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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Right but you aren’t buying a house first year out of undergrad on an officers salary. You would do your 4 year turn, and then MAYBE cash into a high salary (I think MD and JAG have longer tours though right?)

JAG spouse and I met in law school. I did biglaw, spouse did JAG. We bought a $1.8 million house at 2.5% interest with a VA loan (0 down). It’s our first and only house.

Interest rates aren’t 2.5% anymore so this isn’t particularly relevant.

Well, we got to assume the prior military couple owner’s loan, which is an awesome benefit of being in the military. So those rates are still available for people seeking out assumable loans.

But in any case, OP asked how it can be done. Buying 5 years ago or getting an assumable loan are two such ways!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Right but you aren’t buying a house first year out of undergrad on an officers salary. You would do your 4 year turn, and then MAYBE cash into a high salary (I think MD and JAG have longer tours though right?)

JAG spouse and I met in law school. I did biglaw, spouse did JAG. We bought a $1.8 million house at 2.5% interest with a VA loan (0 down). It’s our first and only house.

Interest rates aren’t 2.5% anymore so this isn’t particularly relevant.

Well, we got to assume the prior military couple owner’s loan, which is an awesome benefit of being in the military. So those rates are still available for people seeking out assumable loans.

But in any case, OP asked how it can be done. Buying 5 years ago or getting an assumable loan are two such ways!

Except with assumable loans you need to pay the seller for any accumulated equity with cash… Not so easy for many

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Right but you aren’t buying a house first year out of undergrad on an officers salary. You would do your 4 year turn, and then MAYBE cash into a high salary (I think MD and JAG have longer tours though right?)

JAG spouse and I met in law school. I did biglaw, spouse did JAG. We bought a $1.8 million house at 2.5% interest with a VA loan (0 down). It’s our first and only house.

Interest rates aren’t 2.5% anymore so this isn’t particularly relevant.

Well, we got to assume the prior military couple owner’s loan, which is an awesome benefit of being in the military. So those rates are still available for people seeking out assumable loans.

But in any case, OP asked how it can be done. Buying 5 years ago or getting an assumable loan are two such ways!

Except with assumable loans you need to pay the seller for any accumulated equity with cash… Not so easy for many

If the prior family put down nothing and lived there for a couple of years (common for military families), there is little to no equity thanks to fixed amortization schedules. That’s how it worked out for me.

Look, we got lucky AND worked really hard. A lot came together to make this happen. But we didn’t get any family help.