Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was 27 I was still living in a group house!

I bought my first house when I was 42 and my husband was 47. We had two kids and had rented up until then.

The world doesn't owe you a house.

First post that makes sense.

It only makes sense in Bizarro world where people don't know how to actually read the OP.
I feel bad for people coming into the market now. It is tough. Hang in there, OP. We are all given different timelines.
Work on saving now and investing. Someday, the timing will be right.

One of our kids just got married and built a beautiful home (nicer than the one he grew up in), at the age of 27. They graduated from college and landed a decent, not great, job. It paid for grad school. After that, they moved to a better job, with a promotion, because it relocated them to a place to live with a better quality of life. Both of them worked for the same company. They were bringing in lots of money, maxed out retirement funds, drove the same little cars they bought after college and did not go wild spending. One of them was picked up by another company in their field and is doing very well. They work hard. Constantly keep current in their field. Go to great grad schools and work for companies that pay for their education. And they have priorities and don't care what everyone else has or is doing.

Anonymous wrote:When I was 27 I was still living in a group house!

I bought my first house when I was 42 and my husband was 47. We had two kids and had rented up until then.

The world doesn't owe you a house.

First post that makes sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was 27 I was still living in a group house!

I bought my first house when I was 42 and my husband was 47. We had two kids and had rented up until then.

The world doesn't owe you a house.

+1 I was 40 when I purchased my house. I was divorced and had one child.

Let me ask you both a question? Does being so nasty come to you naturally?

The op NEVER said the world owes her a house. She is concerned that the timing has just not worked out for her and that she will never get ahead.

We have an entire social and financial system set up that encourages and rewards home ownership. Maybe it doesn't work out for everybody, but you two ninnies acting like this pressure/perception doesn't exist doesn't help.

Why not try less of an assholio response, like: "I know it sucks, but sometimes, the timing doesn't work out. Try not to let it get to you and make other good financial decisions so that someday it will work out."

Really consider why your default setting is to go ugly, while you're at it.

Anonymous wrote:You start small and build equity, and then you trade up. That's how most people do it.

Oh, and you don't get granite countertops the first time out of the gate.

+1

We borrowed from our 401k and scraped together the rest. Didn't buy furniture for the first year or two. We also busted our a$$ at work to build our careers/salaries.

Less than 20% down is not returning to the prebubble days. Back then you didn't actually have to qualify- you could have a questionable salary, employment record, etc and still be approved.
Less than 20% down in the D.C. Metro area - especially in a walkable community- especially where other development is occurring is absolutely fine. Obviously there are contributing factors and you must qualify. But to just make a blanket statement that anything less is failure is ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:I was born in 86 and had no trouble saving up the 20% required. We lived on DH's income and saved my entire income. Wasn't THAT hard. We each make about 80k.

You do realize this isn't the case for everyone, right?

^ ^ ^ I really think we are really far from AI taking oversince Siri can't even transpose correctly.

Anonymous wrote:Alright I'm an "old millennial" born in the 80s. But we bought a townhouse in Hyattsville/University Park area. We bought the biggest model. At 6 years out we made >$60k profit. We took that plus savings for a down payment on a SFH. You need to think that you will probably not be able to put 20% down but you can still get great rates and loans and purchase. You need to think outside the box in location but still think of the realities of the purchase- i.e. appraisals are based on square footage, #bedrooms and #bathrooms. Buy the 4bd 3.5bath over the 3bd 1.5bath in the same neighborhood.
If I can make a recommendation- University Park is selling townhomes brand new by the new Whole Foods. If I were in the market I'd buy that in a heartbeat. Prices in the mid400s, walkable to WF, good elementary and inside beltway.

All these examples about purchases fine without 20% down, we are returning to the bed all day as it sounds like. Or least reminiscing about them. People should be buying the 20% down and fixed rate mortgage is, anything else is taken more risk than most buyers can handle sure works out fine in another market, but any hiccup and then you are on the under water and it snowballed from there.

Alright I'm an "old millennial" born in the 80s. But we bought a townhouse in Hyattsville/University Park area. We bought the biggest model. At 6 years out we made >$60k profit. We took that plus savings for a down payment on a SFH. You need to think that you will probably not be able to put 20% down but you can still get great rates and loans and purchase. You need to think outside the box in location but still think of the realities of the purchase- i.e. appraisals are based on square footage, #bedrooms and #bathrooms. Buy the 4bd 3.5bath over the 3bd 1.5bath in the same neighborhood.
If I can make a recommendation- University Park is selling townhomes brand new by the new Whole Foods. If I were in the market I'd buy that in a heartbeat. Prices in the mid400s, walkable to WF, good elementary and inside beltway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You buy something...say, a townhouse in a growing neighborhood and build equity. Sell in 5-7 years. Use equity and savings to buy a small house. Renovate and live there or sell and move on up.

Buying houses is a long, slow, lifelong grind for the middle class. It's certainly not impossible, but it's not super fun either.

Foolish! You don't build equity in 5-7 years generally. The cost to buy and sell a house will eat up 6% anyway. You will make only tiny principal payments in 5 years anyway. The house may appreciate or it may not. It's too little time for equity building

Agreed. People saying 5-7 years are giving terrible advice.

Yup that ship has sailed. I've come across homes in neighborhoods inside the beltway that are listed for the same amount they sold for in 2006...sometimes less.

Meh. Then you do you. We're moving from a townhouse this year in S. Arlington after 6 years and taking our $175k of equity to plug into the down payment of a sfh

Where are you buying? We bought a sfh in s arl back in '09.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You buy something...say, a townhouse in a growing neighborhood and build equity. Sell in 5-7 years. Use equity and savings to buy a small house. Renovate and live there or sell and move on up.

Buying houses is a long, slow, lifelong grind for the middle class. It's certainly not impossible, but it's not super fun either.

Foolish! You don't build equity in 5-7 years generally. The cost to buy and sell a house will eat up 6% anyway. You will make only tiny principal payments in 5 years anyway. The house may appreciate or it may not. It's too little time for equity building

Agreed. People saying 5-7 years are giving terrible advice.

Yup that ship has sailed. I've come across homes in neighborhoods inside the beltway that are listed for the same amount they sold for in 2006...sometimes less.

Meh. Then you do you. We're moving from a townhouse this year in S. Arlington after 6 years and taking our $175k of equity to plug into the down payment of a sfh

Anonymous wrote:X'er here. eBought in 2004 on U street. Use the equity in that house and money from savings to buy another house in U, , then 2 in Adams Morgan and then 2 in Kalorama Triangle. Managed to do this before market collapse. Rented them all out and now out and now have over 30k of positive cash flow a month. Just have to look for opportunity and be decisive when you find it.

So you did all that back when OP was a freshman in high school, but you think good advice is "look for opportunity and be decisive?"

X'er here. eBought in 2004 on U street. Use the equity in that house and money from savings to buy another house in U, , then 2 in Adams Morgan and then 2 in Kalorama Triangle. Managed to do this before market collapse. Rented them all out and now out and now have over 30k of positive cash flow a month. Just have to look for opportunity and be decisive when you find it.

^^ you can house hop into a couple more because they rent easily . You can have 3 easy rentals and be on your way to building wealth .