shifting goalposts to attribute everything to "family money." Got it. Yeah, it's a neat explanation that obviously makes you happy. End of the day, some people have more luck/discipline/focus than others and that's all there is to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate how everyone assumes this is family help. My dh and I both graduated w/ zero debt and took high paying jobs right out of school where we had crazy hours so spent barely any money and stashed everything away. We also had each saved a lot from our jobs before senior year and working senior year. Add to that our sign on bonuses, which we both invested. I bought a coop my first year out of undergrad and had a great turn on it. Sold it 3 years later and combined that profit with what each of us had saved up. We used that for the down payment on a $2.2M house and my half of the monthly expenses were not any higher than what my monthly carrying cost for my 2 bedroom coop had been. The new property was a DC row house w/ a legal basement apartment that we rented out for I think $2200.
It annoyed me to no end when I’d hear people say must be nice to have generous parents or whatever. This was all on us while the bitter friends were going on endless instagram worthy trips right out of college. Yes our hours sucked for the first 5/6 years but we knew they would get better so we just kept our heads down and sticking money away. We were definitely lucky with both the stock market and real estate market timing, too.

Great, it's still family money.

DP. How is that “family money”?

DP. They had no student loan debt. They clearly had sufficient equity straight out of school to make a down payment and probably had fortuitous timing in the market. No one is buying a $2 million home much less a $700-$800k row house straight of out school without some help, even if it’s the bank of mom and dad paying for tuition and housing while in school. And frankly, who cares? They’re an extreme exception. Their smug and self satisfied take that this is somehow easy and available if others were just better with money is what I take issue with. It’s not. Not by a long shot.

Both of my children went to great universities on full scholarships and graduated with no debts, so it is not always family money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate how everyone assumes this is family help. My dh and I both graduated w/ zero debt and took high paying jobs right out of school where we had crazy hours so spent barely any money and stashed everything away. We also had each saved a lot from our jobs before senior year and working senior year. Add to that our sign on bonuses, which we both invested. I bought a coop my first year out of undergrad and had a great turn on it. Sold it 3 years later and combined that profit with what each of us had saved up. We used that for the down payment on a $2.2M house and my half of the monthly expenses were not any higher than what my monthly carrying cost for my 2 bedroom coop had been. The new property was a DC row house w/ a legal basement apartment that we rented out for I think $2200.
It annoyed me to no end when I’d hear people say must be nice to have generous parents or whatever. This was all on us while the bitter friends were going on endless instagram worthy trips right out of college. Yes our hours sucked for the first 5/6 years but we knew they would get better so we just kept our heads down and sticking money away. We were definitely lucky with both the stock market and real estate market timing, too.

Great, it's still family money.

DP. How is that “family money”?

DP. They had no student loan debt. They clearly had sufficient equity straight out of school to make a down payment and probably had fortuitous timing in the market. No one is buying a $2 million home much less a $700-$800k row house straight of out school without some help, even if it’s the bank of mom and dad paying for tuition and housing while in school. And frankly, who cares? They’re an extreme exception. Their smug and self satisfied take that this is somehow easy and available if others were just better with money is what I take issue with. It’s not. Not by a long shot.

DP. I got a full merit scholarship and my spouse joined the military to pay for school. Tell me how that’s family money?

I don’t think my results are replicable. But it’s insulting to call our sacrifices and achievements privilege from family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate how everyone assumes this is family help. My dh and I both graduated w/ zero debt and took high paying jobs right out of school where we had crazy hours so spent barely any money and stashed everything away. We also had each saved a lot from our jobs before senior year and working senior year. Add to that our sign on bonuses, which we both invested. I bought a coop my first year out of undergrad and had a great turn on it. Sold it 3 years later and combined that profit with what each of us had saved up. We used that for the down payment on a $2.2M house and my half of the monthly expenses were not any higher than what my monthly carrying cost for my 2 bedroom coop had been. The new property was a DC row house w/ a legal basement apartment that we rented out for I think $2200.
It annoyed me to no end when I’d hear people say must be nice to have generous parents or whatever. This was all on us while the bitter friends were going on endless instagram worthy trips right out of college. Yes our hours sucked for the first 5/6 years but we knew they would get better so we just kept our heads down and sticking money away. We were definitely lucky with both the stock market and real estate market timing, too.

Great, it's still family money.

DP. How is that “family money”?

t

It’s not explicitly family money, but in this day and age, graduating with no college debt is a form of advantage if you have parents who can fully cover it.

Then again, graduating with no debt is also not value neutral: some people choose cheaper colleges deliberately to be frugal, some people have merit scholarships, but also! some people win those merit scholarships *because* they had other advantages…honestly the whole system kinda falls apart when you scrutinize it and try to bean-count.

I was in a PhD program where we all received fixed stipends, yet people had wildly different advantages: some had parents sending them rent money, some had partners bankrolling them…it made me crazy but all of these things are some combo of both choices AND privileges

But I think we can all agree housing prices in this area are out of control lol

Of course prices are out of control. But joining the military to pay for school isn’t family money or “privilege.” Except I guess the privilege of being physically healthy enough to join.

[Anonymous]

DH and I bought places separately at age 25/26 in Clarendon. Together they made a profit tax free of over $400k. We bought a new house together when we got married at 30/31, and had been aggressively saving a lot from our $700k HHI. No inheritance or parents paying for a downpayment like everyone thought I'm sure. I don't know why it's so hard for people to believe that some people actually make their own money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t be jealous. Just imagine how beholden you’d be to your in-laws for such economic subsidy.

They’d have a key and let themselves I.

I'd happily give them a key if they paid for a 2M house for me, and I were mortgage free.