Starter homes made sense when housing was cheaper, along with the costs of buying and selling. But now it's so expensive to buy and sell that moving every 5 or 10 years is a major financial drain. I don't blame people looking for the forever home right off bat.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rather than climb the ladder we will wait for the forever big home. Sorry please tear down those little homes and ensure you provide recently renovated or new larger homes

https://www.newsweek.com/gen-z-millennials-dont-want-buy-starter-homes-2069778

Millennials are pretty old at this point though. They are 29-44 years old. Most people who are in their 40s aren’t going to be looking for a starter home. Like my parents are baby boomers and had their starter home in their early 20s.

Millennials are old. I'm an elder millennial and bought my starter home 16 years ago. It was a 2 bedroom. When we got pregnant with our second kid, we sold and bought our current house about 10 years ago. We still ponder upgrading again to something with more space, but our kids like their current school zone and options are limited.

If a millennial is still renting, it's totally possible they have the personality type where they don't want to buy a starter home and want something big, new and shiny. That may very well be why they're still renting. The rest of us bought a starter home years ago.

Anonymous wrote:Consider starter homes when people got married in their 20s when we think about starter homes. Now people get married and have kids at 40... yes, they want a nicer place.

That’s totally fine. But it’s silly to complain that the nicer place is pricey. Of course it is!

Consider starter homes when people got married in their 20s when we think about starter homes. Now people get married and have kids at 40... yes, they want a nicer place.

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I know so many people around here who have kept their starter home as a rental, while upgrading to big forever homes. We absolutely needed the equity from the sale of our starter home to put into the downpayment of our next house. How is everyone else doing this without casually already having down payment money in cash for their second home, in which case why bother with the starter home in the first place?

We bought a condo in 2018 in a trendy neighborhood of Boston. We didn’t go balls to the wall with the first property’s purchase price which allowed us to keep saving for the next property. When we were ready to move to the suburbs (2022), we had a realtor come out to evaluate the condo. We weren’t going to net significant dollars with the sale (condos only appreciate so much) and the net wouldn’t bump us into the next “tier of house” so refinanced while it was the primary residence and rent it. We ended up in a GREAT close-in suburb with a perfect commute and school district in a modest house that needed a ton of work. Our friends have bought nicer homes but it comes at a cost… location or being “house poor”, we feel like we played it pretty conservatively but we are pretty boring people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rather than climb the ladder we will wait for the forever big home. Sorry please tear down those little homes and ensure you provide recently renovated or new larger homes

https://www.newsweek.com/gen-z-millennials-dont-want-buy-starter-homes-2069778

I thought my little home was my forever home. We don’t need a big home.

+1 That is key! Just be content! People don’t need 6-8 bathrooms and 2 HVAC units, etc. A giant, oversized kitchen with 3 ovens, etc. It’s too much.

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I know so many people around here who have kept their starter home as a rental, while upgrading to big forever homes. We absolutely needed the equity from the sale of our starter home to put into the downpayment of our next house. How is everyone else doing this without casually already having down payment money in cash for their second home, in which case why bother with the starter home in the first place?

It may seem that way but it's not everybody. Many people, including us, only got to our forever home by climbing the property ladder one place at a time. We went from condo to small home to large home over a span of 30 years.

Anonymous wrote:Rather than climb the ladder we will wait for the forever big home. Sorry please tear down those little homes and ensure you provide recently renovated or new larger homes

https://www.newsweek.com/gen-z-millennials-dont-want-buy-starter-homes-2069778

I thought my little home was my forever home. We don’t need a big home.

I’m still in what was supposed to be a starter condo. I just want a townhouse or midsize sfh. Everything on the market is not only over priced but needs MAJOR renovations I can’t afford. Not a single update since 1992? Nightmare.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rather than climb the ladder we will wait for the forever big home. Sorry please tear down those little homes and ensure you provide recently renovated or new larger homes

https://www.newsweek.com/gen-z-millennials-dont-want-buy-starter-homes-2069778

and this attitude by them and the reaction of developers is why you see a home torn down and 2-3 huge and mega expensive townhomes or homes put on the same lot. Hence why those "missing middle" and up zoning proposals in Arlington and Alexandria didn't work. Whenever something was torn down, massive townhomes in 2million+ range were put in their places.

Just look at Del Ray.

No this isn’t why. The economic model has changed, drastically. The value is in the land and construction materials/labor has skyrocketed. Developers can’t break even buying a boomer starter home and just Reno/expanding it a little or tearing it down and building a modern small home. They have to go bigger.

For individual buyers, if the house is a complete tear down , again they will find it makes more economic sense to go much bigger.

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I know so many people around here who have kept their starter home as a rental, while upgrading to big forever homes. We absolutely needed the equity from the sale of our starter home to put into the downpayment of our next house. How is everyone else doing this without casually already having down payment money in cash for their second home, in which case why bother with the starter home in the first place?

Basically, they stockpile cash. Since we bought our first place our income has gone up 30% each year. I would never sell my starter house because it's so valuable as a rental unit. So we won't buy until we have 10-20% down for the $1.5 million next one.

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I know so many people around here who have kept their starter home as a rental, while upgrading to big forever homes. We absolutely needed the equity from the sale of our starter home to put into the downpayment of our next house. How is everyone else doing this without casually already having down payment money in cash for their second home, in which case why bother with the starter home in the first place?

Both partners already own a property when they get married. Keep one as a rental, and roll the other into the next house.

I feel like I know so many people around here who have kept their starter home as a rental, while upgrading to big forever homes. We absolutely needed the equity from the sale of our starter home to put into the downpayment of our next house. How is everyone else doing this without casually already having down payment money in cash for their second home, in which case why bother with the starter home in the first place?

Anonymous wrote:Rather than climb the ladder we will wait for the forever big home. Sorry please tear down those little homes and ensure you provide recently renovated or new larger homes

https://www.newsweek.com/gen-z-millennials-dont-want-buy-starter-homes-2069778

and this attitude by them and the reaction of developers is why you see a home torn down and 2-3 huge and mega expensive townhomes or homes put on the same lot. Hence why those "missing middle" and up zoning proposals in Arlington and Alexandria didn't work. Whenever something was torn down, massive townhomes in 2million+ range were put in their places.

Just look at Del Ray.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So why is the small starter homes in my neighborhood sell so fast?

In my area too. Peope are finally wiseing up.

Now what are those starter homes selling for relative to what they sold for in say 1990?