Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can buy a SFH right now. Do it as soon as you can, no more than 5% down.

Terrible advice. Paying out the rear on interest just because you hope to get some housing value appreciation is a bad strategy.

No. Every person I know who bought young and highly leveraged had a positive outcome. And several were able to buy second homes in their early 40s.

Paying out the rear on rent is not a path to wealth.

This is true for Millennials, but Gen Sers who bought their first home from ~ 2003-2008 got screwed. The Great Recession wiped out a lot of people.

Anonymous wrote:No need to buy. Rent a SFH and invest the rest. I bought and regret it. Wish I had taken the down payment and put it in the market.

I'm not someone who bought early and often. But I honestly have never met anyone who would say the above. Not a single person with whom I've discussed housing has ever said boy oh boy, I regret buying a house... I wish I was renting. It's never happened.

Again, the only place regular people can achieve high leverage, and thus high returns on equity, is housing. You're not going to get that in the stock market.

Anonymous wrote:No need to buy. Rent a SFH and invest the rest. I bought and regret it. Wish I had taken the down payment and put it in the market.

I bought 5 years ago. The rent on the same house is easily 40% more than my PITI and I only put 10% down. Biggest regret is not being more aggressive when rates were under 3%.

No need to buy. Rent a SFH and invest the rest. I bought and regret it. Wish I had taken the down payment and put it in the market.

Just buy now and then pop out some kids. You can't perfectly plan life. Just go with it and be happy with what you got

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t buy by 30, it’s over. You lost the game of life

I bought my first home at 38. I bought my trade up home at 55. I bought a beach condo at 50. My only regret selling starter home at 55.

People live to 80-85 now.

… it was a joke

Anonymous wrote:When you are ready financially, mentally, etc.
So much unhappiness and wrote frankly failure happens because people do they they're not ready for but feel pressured to do it on "society's timeline"

+1,000,000 The age where you can financially afford it and are mature enough to maintain it.

When you are ready financially, mentally, etc.
So much unhappiness and wrote frankly failure happens because people do they they're not ready for but feel pressured to do it on "society's timeline"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can buy a SFH right now. Do it as soon as you can, no more than 5% down.

Terrible advice. Paying out the rear on interest just because you hope to get some housing value appreciation is a bad strategy.

No. Every person I know who bought young and highly leveraged had a positive outcome. And several were able to buy second homes in their early 40s.

Paying out the rear on rent is not a path to wealth.

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t buy by 30, it’s over. You lost the game of life

I bought my first home at 38. I bought my trade up home at 55. I bought a beach condo at 50. My only regret selling starter home at 55.

People live to 80-85 now.

The S&P 500 in general has been in a straight rapid rise up last three years. Even plain old CDs and HYSAs have had higher than usually rates the last four years since Fed started raising rates in 2022. A couple in their early 30s believe it or now real estate is way cheaper in 2026 that 2022.

The stock market has almost doubled in last 3.5 years and plain old one bank CDs were returning 4 to 5.5 percent and Marcus money accounts paying 4 percent.

Someone with a 200k Downpayment in April 2022 who gave up and just did a conservative 50 percent stocks, 25 percent CD and 25 percent Marcus account already has way more firepower. Homes barely moved last four years in price. I hate to say if we actually get a rate cut or two in late 2026 with new Fed chairman house prices may start to rise again.

And folks rolling 1-5 year CDs and in money markets and HYSAs that have been paying damn good yield may start back buying rental properties like they did in 2020/2021.

Given all that I think Summer 2026 might be a good as any time to buy. Do a 5/5 mortgage a credit union. Some good rates.

Anonymous wrote:This is also a shaky job market; act like one of you could lose your job, try to live close enough to a metro in case your current job changes.

Above is good advice.

I waited until my mid-30s. And I moved out of MoCo where I rented a condo on the metro line. That was a bit too long to wait to get started. I missed a lot of run up in value that may not happen again. And I can't move back to DMV because of that. Most homes there are 4x the cost of my home in flyover country. I don't want to return to DMV or the SF Bay Area where I grew up. But also financially, I can't afford to.

Anonymous wrote:You can buy a SFH right now. Do it as soon as you can, no more than 5% down.

Terrible advice. Paying out the rear on interest just because you hope to get some housing value appreciation is a bad strategy.

If you don’t buy by 30, it’s over. You lost the game of life

The property ladder is a trap. You just get bigger houses bigger mortgages, never get it paid off.
Buy a house where you want to live. Don't trade up to a huge place with a crappy commute.