Is home ownership out of reach for people under 30?

[Anonymous]

WHYYYYYYY do we have this same thread over and over and over again? It's like once a week, some young millennial comes on here and complains about how s/he can't afford their dream house. Listen, most of us in our late 40s bought a starter home when we were in our 30s. We were 35 when we bought our first home and it was teeny tiny and outdated. At 45, we traded up to a much nicer single family home a little bit further away from the city.

So, no - you can't afford the $1.7Million new build at age 30, but you can afford something small that works for you now and trade up in the future.

[Anonymous]

Or you can afford anything at all if you’re like most 20 somethings in this country.

[Anonymous]

My 27 year old niece just bought her own condo in DC using an FHA loan.

[Anonymous]

A lot of military under 30 buy houses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not that hard. Step 1- buy a condo instead of renting. Step 2 work your way up to a townhouse or small sfh. I would not live where we do now if we did not buy a condo in our early 20’s. By 30 we has a house with no family money

We bought two condos as we were both single at the time. They did not appreciate much. Renting the same places for the same amount of time and investing all extra that it took to buy, should have been step our step number 1.
Only a few condos appreciate. Usually the new ones and in upcoming neighborhood. We did not even quality to buy a newer one with $110k income.
Equity building was forced income, but again, living in rental would have put us way ahead in terms of money.
We sold both places and the cash in the market tripled in under 5 years. It is still going up. I made $25k yesterday as markets were up. It is very hard now to buy a home, because it would require selling stocks while they are running up.
Some make money in real estate, some in the market.

[Anonymous]

I couldn’t afford it in my 20s. I bought at 36. The unit was old, and the neighborhood didn’t feel safe. Traded up six years later for my dream house, but we had to leave the area. What you’re experiencing right now is normal for the DMV, OP. Those older than you had to buy crappy houses and waste weekends fixing them up. They endured long commutes and dowdy, dated bathrooms. You can do it, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WHYYYYYYY do we have this same thread over and over and over again? It's like once a week, some young millennial comes on here and complains about how s/he can't afford their dream house. Listen, most of us in our late 40s bought a starter home when we were in our 30s. We were 35 when we bought our first home and it was teeny tiny and outdated. At 45, we traded up to a much nicer single family home a little bit further away from the city.

So, no - you can't afford the $1.7Million new build at age 30, but you can afford something small that works for you now and trade up in the future.

+1
The idea of a “starter home” is either skewed or nonexistent to some.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WHYYYYYYY do we have this same thread over and over and over again? It's like once a week, some young millennial comes on here and complains about how s/he can't afford their dream house. Listen, most of us in our late 40s bought a starter home when we were in our 30s. We were 35 when we bought our first home and it was teeny tiny and outdated. At 45, we traded up to a much nicer single family home a little bit further away from the city.

So, no - you can't afford the $1.7Million new build at age 30, but you can afford something small that works for you now and trade up in the future.

+1
The idea of a “starter home” is either skewed or nonexistent to some.

I’m 35 and bought my “starter home” as a single 30 year old, expecting to be here for 5 years max. Thankfully it’s a 4/2, albeit 2200sqft, so it’s now become my longer-term home (likely until kid is grown) because I cannot justify re-entering the market with the current interest rates and home prices. We’re a little snug now with 2 adults WFH and a baby, but that 2% interest and $1700 mortgage for a house 10 min from the beach is worth being a little cozy.

We’ve put about $50k in updates and maintenance in this year already since coming to terms with the idea of a starter home being out the window. Next discussion is adding a detached office in the yard rather than an addition to the house itself that could have a Murphy bed or other sleeping arrangement to double as a guest space since the house is a little cramped when family visits. I think trading up is going to slow down for a bit and more creative (cheaper) solutions are going to close the gap for a lot of families like mine.

[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.

no idea why you are incapable of hiring capable employees, I'm guessing you probably pay squat, and they know that most raises and promotions are not based on hours work but on how much their managers liked them -- and clearly you have already picked favorites, and instead of focusing on product or outcomes, its "but in seat at 9am"


$300k in Mar 2020, where is that, South Carolina? anyways, that was a great time to buy as the world freaked out and then basically housing doubled and rates exploded. its like the boomers who bought in the 90s saying "its easy to buy" or saying their "long commute" was from Falls Church.

[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?