I’m 45, single mother of three, looking at a 1.375m tomorrow, want to sell my 1.1m house to get farther away from ex and more safely behind a manned gate

You can stop at "How old were you when you bought a house?" I'm 46 and still waiting. Maybe never.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the OP you are referring to is Asian. It is very common for Asian parents (especially ones that are still in Asia) to pay for huge downpayment or buying outright. I know one Chinese colleague, she and her husband bought a $2.2m townhouse in Georgetown at 28. It was paid entirely by the parents.

But do keep in mind, they have to take care the parents after they retire. No senior living community, which is considered a shame. I'm not sure I would trade parents help for that.

No, no and no. Please stop with the cultural assumptions.

NP here. "No" to you and your excessive wokeness. That is very common in asian households. Go worry about thigs that matter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the OP you are referring to is Asian. It is very common for Asian parents (especially ones that are still in Asia) to pay for huge downpayment or buying outright. I know one Chinese colleague, she and her husband bought a $2.2m townhouse in Georgetown at 28. It was paid entirely by the parents.

But do keep in mind, they have to take care the parents after they retire. No senior living community, which is considered a shame. I'm not sure I would trade parents help for that.

I am Asian and I can tell you my parents did not pay money for my house. Neither do they pay for the kids' weddings. Likewise for any of my Asian friends. As a matter of fact, we bought our parents home for them!

Asian parents also laugh at the idea of 529. My parents don't know what that is. They expect us to be smart enough to get our own scholarships to pay our way through college.

Dumb and false. Top schools no longer give merit scholarships. All of the Asian parents I know save up so their kids don’t have to be saddled with huge loans.

34 and 36. Bought a $1.5m home and held onto our $700k townhome, which we started renting out. We didn’t get explicit help from parents but knew we had them as a safety net since we were definitely stretching. Luckily our incomes have gone up and we can now comfortably afford everything.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the OP you are referring to is Asian. It is very common for Asian parents (especially ones that are still in Asia) to pay for huge downpayment or buying outright. I know one Chinese colleague, she and her husband bought a $2.2m townhouse in Georgetown at 28. It was paid entirely by the parents.

But do keep in mind, they have to take care the parents after they retire. No senior living community, which is considered a shame. I'm not sure I would trade parents help for that.

I am Asian and I can tell you my parents did not pay money for my house. Neither do they pay for the kids' weddings. Likewise for any of my Asian friends. As a matter of fact, we bought our parents home for them!

Asian parents also laugh at the idea of 529. My parents don't know what that is. They expect us to be smart enough to get our own scholarships to pay our way through college.

We can afford it but don’t want it.
37

Anonymous wrote:I think the OP you are referring to is Asian. It is very common for Asian parents (especially ones that are still in Asia) to pay for huge downpayment or buying outright. I know one Chinese colleague, she and her husband bought a $2.2m townhouse in Georgetown at 28. It was paid entirely by the parents.

But do keep in mind, they have to take care the parents after they retire. No senior living community, which is considered a shame. I'm not sure I would trade parents help for that.

I am Asian and I can tell you my parents did not pay money for my house. Neither do they pay for the kids' weddings. Likewise for any of my Asian friends. As a matter of fact, we bought our parents home for them!

Why $1.2m OP, vs $1.1 or $1.5m?? Any reason you
are making $1.2m a milestone?

I was 32, my husband was 37. Two lawyers. No family money. A few years later we sold the 1.2 and bought at 1.8 for more space. Love this house and don't plan on leaving anytime soon.

32 years old doctor

Age 32.
But we made money on a previous house AND prior to that lived for 4 years in a very, very cheap apartment in Baltimore ($400/month) and commuted to work in DC so we were able to save a lot of money.

Only on DCUM...

41, but we bought a 550k at 27 and 300k at 23.

I was 32 and DH was 31 when we bought our current house for $1.1M (now 48/47 and the house is probably worth at least $1.4M). It's our first and probably only house as we had to stretch to buy into our neighborhood. DH did the calculations and figured we missed the appreciation we might otherwise get from buying a cheaper starter home in the same area that met our criteria (two door garage and higher ceilings-particularly in basement (he's really tall)).

I remember older childless couple down the street made some comment (at our first neighborhood gather) that assumed we had received parental support to buy it. Nope. We stretched our budget and we had lived in a 1 bedroom rental apt (with one bathroom while I would have preferred at least 1.5 bath) and some of the down payment had come from savings that DH had started saving since he was 12.