We bought an outdated 5bd/2a SFH in a great school district on a large corner lot when we were 26 and we're still in it 12 years later. We're only the second owners, the original owners built it in 1964 and raised their 6 kids here. It came with an 8in thick binder of every repair, service, appliance manual, and update that had ever been done. We've been taking our time updating over the years. It will probably be our forever home.

2002-2007 Condo (grad school)
2008-2010 Rented (post doc)
2011-2015 Condo (single)
2015-2020 Townhouse (married)
2020-- SFH (kids)

Bought 3, sold 2. 44 years old.

I am 45 and have bought 1, 14 years ago. I honestly thought we would have moved multiple times by now. But we really lucked out - bought a foreclosure at the bottom of the market and have quintupled in value, in one of the top districts in the state (not in DMV) and have plenty of room for our family - the low price at the time allowed us to be very intentional even though we weren't even engaged then. If the crash of 2008 hadn't happened I don't know where we would be, but there is no point in moving now.

I'm mid 50's but between our 30's and early 40's we bought and sold 4. Two in DC, two in CO.

Bought two, sold one. We got married in 2005, rented for a year, bought our first house in 2006 in a Western (not CA) metro. Stayed there 11 years. Sold it in 2017 and bought a DMV house as part of a cross-country move for DH's job. We plan to be in this house for the long haul, unless/until we downsize.

Bought and sold three and I'm 45. Two of them abroad, one here. All were for living.
I wish I had rented instead and never messed with properties. Nothing super bad happened, but now that I can see how much money they took vs that money on the market while renting, there's no comparison.
Missed out on about 2 million. Sold them all and now in the market playing catch-up.
After that I will buy a home here and later one abroad where I retire.

Anonymous wrote:DH and I were college sweethearts and bought a condo when we got married in our early 20s. It was small and in a noisy area, so we sold that after 6 years (basically breaking even) for a single family home. We’ve been in that house for 2 years now and it’s turned out to be a lemon, and the neighborhood is pretty unfortunate with bad schools. No kids yet but obviously this decision was pretty short sighted, and I’m realizing that by the time we have a school aged kid we will more than likely want to move yet again, so we’ll probably only be in this house for 8 years and will likely lose money when we sell as we’ve had to spend so much on repairs. Are we especially stupid or have others had to buy and sell multiple times before landing on a place you can stay in for a long time?

Other than the schools, what's wrong with the neighborhood? If daycare and elementary school are OK you could actually stay for awhile. But if there's something you don't like about the neighborhood, I would start looking to move now. Over time housing prices tend to go up, so it's better to just get the utility of the home you want to be in ASAP rather than continuing to put repairs in on this place you don't enjoy. And you can always refi if rates go down.

41. Bought one recently, sold zero.

I understand your remorse, but don't be too hard on yourself. There's lots of pressure and misinformation about how buying real estate is always some great financial decision. This seems particularly egregious for condos, which generally are not good financial investments (but totally fine for living in, or if buying is the only way to get a property you want, etc.).

We ended up paying a LOT for a very small and modest house in the urban neighborhood we wanted, but on net we did better financially than our friends who have bought and sold multiple properties - even if in the end they bought a much cheaper suburban house before the pandemic. Renting for awhile is often a good financial decision. The transaction and maintenance costs of owning are so so high and people tend to downplay them and focus on whether they sold their house for more than they bought it for. You need to sell it for much more to cover inflation and all those costs!

Bought 3, sold 2

We own 4 and haven't sold one yet. Husband is military so one is a long term rental in a big base town. Two are AirBNBs and the last is our close in townhouse. We didn't want to upgrade in case he gets deployed.

On average people in 30s to 40s range have bought and sold 0-2 homes, guess about 20% would've bought or sold more.

Bought 6, sold 1
Married, 38 and 40 yo

Anonymous wrote:Why did you buy a house somewhere with bad schools?? You wasted your historically low interest rate. Game over unless you can massively boost your income.

If the problem is just schools, OP can go private.
If it's more than that (which is what I get from "unfortunate neighborhood") OP can sell and rent elsewhere, or sell and buy something cheaper (smaller, further).
She is not stuck in the house, is my point.

I’m 42 and on property #3.