Anonymous wrote:
Lived frugally. Saved and invested. Only had one car. Didn't have a child until 30s. No family help.

Same here. Like the PP, we live frugally, save and have only one car.

We bought the first home with 10% down. It was a tiny cramped townhouse. Even so, we could barely scrape together the down payment. This was BC (before child) and we chose it because it was close to work. We did not know it at the time, but it was in the best school district.

Fast forward 15 years, the townhouse value more than doubled. We sold it and use the proceeds plus saving to buy our SFH. We paid cash for it. It was not easy but with spouse's chronic illness, we feel more secure in going this route than getting a mortgage.

You do it before you have kids, not after.

Sorry.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We started when we were in our early 20s and didn't have kids and lived in crappy apts. It took 10 years.

Same here. We stayed in a one-bedroom apartment with our 2 little ones before finding our house and putting 250K down. HHI was still around 85K at the time.

+1 This exactly. we started saving before we had kids, and even when we had kids, we stayed in a low-rent tiny apt. we bought our first house when we were nearly 40 years old.

Living (and saving) off of salaries and saving entire bonus. Bonuses are really the answer. We also got lucky and pulled out money out of the stock market at just the right time (2007/2009ish)

$150k gift from parents when we got married. I have no clue how people do it without help - we are late 20s and know maybe 3 other couples that own.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

This.

I'm glad I went ahead and had my DD in my twenties, since I am now I fertile in my early thirties. Fertility treatments ain't cheap, and literally all the women in my office who waited until their late thirties and early forties are going through very expensive ivf treatments, and our insurance options offer zero coverage. Obviously, not everyone who waits has trouble, but the science doesn't lie about declining fertility rates. We had about $15K saved when I had DD at 28. We purchased our townhome when she was three weeks old. We will be here for 5+ years while we save for a sfh, but I'm glad I have her, and wouldn't trade her for any amount of down payment saved.

I did just the opposite. I bought my first house at 25, bought a house every 5 years until I had 3 properties. I worked and traveled while I was young. I had my first baby at 38 with no intervention or fertility treatments. By the time we started a family, we had enough money to take time off to stay home until I was ready to go back to work. We don't have the financial stress that younger parents have.

We also invested in the stock market in our 20's and 30's before kids. That money continues to grow. If we had our kids first, then invested later, we would have less of a nest egg.

Lived frugally. Saved and invested. Only had one car. Didn't have a child until 30s. No family help.

I feel sorry for younger people in this market. When I graduated from college in the 80's. I paid off my student loans and saved enough money for a 10% deposit on my first home (FHA) in three years. I had no help from family. I did have two jobs for a while though. I refinanced to get rid of the PMI. 5 years later I had enough saved to buy a second investment house. That seems impossible now.

Younger people make more money and can't afford to own the roof over their heads.

We put $200k down. Here are some choices we made-
Lived in a low cost of living Midwest city in my 20s - with roomates and an inexpensive car.
Husband lived with his parents for several after his PhD and before we got married.
I put 10% of my pretax income in an employee stock. purchase plan and my company has done very well. I believe $80k was stock I sold.
I put a bunch of money into index funds in 2008-2010 and rode the store market up after the recession.
I travelled extensively for work in my 20s and early 30s - we're still using the miles and points to pay for vacations years later.
We shared 1 12yr old car until we had our 2nd child.

So in short - saving early, being frugal, being lucky.

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?

The people I know did a few of the following:

1) Saved first and then budgeted the rest of their money
2) Lived in group houses until they married, then shared an apartment with another couple and continued once kids came along.
3) Found a cheap small basement apartment in a decent neighborhood.
4) Never ate out, cooked healthy but inexpensive meals (eg oatmeal for breakfast, planned meals....)
5) one car or no cars
6) took advantage of all the free stuff we can do in the DC area for entertainment
7) bought minimum clothes looked at church rummage sales and thrift shops first- same if they needed anything for apartment
8) Asked for things they needed for holiday gift giving occasions- and kept gifts at a minimum
9) participated in a faith community
10) vacations were camping or visiting relatives/friends -wherever they could get to in a car


OP- there are families that live on $80k in the area. Live like they do and save the rest.

We waited 4 years to have kids and lived in a one bedroom in Baltimore that entire time while working in DC.
Commuting sucked but we saved almost $400K.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

This.

I'm glad I went ahead and had my DD in my twenties, since I am now I fertile in my early thirties. Fertility treatments ain't cheap, and literally all the women in my office who waited until their late thirties and early forties are going through very expensive ivf treatments, and our insurance options offer zero coverage. Obviously, not everyone who waits has trouble, but the science doesn't lie about declining fertility rates. We had about $15K saved when I had DD at 28. We purchased our townhome when she was three weeks old. We will be here for 5+ years while we save for a sfh, but I'm glad I have her, and wouldn't trade her for any amount of down payment saved.

Anonymous wrote:

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

This.

Anonymous wrote: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.

This. We made $250k and bought a $575k home two years ago.

We saved the DP by living off one income, and banking the second, smaller income.

Hhi was around 350k at the time. Lived in a 3000 a month apartment and had few other expenses at the time. No car payments. No cell phone bills. Took transit to work. Used work blackberry. Only one vacation to a family home. Limited dining out and clothing purchases. Cheapest cable plan available. Were able to save 150k in a short amount of time.

Purchased a home where the mortgage is 3500 for a larger place than the apartment.