Anonymous wrote:How do people save $200,000 for a home downpyament here?! How.

We make $165,000 and have two small kids. It took us all year to save $10,000. At this rate I won't have that kind of cash until I'm 60 (I'm 38 now).

Good grief. How?

Im 39, DH 40. We met in college and IMMEDIATELY purchased our firsr house together right after graduatiin in 2001, didn't marry until 2004. We had pratically no money and got an FHA loan. Kept that home and pirchased another in 2003, another low dien payment FHA. Dumped 1st home in early 2006 to avoid capital gains and walked away with 215k after fees. Sold the 2003 house in early 2009 with inly a 50k profit, due to market slump. Put down ~200k on our forever home and did 45k in upgrades before we moved in. Because of this our PITI is $2409/mo, lower than rents in my neighborhood.

Moral of the story, we started early. It was a huge financial advantage that we went to public University and have no loans, didnt go to grad school and met very early in life.

Finished school with money because DH and I had full rides. DH and my parents gifted us 30k for downpayment in lieu of helping with wedding. We decided to do a small reception instead of a full blown wedding. Lived in a small one bedroom apartment for two years to save up the rest of the down payment which with everything was $116k for a 580k townhouse. At the time of purchase, our HHI was 150k and we didn't have kids since we felt we were young (mid-20s). Turns out we were wrong and shouldn't have waited that long.

Finished school w/o debt. Starting saving right away, when I didn't feel the pinch as much (since I had been living on a student stipend). Then lived in a very basic apt--plenty of space, but no central a/c, no dishwasher, no cable, laundry in basement, no elevator...

Biglaw + flipping a DC property.

You don't buy a million dollar house, for starters. But if you want to know how I did it - took jobs overseas when I was younger that came with housing, and then took hazard- pay -location assignments.

Anonymous wrote:Hubby and I (42) lived in shared housing out of college (800 p/m) til we were 28. bought in 2000 based on 1 income of 90k and 43k. Lived on 1 income and banked the other. We bought townhouse in arlandria area for 240k with 80/10/10 loan. Had 2 kids in townhouse. When 3rd came along, we Luckily sold in 2006 for 560k and dumped that into our currenct sfh for 840. Along the way our salary also increased and it has been a lot smoother b/c we continued saving a full salary. When cost of daycare outweighed working, it was fine for the lower income spouse to stay home. That's how we did it.

Son of a...

We bought through NACA. No downpayment. We had about 20K saved. If we sold and bought we'd have 200K or so in profit and would have a decent down payment.

Hubby and I (42) lived in shared housing out of college (800 p/m) til we were 28. bought in 2000 based on 1 income of 90k and 43k. Lived on 1 income and banked the other. We bought townhouse in arlandria area for 240k with 80/10/10 loan. Had 2 kids in townhouse. When 3rd came along, we Luckily sold in 2006 for 560k and dumped that into our currenct sfh for 840. Along the way our salary also increased and it has been a lot smoother b/c we continued saving a full salary. When cost of daycare outweighed working, it was fine for the lower income spouse to stay home. That's how we did it.

Saved when I was single. Took a post conflict country job and doubled my salary for 3 years.

Putting down that much is a financially piss poor decision in most circumstances.

OP, DCUM is far from the norm, even in the DC area. I think you have to do what works for you. Trying to keep up with the Joneses in the DC area is a losers game unless you happen to have an income in the neighborhood of 200k +.

Sharing an apartment for many years at your income level

PMI for the first house.

We are 50 and bought and sold and made a profit on two houses before moving here. It wasn't easy.

We only put 10 percent down and paid pmi until we reached 20 percent which stopped the pmi.

Anonymous wrote:If you waited until you had kids to start saving for a downpayment that’s the problem.

This.