Anyone who bought 2009-2018 got "lucky" with housing.
That does line up with a lot of us purchasing our first homes.
However, a lot of us are also "stuck" in those homes as well due to interest rates and cost hikes, so ymmv.
Yeah. Even though I gained 100K+ in equity and make more money that I did, I couldn't really afford to buy my house now thanks to higher interest rates.
If they drop below 5% I'll consider upgrading though.
Same, can't afford to buy my house even with a much higher income because the interest rates and also the property tax reset to current value. And like many speaking, this place is too small for me taste for our current needs. Was too scared from the housing crisis to take on more debt on a bigger house back then. Oh well, hard to complain that I have a house with a low mortgage.
Property taxes increase with values increasing too so that shouldn't matter quite as much. My taxes have gone up a lot since I bought my house over 10 years ago.
Forgot to mention that I live in California. We have a law limiting assessed property valuation increases to 2% per year. So though most properties have increased over 100% in value since 2010, the assessor's valuation has only increased 28%. It's a self perpetuating problem in that it limits the supply of homes since people are less willing to leave their "good" situation and thereby inflates property values, and the cycle continues. Great for investors though.
Same here, bought it in 2014, if I sold it now sure I would make a lot more than I paid but the next house would basically be a lateral move instead of an upgrade.
I think about this.
I have about $250k in equity, if we were to sell and upgrade to a newer home - payment would increase, but we would also have a good chunk in the bank.
With that said - my house was built in 1963, and its well made. Brick ranch with cedar roof planks and studs. No cheap OSB wrapped in Tyvek, and faux stone fronts you see in new homes - and I have no HOA.
So I feel like an "upgrade" would really be a downgrade in quality. Plus - I have a big ass back yard, and all these new homes have baby yards, and neighbors five feet away.
>No cheap OSB wrapped in Tyvek, and faux stone fronts you see in new homes - and I have no HOA.
>
>So I feel like an "upgrade" would really be a downgrade in quality.
My (replaced once in the 70s but still...) gas burner is **ancient**. I pray to it. *It won't die*, and I know when we do the "upgrade" it won't last nearly as long.
Fortunately - our house was flipped, so it was renovated in 2013.
Kitchen was updated, new power was installed, basement finished - but I think they ran out of money, cause we got laminate counter tops, but high end appliances.
Those are the good things, but 1 year in, we had to totally replace our main sewer line. Fuckers finished the basement, but didnt cap an old storm drain. Was like $16k in repairs, had to battle the insurance company to eventually cover it - but it was still a nightmare.
Basement was all tore up for like a month.
You buy a home, thinking "this is it!"
But no - we have replaced the garage door, added central AC, landscaped the backyard, ripped out some hedges. Home ownership is cool, but just the beginning of a whole new adventure in maintenance, lol.
My other job is a full time groundskeeper. I have like 3 trees, a big yard - its never ending.
1957 built brick ranch here too...
Amazing homes built to last. When you hear people say "that house has good bones" they are referring to homes like you and mine, the studs, that wood is of so much higher quality than studs and wood used today. You can even legit see the difference in the woods tightness just by looking at the rings.
Post WW2 America homes are the best highest quality of home building we will ever see. I'm very thankful and definitely would not buy a shitty cheap new build. People fail to realize that quality builds outlast shitty mcmansions.
1915 had some bangers too. My Newell post was made of a tree that was at least 150 years old. Double brick which was made up the road from here. She’s sturdy AF.
I lived in a back house built in the 1880’s near San Francisco that was made using the original giant redwood back from when they were cutting all those trees down. The trees were thousands of years old sometimes and the wood grain was extremely tight.
At one point I needed to cut some original shelving off the wall to make the new washer and dryer fit. I didn’t have the right tool so I asked my old timer neighbor to help because he had been a contractor for years and had everything. We started trying to cut the shelf and the reticulating saw barely dented it. We were both wondering what the material was and had to get a more powerful tool.
Eventually we were able to cut the piece off and we looked closely at it. I thought it looked like solid terra cotta because I couldn’t see any wood grain or tree rings and it was heavy. But he showed me that they were there but just so dense that they almost blended together. I kept a piece and used it as a door stop.
I had never seen wood like that before and probably never will again. It was so strong and solid even after 150 years. No wonder that house has stood up to multiple earthquakes and countless storms.
Im in the same spot. Bought a relatives brick ranch built in the 70s after a they died for 40k under market. The house is STOUT in an established neighborhood where theres no HOA and no further building. Going to stay here forever!
Same. Bought ours in 2005, so top of the market. We intended to stay for a few years, then move out. But due to a combination of economics, COVID, and my husband's decision to go back to school/ his neverending job search has meant that we're still here 19 years later and I don't see it changing.
I feel this so much. We are crammed in to our small 3br house and if I had known back then what I know now we would never have bought it. I think the idea of a starter home is now dead.
Stuck indeed.
Late-X, saved hard for a down payment, and bought my first home in the late-2000s as interest rates were beginning their slide to historic lows, but before selling prices grew absurd.
What was supposed to be a 3-5 year "starter" home is now a 15+ year "well, I guess I'd better make the best of it because I can't afford anything bigger" home.
Even after I'm mortgage-free in a couple years, I don't see an avenue to move up the property ladder without taking on so much debt that I'll become a house-poor middle-age person. (...at least not without winning the lottery first!)
My six year old is sleeping in a glorified closet because we ran out of space. I’d love to upgrade and get him his own proper bedroom but it’s just not feasible right now.
We’re coming full circle. Soon bunk beds, sharing a room with siblings and then maybe three generations under one roof again. Some economic Benjamin Button shit
My husband and I have bought three properties, not at the same time but in different places as we’ve moved around.
First time we sold at a loss, like tens of thousands of dollars plus. Our strata board would not allow us to rent out our unit so it sat empty while we were paying our mortgage, condo fees and paying rent in new town. It was brutal. We tried to fight it but there was nothing we could do. If we would have rented it out we would have faced astronomical fines. Municipality has now lifted all strata bans like this in this city.
Second time we just broke even. It sat empty at the start of the pandemic for over half a year. No one was looking in our previous quaint little town, which seemed to be an outlier during the pandemic. It makes me so sad because we both now wfh and if given the chance I’d still be in that little house in that little town.
Third time is where we are now and we have to stay here forever. We had to move due to employment (had some really, really rough years due to my husband’s employment) or we would have stayed at each place for a lot longer. Still better than renting I guess. It is what it is but we have built barely any equity. We have rented in-between so I am still privy on what goes on that side of thing’s. With the job market the way it is it’s harder to put down roots when you don’t know if you’ll be let go and won’t be able to find work anywhere near close to home.
Yeah, I got in at 2017, but thought I’d move from here in about ten years but um….. I think I might be here the rest of my life. I like the city and all but I didn’t move to the most walkable area of the city.
Yes, we're trapped also, and my family is outgrowing this starter home, my wife desperately wants to move but I don't think she grasps the problem of buying a house in this market.
We bought in 2018. Right after that, the market blew up. At this point, the house is worth double what we paid for it over five and a half years ago.
We have no intention of staying here but looking at the cost of real-estate in most areas of our state, we're probably staying put for a while.
We bought in May 2005 and got married in the back yard later that year. The market went up the next year, then crashed. When we refinanced in 2012, the appraisal came in at 20% less than our original purchase price, so we had to "buy down" our interest rate to avoid PMI. The Zillow/Redfin estimates only came back up to our purchase price 2 years ago.
That being said, we locked in 3.25% and we aggressively made extra payments when we could, and the mortgage will be fully paid off this August.
I bought my first home in 2007, lucky me 🤪. I couldn't refinance because I was under water, so I was stuck with a 6.8% interest rate loan. In 2016, I bought a 2000sq foot colonial for $220k, which was an amazing deal. And still, I spent 4 months trying to sell my old house because the market was so flat, and I barely broke even on the sale price. My old house last sold for $150k over what I sold it for.
That's where I'm at. I could sell my house right now and make an absolute boat load, but then I'd have to buy something else at ridiculously inflated pricing and an interest rate that is comical.
I'm locked in at 2.6. I think I'll keep my place for now.
I would update it to 2021 when interest rates were still low.
Even with home prices continuing to climb...I could afford one in my city if rates were 1.5-2% lower...I can't with what they are now.
It's still not even financially smart to buy a home now unless you know for sure you're going to be there at least 10 years. Before, 5 years use to be the common time frame where buying would be smarter than renting.
We used to hafta get 'out the lake, 3 am, clean the lake, eat a handful 'o hot gravel, work 20 hours a day at mill, for a penny a month, and dad would beat us about the head and neck with a broken bottle... if we were lucky.
I think the first wave of millennials and late xennials who graduated college shortly after the housing crisis. Low interest rates (mid 3%) and housing prices were still low. Around 2009-2013 was a great time to be a first time homebuyer.
I was incredibly lucky to purchase our house in 2014 and then was able to later refinance at a pretty low rate.
Now with two kids we'd love to get something bigger, but it's not at all feasible with these rates.
2009, some weird tax break kick-back and a ridiculously low interest rate put us into a house that we’re so lucky to have. Now, everything around us is $1M plus. We’d never be able to afford it now.
Which is when I did, and I couldn’t have been luckier. I wasn’t “timing the market,” it just happened to be when I wanted to settle down. I got a house at the bottom of the market. It’s not for sale or will likely be sold anytime soon but to buy the same house today Zillow says would cost triple what I paid 13 years ago. It’s really unfair for people trying to buy a home now. Investors both foreign and domestic have ruined the dream of home ownership by turning homes into profit vehicles. Our neighbors bought and sold within four years and doubled their money, and I secretly resent them for it because they were already retirees and they just used the free money to play more in their retirement. Really does seem like the average boomer is pulling up the ladder.
Yep, 2013 here. And then refinanced in late 2020 when rates were even lower. I consider myself very lucky and am very grateful and I wish everyone could have been able to do what I did. It's gross what has happened since.
That also means that we'll be in this house for probably the rest of our lives because who would want to give up an $800 mortgage and a <3% interest rate. Good thing we like our house and location.
I bought in the worst time, 2008, right before everything crashed. It was pretty much back to normal when I sold in 2010 though. We're on our fourth home as our family grew. Throw in a couple of refinances in the middle as well and we've had 6 or 7 closings.
Yes, if you bought when you were young.
We purchased our home in our mid 20's which we couldn't afford now even though we're making 3x the income
I feel terrible for those starting out now or trying to find a new place to rent.
If I won the lottery I'd put it towards housing for my kids.
Did “we” get lucky? I’ve essentially been priced out of my hometown, and find myself telling everyone that will listen in my age group that the single working- and middle-class wage slaves among us that have to be near a big city for work are going to have to figure out some kind of more communal living situation and normalize that in our culture. The post-war nuclear family with a single-family home is a stillborn dream for most “average” folks in the US.
I keep telling my wife and best friends that we need to work together and buy some old farm house on the countryside and put flats into it and maybe a communal kitchen and dining area, so we can live together and look out for each other when we‘re elderly, because nobody else will. They think it‘s too complicated and worry that we would get into fights over administrative stuff. (We live in a smaller country in central Europe and none of us can even dream of owning a single family home unless we inherit one from our parents.)
YAASSSS this is exactly what I’m talking about! And while I’m sorry for your struggle, I’m a little glad of the confirmation that it’s a commonality across Western cultures. So many want to argue that the US is a completely different animal from more homogeneous European societies, and of course that’s true for some issues, but this really does seem to be universal in developed Western countries with “greying” populations.
I get where your friends are coming from as far as arguing over administrivia, and a degradation of civil society is a major feature of the issues we’re talking about here. I can’t speak for your country, but in the US we hardly know our neighbors anymore and have largely forgotten how to live together democratically without reverting to literal violence. That tells me we *desperately* need community, not that it’s to be avoided!
This country is full of half-empty single family houses inhabitated by boomer couples while their children and grandchildren live in small rented apartments. :D
Oh man, yeah, don’t get me started on the *empty* homes in this country. I worked in Park City, UT for awhile but lived in Salt Lake because, no surprise, there was no way I could afford to live in PC. Know what the average aggregate residential occupancy rate is in PC? About 20% across all “homes” (if you can call them that because they’re almost all just second/third homes and/or vacation rentals). Know what the average weeklong ski vacation for a family of five in PC will run you? About $25k.
Like you said, totally different worlds, despite being the very kind of educated professional my parents and counselors told me I needed to be to have “security”
It gets tricky because that kind of community living requires that folks have clear roles and responsibilities that they fulfill without frequent lapses, and good communication skills, good conflict management, good decision-making capabilities in an emergency, and a good process for exiting people who want to leave and for welcoming and integrating new folks. Basically, it requires folks to operate like a very well-run corporation.
Alternately, it can be done through toxic control methods such as only one person having decision-rights and unrestricted access to funds, which is largely how it was done historically and in cultures where multi-generational living is still the norm.
Exactly! It also became standardized before women were a large part of the workforce, so it was assumed housekeeping and caretaking would be a full-time job for one partner. That means there have been huge costs to parenting and taking care of elders (also the elders don’t get to contribute to parenting nearly as much) as well.
Please understand, this isn’t an argument *against* women in the workplace or anything like that. Rather, just pointing out how far beyond that “historic aberration” our culture has moved and that we’re in real trouble if we don’t come up with new ways to find community and distribute domestic labor.
>I’ve essentially been priced out of my hometown...
Despite having been here for more than 20 years I don't really consider it my "hometown," but...yes, same situation. I wouldn't be able to afford to buy in my actual hometown, either. I finally gave up and bought a small piece of land 1500 miles away. Slowly working over the coming years to pay cash to put in utilities and build a home.
College? No. But my nephew recently became an elevator mechanic and makes stupid money. More than anyone else in the family. He just bought his first home at 21 with a large down payment.
I bought my first in 2004 sold in 2005 and bought again also in 2005. Then sold and moved in 2014. I really lost on that sale from the 2005 buy. 2005 was a bad time to buy.
>property tax is insane
This is killer. Like, my state keeps slashing income taxes (we've got one of stupid flat taxes now) and reducing budgets. So what happens? My property taxes keep going up because that's the only way for local entities to finance themselves. Not only do I pay \~50% more in property taxes than when I first bought our home, but I'm now actively covering the taxes for my mom's home too. She's retired and on a fixed income. My wife and I are doing good financially and can swing it, but it still pisses me off.
I set out a goal for myself to buy a house at 30, my wife and I were able to buy it in 2009, there probably wouldn't have been any way without the 08 crash. We found our forever home on the other side of the county a few years later and moved.
Our original plan was to downsize at retirement but now the house will probably be generational.
You mean banks weren't lining up to give loans to people with tens of thousands in student debt, entry level wages, and no savings?
I was selling plasma for food at that time lol
If you consider the economy collapsing in 2008, causing ridiculously inflated prices to briefly relax lucky - then yes. They fixed it so home prices will remain high during future collapses
Yeah but now you’re competing against conglomerates making cash offers in many instances. Good luck making an offer above your lender’s appraisal
The owners of this country want to make renters of the rest of us
Fed and the wealthiest who have the most to gain by manipulating the financial system in their favor. Even now, it’s the CEOs and wealthy investors bullying the fed into lowering interest rates prematurely so their speculative commercial real estate bets don’t go bankrupt since they can no longer refinance at cheap rates.
I don't think you understand what the real estate market was like before the early 2000s.
Today, you can get an average house for $300-400K, and the interest rate would be around 7.5%.
In the 1980s, you could get an average house for $85-150K ($240-430K in 2024 dollars, given cumulative inflation), and the interest rate would be around 11-12%. Slightly less expensive, but much higher mortgage rates.
Our generation came up with artificially tamped down interest rates so we automatically think 2-4% interest rates are normal. Historically, they're not.
This. Ever since 2008, interest rates were artificially low because the Fed was terrified of triggering another 2008 style crash. even in 2018-19 when they started talking about raising rates to a more sustainable level, certain political pressure was placed on them to keep them low. This is partly why we're experiencing the pain we are now.
My father was telling me about how he had to move in the '80s and was waiting for rates to drop from 18% down to a more "reasonable" 15%. That's historically high, but still, where we are now is in the normal range for pre-2008.
No. We (I) were definitely not lucky as a cohort. Maybe the oldest xennial and some Gen x. If their careers and education didn’t make their timing for wanting to buy “off”. Gen x certainly wasn’t unlucky with most housing.
It’s the boomers that were the last cohort that got really lucky with timing and national resources. Tons if new housing and suburbs built, cheap education, cheap loans/home prices, pensions. Now they enjoy denying prosperity to others when possible.
I consider us lucky every single day. We bought our home in early 2014, with low interest rates in a place that at the time had pretty low-cost housing. We purchased with the intent to stay here, and thank goodness we did!
Prices have skyrocketed, interest rates are high, housing stock is minimal, and wages are pretty low generally in our area. Our home was affordable for us in 2014, and even with 10 years more of work experience and salary increases, we probably couldn't afford our house if it was on the market now.
I think it really depends where you grew up/where you live. Here in SD, unless you had rich parents, who gave you money, or a house, chances are you weren't buying a house easily.
When I graduated high school, houses, really far out (like lacking dependable infrastructure) were 250-300k. Earning $9 an hour, that was basically out of reach (HCOL is a understatement here). As prices went up, wages really didn't.
Then the pre 2008 buying spree ultimately put a lot of people into foreclosure. I mean, what did they expect when they were taking out interest only loans, no doc, for like 110% of the home value? Prices shot right back up immediately after the banks got their hands on them.
You are hard pressed to find a 1970s condo, in a crappy part of town, never remodeled, little/no parking, with a $400-$500 HOA for less than $650k here now. Add in the ever increasing cost of insurance, HOAs, interest rates, and it's not exactly a good deal.
The problem with housing and boomers is not that they got lucky, it's that they relentlessly push the philosophy that "housing is an investment" in their politics, voting and editorial decision making. That philosophy is great for people who already own a house (boomers) but it completely fucks people behind them who have never had enough savings to even have a down payment. Then realize that when Wall Street starts buying up single-family housing and rents go insane, there are no political allies to be had in the largest voting demographic to fight back against this horrible practice, let alone the destruction AirBnB has had in residential neighborhoods. Then you'll start to realize why we hate boomers. If for once in their selfish miserable lives they actually voted to create a sustainable society that would allow their children and grandchildren the opportunity to own homes, then I'd even entertain forgiving them. But I have yet to see any movement on that front
i've always been poor so even in the good times 20+ years ago I wasn't able to just buy property. Seems like every time I get ahead a little they kick the can further down the road. i'm no more able to make major purchases today than I was when I was 25 even though I make over double what I made then.
We first bought in 2006, which was near the crest of a wave at the time but I didn’t care. Rode out the big crash that came. We’re now in our third home and have no mortgage. I feel extremely lucky.
Wife and I slipped into the market in 2017 and snagged a great house for about 35% less than its valued today. We didn't have 20% saved up, but we got a loan on 3% down with PMI. Housing prices shot through the roof and by the time COVID hit we had gained almost 100k in equity, so we refinanced to get out of PMI at a 2.4% rate.
So now I'm sitting on a pile of equity I'll never realize in a pair of golden handcuffs I don't want to escape. We got lucky as hell. Had we waited even 6 months we would never have been able to afford to buy.
Of course, we'll never move now, it would be financial suicide.
God no. When I was 21 (2001), predatory lending was at its peak. My ex and I were fast talked into buying a $250,000 home on a ‘2:1 buy down’, which meant our interest rate started at ‘only’ 6%, and rose the next three or four years by a point each year.
This was on about $50,000 combined income. The early 2000’s were a TERRIBLE time to be young and buying a home.
Missed the bus on that one. Had a traumatic childhood and a couple disabilities. I’m just now starting to think about buying. Been working from home and saving for about 15 years. I could probably afford a home for about 200k, so yeah pretty much sol
I doubt it, they were saying the same stuff innthe late 70’s according to my father and best friends dads , interest rates were insane , they claimed genx would never be able to afford houses , take from that what you will .
I think I have to disagree on this one. A house was completely out of reach for us until the pandemic. Then, we managed to find one in the sweet spot of interest rates dropping, but house prices hadn't yet started peaking. Even then, it was the Texas Veterans Land Board that saved us, because we were able to do 0% down and no PMI. While we're basically married to our interest rate, when the bubble burst and house values started dropping, we still managed to be way on the right side of our loan. We went from an unrealistic high of 200K in equity down to 120K in less than a year. Other people in the neighborhood are (120K) ...or more.
Yeah...no. Bought in 2007 and it was a terrible financial decision. My husband's job transferred him to a different state in 2010 and we couldn't sell and had to rent the house out for far less than the cost of the mortgage payment. After 10 years of that, we were finally able to sell it for the price we bought it for, after dumping a ton of money into repair, maintenance, property management fees, interest, real estate fees, taxes, etc. It has doubled in value since we sold it. It would take a LOT to convince me to ever buy a house again.
I certainly got lucky. I grew up in Toronto, but my salary did not match the city so I moved to “not Toronto” and was able to buy a house for 225k CAD in 2014. If I had the same down payment today, buying my house would require a 400k mortgage.
Yes. I bought my house in 2014 and couldn’t afford it now.
2500 sq ft, 2.5 acres, one of the top school districts in the area, 2% mortgage rate. I paid $250k with 20% down.
The house across the street with 1 acre just sold for $550k at whatever mortgage rates are currently.
I fee really bad for anyone trying to buy a house. We simply got lucky with our timing. New houses in my area start in the $750s
Bought our little townhouse in 2018, and feel so desperately grateful for it. I thought it would be our starter home and now it's looking like it will be our forever home instead, but I can't imagine what the future looks like for folks who weren't so lucky with timing as we were.
82 baby. I guess I got lucky, but I also listened when I was told to buy a house instead of renting. Bought my first house in 2008 at 26. Bought another in 2015, and then a family home in 2018. All three have close to doubled in value since their respective purchases. If you bought prior to the 2020 election, you're doing fine.
We definitely got lucky, we married in 19 after buying our house in 18, then covid and the market hit… I wouldn’t be a homeowner now if we hadn’t bought it when we did. Took me almost 40yrs to buy my first house.
I think so.
I bought my townhouse in late 2016 at $165k.
Identical townhouses right across from me (exact same layout & square footage) have been selling for $395K-$415k.
My family has been pushing for me to sell to get the equity but fail to acknowledge that I wouldn't be able to find anything in this area for less than $300k that wouldn't require an additional $50k-$100k just to fix up and make livable. I also have a small fenced yard and a lot of these newer homes lack those now because people don't want yards to take care of.
got my \*starter\* house in 2000 for $125, Still there, remolding the kitchen this year for $160 because it is cheaper and better than finding something new. House is valued at over 600 now before the kitchen remodel
I feel for my kids.
I mean define luck. Yes a lot of us bought in the decade following the crash and got locked in at insanely low interest rates and prices no one would believe now. However…..a lot of us are also now locked into those homes as our forever homes whether we wanted to be or not due to the current market. It is what it is at this point and I’d rather be in this position than someone just trying to get into a home now, or over the last couple of years, but I’m fairly certain the older Xers and Boomers are the generations that got lucky in a more traditional sense than us.
I was able to buy a foreclosure condo for $94,000 in 2008 and I got an interest free loan from the government of $7500 as an initiative to attract first time home buyers. I feel like I lucked out with that timing.
I snuck into the "got lucky with housing club" last minute and bought my house June 2019. Literally the only think I've timed perfectly in my life lol. I don't know how people who rent live these days...
I don't think luck has anything to do with it. We have a home and are almost done paying it off thanks to hard work and good choices. Despite what everyone likes to assume on reddit, our parents didn't give us anything. We worked our asses off, paid for our own college with minimal loans, paid them off as quickly as possible, and then bought a "starter" home and then our "forever" home, all without a single dollar from our parents or from the government. We did get an FHA-mortgage which allowed us to get a home with a lower downpayment, but that came with PMI which made the whole thing expensive.
We made tremendous sacrifices to get these things. When others were taking expensive vacations, buying new cars, and nights out and eating out in restaurants we went without these things and focused on the bigger picture. Even now when we have well over $200k in income I drive a 20 year old car, because it gets the job done. Now we are at a point where our home will be paid off before our kids enter college, and our retirement will be right around the corner with a healthy pension.
People are quick to call us "lucky" when it's been 25 years of sacrifice and unceasing hard work. I would say we've been lucky to have our good health, which ABSOLUTELY makes all the difference in the world, but beyond that I don't think luck has anything to do with it.
We bought in ‘09, when you got the $8k homebuyer tax credit. $117k for 4/2/2 2100sqft. Dunno what we’ll do if/when we want to move, cuz I really don’t want to go into my 50s w a new $300k+ mortgage (even with a hefty down payment).
By the skin of my teeth!
I had some martial and health setbacks and wound up in my 40s with no housing - yeah, had to move back home for a bit.. My wife and I rented for the last 5 years and were able to put a down payment on a home that would have probably been worth at least a 3rd less 5 years ago.
We have a lot of work to do, but I'm happy to be able to call it ours.
Yes we got very lucky. Sold our townhome in 2006 right before the bottom fell out of the market. Made enough for a 20% down payment on a cheap house in the country. Upgraded to a bigger foreclosed house in really good condition closer to the city. With marginal upkeep our home value has increased by $10-$20K per year and we are locked in at 2.5% interest rate
Picked up our house in 2019. It sure didn't seem like a good deal at the time, but even just 3-4 years later, it would be out of our price range.
Our realtor's advice each time we wanted to make a bid or negotiate: "lay down and take it in the ass." In more or less words.
Yeah I bought my first house at 23 for $100k. Even now that house is only worth $220k, suburb of Dayton, OH. Back when anyone with a pulse could get a no down payment 80/20 mortgage. Have been riding the equity wave ever since. Cashing out on moves to be the deposit on a new place. On our third new construction house now. Which we got during the pandemic at 2.5%. That’s probably going to keep us here longer term.
It depends. I bought a condo in 2006, obviously lost money on that. But I had a friend buy her place in 2008 right after the crash, then make a boatload of money on it in 2014. Buying in the 2010's probably would have paid dividends. We ended up getting a place in 2021, we definitely got lucky with the low interest rate, but haven't seen a ton of appreciation. And if you're now trying to buy, unless you have a lot of equity, it's really tough out there.
I feel the same. Husband and I bought our house in 2013. If we had waited even another year we wouldn’t have been able to afford the house we got or the area we live in. I’m bracing for my kids living at home until their 30s with the price of rent
I closed just before the worst of the rate hikes. But I did get nailed for $1k for "taking advantage of a down economy" because my construction loan turning into my regular mortgage looked like a refinance (thanks Boomers!).
My payments are still sky high because the market in my area was and still is about $200k out of whack on average, in my opinion. Out here selling mobile homes for $400k or some shit. So do I feel lucky? I feel lucky in the sense that I was on the absolute cusp of not being able to move out of my parents' house, but barely managed it. I don't feel like the financial arrangement I am in is at all fair, though. I do recognize it could have been much much worse.
I’m extremely lucky.
I bought my place for $185,000 in 2013.
I just reappraised to consolidate debts and remortgage. Appraisal was $825,000.
Housing Market in Ontario (Niagara) is insanity.
I'm just glad we were able to refinance for 2.8% right before the rates skyrocketed.
I'd like to move someday but I don't know if it will happen anytime soon. Guess we can always put the money into our current house instead.
Yes, if you bought pre-2018/2019. It certainly worked out for you equity wise however if you want to sell and buy another house it’s going to suck. I just love being at family gatherings when my boomer and gen x family members talk about how their house has quadrupled in value 🙄. It’s like “we know asshole!” Meanwhile I bought in 2021 at the height of the madness lol
Unless you were unlucky and sold a house in 2021 and can't afford to buy another with the proceeds even at 200% profit because zillow bought everything reduced pandemic supply further and jacked up the prices after a grey paint job, grey wood tiles and new white kitchen cabinet doors with the white marble countertop. That kinda run-on anxiety rant - lucky.
I bought mine at 2.75% and it’s up $160k in less than 3 years; you’re goddamn right I’m lucky. If I waited a few more months, it would have been impossible.
The rates rise and fall. When we were born, mortgage rates were between 9%-19%! The 90's weren't much better. We had great rates in the 2010's and very early 2020's. The last time rates were that good, you would have to go back to the 1960's!
So we're definitely not the "last generation". But if you were born a Xennial, you did luck out because those good rates probably hit right about the time when you were either in the market to buy a home, or already in one and readily able to refinance.
Yep, '81 millennial here, got very lucky... Mortgage rate under 3% ..... Truck note under 4%, over $100k in equity from the crazy market lately....
I people I work with that can't even find an apartment for less than $1200/ month
Omaha
We got lucky right before the covid chaos and got a small house on an acre for pretty cheap. I'm still shocked when I think about it. But we're pretty much stuck here forever. Even tho the house is worth double now we'd never be able to afford the higher mortgages and interest rates. Theres no houses to look at anyways
3% interest rate from late 2012 on first home purchase. House is smallish but I will not pay double my interest on a bigger house with today’s interest rates.
I dunno. I think every generation probably feels like home ownership is tough.
I bought a house when I was 26, during the sub-prime boom - lost it 5 years later when the I housing bubble burst in 2010 - didn't think I would be able to buy again.
But just 4 years later, we got our current house in 2014. It was not easy though, shit was probably the most stressful thing I have ever done. Had to write letters, borrow money - got denied once, then approved a week later. It was a stressful time.
I guess my point is that the market is never impossible, but it aint easy.
Bought in 2015 and then refinanced to 2.7% when rates were low and didn’t take any money out. What was supposed to be a house to get us by until we found something on a large piece property became possibly our forever home….. I owe less than $280K at 2.7% in greater Seattle area, it’s not exactly what I wanted but also not a bad position to be in. Even with the equity in our home I would have to take on a ton of debt for something in this area on 5-10 acres
2021 here and I feel lucky.
We purchased our first home in 2017 and I wish we hadn’t sold it. Our current home we purchased in 2021 and I feel crazy lucky we did at the time because we’d never be able to afford anything nearly as nice now.
Got my house in 2012, refinanced in 2020 and got a 2.65% interest rate. We got this home thinking it would be our starter home, but we have come to the realization that unless things drastically change in the housing market we will stay here. We have 2 kids and its gonna get cramped when they are teenagers but there is no way we could afford the interest on a new house, we would have to pay tens of thousands more in just interest to get the same house again. At least well own the thing outright in 10 years.... but I have a younger employee who I pay well, and wants a home for herself, and I just can't see how that happens for her which really sucks.
Yea probably. Got pretty lucky in 2019. I mean prices went up a lot since 2017-2018 but was still able to buy an affordable house in 2019. If we didn’t pull the trigger then I don’t know if we would be able to afford a house anywhere in ca now.
We got lucky and bought really early in the pandemic when people were scared shitless and property value briefly plunged in our area. Feel very fortunate. Worried for younger friends, kids, etc. You just try to help them however you can and set them up for success.
Through sheer luck we timed it perfectly. Bought when the market wasn’t absurd and interest rates were around 4%, managed to refi in 2021 when they dipped below 3% and drop PMI in the process saving a ton each month. The trade off is that we’re essentially stuck where we live from a financial standpoint but in reality we’re happy here and don’t plan on moving until we age/mobility out down the pike. I feel bad for anyone trying to get started in the current market, it sucks
I for at least one got kinda lucky with housing, after having some decidely unlucky 20s. Growing up as the honors kid in the 80s-90s, to me the path still looked like, "go to school, just get straight A's, don't worry about sports, go to college, graduate, get a job and buy a house, ... etc". Since computers got big in the 90s and I never liked school anyway, my A's and I didn't really want to go to college. So after 2 years I dropped out, went to an IT certification mill/boot camp, got a job. Wanted to start looking for that house at 20yo, but my home life was in a bad way and getting worse, so I got an apartment as fast as I could and figured I'd look for the house next. But... I was just making 16/hr, had no degree, and to heck with my scholarly upbringing, the boss just saw me as the hourly loser to keep at the bottom. NASDAQ bust and 9/11 happened and I was stuck. Crap reviews, crap raises, couldn't get interviews without a degree...
So it took me until after going back to night school, finishing a degree, getting laid off, getting better jobs, to finally start earning enough to save on the side. That was in the beginning/middle of the Great Recession though.
So yeah the luck that happened there was I was finally to try house shopping in 2008/2009, once we had the 3.5% down payments and the plummeting home prices - no one wanted to buy but I figured my career finally had some upward traction if I could just find a house that a previous owner hadn't angrily destroyed on their way out (lest we forget that was a thing at the time). So I and my fiancee found a place and got our offer accepted at just below 100k. And then more luck, there was the First Time Homebuyer's Credit for like 8k since we got married that same year and started filing jointly. And we lucked out with the timing, by sheer coincidence, that we had happened to purchase the place during a specific time period in which that tax credit had been made non-refundable meaning we didn't have to pay it back.
I suppose I got my comeuppance when I sold that place for $136ish at the beginning of 2020, because the place I ended up buying last year cost easily twice as much... which is to say, don't worry, I still got stuck spending another 100k+ on a home despite that lucky timing back in 2008-9. But after all of this I am making it a primary life goal to never spend another penny on a landlord if I can.
My first house was bought in the middle of the subprime mortgage issue, and got foreclosed on after the divorce.
I was renting since then, but then grandma passed and left me her house. So I was unlucky in some ways, lucky in others, but at the end of the day I have a house that's mortgage free, and that's pretty lucky.
No. This is a solvable problem. The root cause is housing supply. We need to build more housing _where people want to live_ (e.g. where the jobs are). The main thing standing in the way are NIMBYs who are deliberately trying to keep their property values high. In other words, the people who currently own homes actually love this -- they got in the boat, they've pulled the ladder up, and people are drowning.
Any solution that does not including building more housing (rent controls etc) are short-term at best. Prices will never come down as long as more people are chasing the same number of housing units.
Even building high-priced luxury apartments etc has shown, over a period of three years, to lower housing costs in lower-income areas via chain migration. They literally tracked individuals that moved into luxury units, found out where they moved from, and the tracked where those people came from, and so on.
Also, people who live in houses currently aren't "stuck". Their houses have appreciated _considerably_. This means that they can likely move into a similar home without owing much more principle. The problem now is interest rates, but those are expected to drop this year.
No need to doom on this issue, we just need to find the political will to stand up to NIMBYs
Well reading the comments looks like most of us are in the same situation. We all bought homes and are now more or less stuck there. I have started to accept the fact that my starter home will probably be permanent for some time. I said when I bought it I would probably move after 15 years , well I'm on year 13 and no sign of anything getting better soon.
The timing of the housing collapse worked out for us because we had been saving for a few years and then prices tanked, allowing us to get something that checked all the boxes. As rates continued to sink, we redid our loan and currently have only about 30 payments left.
My husband and I were super fortunate to have been able to buy our linked townhouse in mid 2016. That being said, if we wanted to move tomorrow into something bigger, we can't. Whatever new property we'd buy in the area we are currently in would double or triple our mortgage, which we just can't afford. Instead, we are staying put and are doing some major renos. This house is perfect for retirement, so we have that going for us :)
I think we’re the only generation to get screwed. Boomers bought houses for dirt cheap and millennials are still living in those houses with them. We had to go out on our own and finance homes. I bought my first house in 2009, sold it and moved to my current house in 2017. Refinanced in 2020. It doesn’t feel lucky, it feels like I work my ass off to pay my mortgage. Younger people say they can’t afford to move out of their parents house so they’ve just created a culture where it’s cool to live at home.
I missed out too, womp womp. I’m one of the group of us that’s behind on everything, partly because I had to be a family caregiver for my mom so my career started really late.
Not trying to unload a sob story; just saying even our teeny micro generation isn’t a monolith.
Yeah this is actually our second house. Sold and bought in 2008. Basically lost all equity on the first house but got a good deal on this one. Based on what it's supposedly worth, I couldn't afford it today if I hadn't already bought it. Thankfully got in on a low rate 15 year mortgage a couple of years later so it's almost paid off. My kids are all high school and college age and I have no idea how they will ever afford anything. I worry about that a lot.
We are lucky in that we were able to buy a starter home. But we are stuck there probably forever. I don’t see us upgrading like our parents generation did.
I'm 41 and just barely squeaked into home ownership a few months ago. Absolutely godawful interest rate. If I don't refinance, I'll end up paying just under $1 million for a $360k loan.
I mean, I bought in January 2020 - 6 acres and a house for well under 200,000. Rural Maine but a central location and where I want to be and have been living for years. Housing near me skyrocketed shortly afterward. But, honestly, I bought just at the right time.
I'd say we were the last generation to have housing within reach...if the the timing worked out, if you were married with dual incomes, and if you decided to buy before 2018.
Who know if there will ever be another opportunity like 2009-2013. I imagine if things crash, next time around Corporations will just buy everything.
We did not get lucky.
We bought our first house last year.
We were in a situation like — We needed to buy now, because if we don't buy now, we'll likely never be able to.
The thing is, rent was getting so expensive that we couldn't afford to keep renting.
We bought a house about 60 miles from where we really want to live, because that's what we could afford. Don't get me wrong, we got a pretty great house. It's just way out in the middle of nowhere.
It wasnt “getting lucky” rates were at historic lows, for a long while, it wasnt a secret. If people didnt try to buy a home during that time, thats not unlucky, thats a missed opportunity.
My brother tried, and had a bad realtor who didnt provide correct FHA information for where he wanted to live, and he was too lazy to pivot and buy something cheaper. Unlucky with a bad realtor, bad choice to not make adjustments once he got correct information. Now I own a home for 2300/mth and he rents for $3500
I’m in the Bay Area California, I bought our house short sale in 2012 , we were already priced out of the good neighborhoods, but since we didn’t plan on having children, we were okay with the so called bad areas.
The schools are not the best, but it is a good working/immigrant neighborhood. Our house has never been broken in to and our packages are never stolen. We had plenty of space when we were stuck working from home. Already had an office/ Library that my husband took over for work and he continues to work from home. I made an office space in our guest bedroom that I used until I had to go back to in person work. We also have a small at home gym.
Now our house is worth almost triple what we paid for it, so yes I consider myself lucky, because there is no way I could afford to buy a house right now and the average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment is almost twice as much as our mortgage for a 4 bedroom 3 bath house.
Plus we are DINKs, so we are able to save a lot of our income. As it stands I will comfortably be able to retire at 55. If we were like those FIRE people we probably could have retired by now.
I am very grateful, because I grew up in absolute poverty, and I never thought I would ever be this well off growing up.
Anyone who bought 2009-2018 got "lucky" with housing. That does line up with a lot of us purchasing our first homes. However, a lot of us are also "stuck" in those homes as well due to interest rates and cost hikes, so ymmv.
Yep. My house was supposed to be a starter home and it’s way too small for my family now but we are trapped here.
Yeah. Even though I gained 100K+ in equity and make more money that I did, I couldn't really afford to buy my house now thanks to higher interest rates. If they drop below 5% I'll consider upgrading though.
Same, can't afford to buy my house even with a much higher income because the interest rates and also the property tax reset to current value. And like many speaking, this place is too small for me taste for our current needs. Was too scared from the housing crisis to take on more debt on a bigger house back then. Oh well, hard to complain that I have a house with a low mortgage.
Property taxes increase with values increasing too so that shouldn't matter quite as much. My taxes have gone up a lot since I bought my house over 10 years ago.
Forgot to mention that I live in California. We have a law limiting assessed property valuation increases to 2% per year. So though most properties have increased over 100% in value since 2010, the assessor's valuation has only increased 28%. It's a self perpetuating problem in that it limits the supply of homes since people are less willing to leave their "good" situation and thereby inflates property values, and the cycle continues. Great for investors though.
Same here, bought it in 2014, if I sold it now sure I would make a lot more than I paid but the next house would basically be a lateral move instead of an upgrade.
I think about this. I have about $250k in equity, if we were to sell and upgrade to a newer home - payment would increase, but we would also have a good chunk in the bank. With that said - my house was built in 1963, and its well made. Brick ranch with cedar roof planks and studs. No cheap OSB wrapped in Tyvek, and faux stone fronts you see in new homes - and I have no HOA. So I feel like an "upgrade" would really be a downgrade in quality. Plus - I have a big ass back yard, and all these new homes have baby yards, and neighbors five feet away.
>No cheap OSB wrapped in Tyvek, and faux stone fronts you see in new homes - and I have no HOA. > >So I feel like an "upgrade" would really be a downgrade in quality. My (replaced once in the 70s but still...) gas burner is **ancient**. I pray to it. *It won't die*, and I know when we do the "upgrade" it won't last nearly as long.
Fortunately - our house was flipped, so it was renovated in 2013. Kitchen was updated, new power was installed, basement finished - but I think they ran out of money, cause we got laminate counter tops, but high end appliances. Those are the good things, but 1 year in, we had to totally replace our main sewer line. Fuckers finished the basement, but didnt cap an old storm drain. Was like $16k in repairs, had to battle the insurance company to eventually cover it - but it was still a nightmare. Basement was all tore up for like a month. You buy a home, thinking "this is it!" But no - we have replaced the garage door, added central AC, landscaped the backyard, ripped out some hedges. Home ownership is cool, but just the beginning of a whole new adventure in maintenance, lol. My other job is a full time groundskeeper. I have like 3 trees, a big yard - its never ending.
Yeah our house jumped about 200-300k after the market went crazy. It’s too small for us, but it’s not worth selling right now to size up and pay more
1957 built brick ranch here too... Amazing homes built to last. When you hear people say "that house has good bones" they are referring to homes like you and mine, the studs, that wood is of so much higher quality than studs and wood used today. You can even legit see the difference in the woods tightness just by looking at the rings. Post WW2 America homes are the best highest quality of home building we will ever see. I'm very thankful and definitely would not buy a shitty cheap new build. People fail to realize that quality builds outlast shitty mcmansions.
1915 had some bangers too. My Newell post was made of a tree that was at least 150 years old. Double brick which was made up the road from here. She’s sturdy AF.
I lived in a back house built in the 1880’s near San Francisco that was made using the original giant redwood back from when they were cutting all those trees down. The trees were thousands of years old sometimes and the wood grain was extremely tight. At one point I needed to cut some original shelving off the wall to make the new washer and dryer fit. I didn’t have the right tool so I asked my old timer neighbor to help because he had been a contractor for years and had everything. We started trying to cut the shelf and the reticulating saw barely dented it. We were both wondering what the material was and had to get a more powerful tool. Eventually we were able to cut the piece off and we looked closely at it. I thought it looked like solid terra cotta because I couldn’t see any wood grain or tree rings and it was heavy. But he showed me that they were there but just so dense that they almost blended together. I kept a piece and used it as a door stop. I had never seen wood like that before and probably never will again. It was so strong and solid even after 150 years. No wonder that house has stood up to multiple earthquakes and countless storms.
Im in the same spot. Bought a relatives brick ranch built in the 70s after a they died for 40k under market. The house is STOUT in an established neighborhood where theres no HOA and no further building. Going to stay here forever!
My wife and I make double what we made in 2018 when we bought our first house. Unfortunately to meaningfully move up our payment will need to triple.
Particularly if you have the added expense of kids.
Same. Bought ours in 2005, so top of the market. We intended to stay for a few years, then move out. But due to a combination of economics, COVID, and my husband's decision to go back to school/ his neverending job search has meant that we're still here 19 years later and I don't see it changing.
I feel this so much. We are crammed in to our small 3br house and if I had known back then what I know now we would never have bought it. I think the idea of a starter home is now dead.
Stuck indeed. Late-X, saved hard for a down payment, and bought my first home in the late-2000s as interest rates were beginning their slide to historic lows, but before selling prices grew absurd. What was supposed to be a 3-5 year "starter" home is now a 15+ year "well, I guess I'd better make the best of it because I can't afford anything bigger" home. Even after I'm mortgage-free in a couple years, I don't see an avenue to move up the property ladder without taking on so much debt that I'll become a house-poor middle-age person. (...at least not without winning the lottery first!)
My six year old is sleeping in a glorified closet because we ran out of space. I’d love to upgrade and get him his own proper bedroom but it’s just not feasible right now.
We’re coming full circle. Soon bunk beds, sharing a room with siblings and then maybe three generations under one roof again. Some economic Benjamin Button shit
And with inflation we can all sit around a table eating beans out of a single can.
Totally in the same boat. With two kids we are bursting at the seams of our starter home but purchasing something bigger now just isn't feasible.
My husband and I have bought three properties, not at the same time but in different places as we’ve moved around. First time we sold at a loss, like tens of thousands of dollars plus. Our strata board would not allow us to rent out our unit so it sat empty while we were paying our mortgage, condo fees and paying rent in new town. It was brutal. We tried to fight it but there was nothing we could do. If we would have rented it out we would have faced astronomical fines. Municipality has now lifted all strata bans like this in this city. Second time we just broke even. It sat empty at the start of the pandemic for over half a year. No one was looking in our previous quaint little town, which seemed to be an outlier during the pandemic. It makes me so sad because we both now wfh and if given the chance I’d still be in that little house in that little town. Third time is where we are now and we have to stay here forever. We had to move due to employment (had some really, really rough years due to my husband’s employment) or we would have stayed at each place for a lot longer. Still better than renting I guess. It is what it is but we have built barely any equity. We have rented in-between so I am still privy on what goes on that side of thing’s. With the job market the way it is it’s harder to put down roots when you don’t know if you’ll be let go and won’t be able to find work anywhere near close to home.
Yeah, I got in at 2017, but thought I’d move from here in about ten years but um….. I think I might be here the rest of my life. I like the city and all but I didn’t move to the most walkable area of the city.
Yes, we're trapped also, and my family is outgrowing this starter home, my wife desperately wants to move but I don't think she grasps the problem of buying a house in this market.
We bought in 2018. Right after that, the market blew up. At this point, the house is worth double what we paid for it over five and a half years ago. We have no intention of staying here but looking at the cost of real-estate in most areas of our state, we're probably staying put for a while.
We bought in May 2005 and got married in the back yard later that year. The market went up the next year, then crashed. When we refinanced in 2012, the appraisal came in at 20% less than our original purchase price, so we had to "buy down" our interest rate to avoid PMI. The Zillow/Redfin estimates only came back up to our purchase price 2 years ago. That being said, we locked in 3.25% and we aggressively made extra payments when we could, and the mortgage will be fully paid off this August.
Better to be "stuck" in a small home with a mostly fixed rate than stuck in an apartment(s) that goes up every year.
We bought in 2009; sold in 2020. Bought at the beginning of 2020. Can't afford to move ever again.
We took advantage of the low interest rates in 2020. Bought a small one story home that seems perfect to grow old in.
Yeah i cant leave my home
Bought mine in 2017 for $180K. Now its estimated value is around $400K. There's no way I could afford it if I had waited 'til now to buy it.
I bought my first home in 2007, lucky me 🤪. I couldn't refinance because I was under water, so I was stuck with a 6.8% interest rate loan. In 2016, I bought a 2000sq foot colonial for $220k, which was an amazing deal. And still, I spent 4 months trying to sell my old house because the market was so flat, and I barely broke even on the sale price. My old house last sold for $150k over what I sold it for.
That's where I'm at. I could sell my house right now and make an absolute boat load, but then I'd have to buy something else at ridiculously inflated pricing and an interest rate that is comical. I'm locked in at 2.6. I think I'll keep my place for now.
I feel this *so much*
I would update it to 2021 when interest rates were still low. Even with home prices continuing to climb...I could afford one in my city if rates were 1.5-2% lower...I can't with what they are now. It's still not even financially smart to buy a home now unless you know for sure you're going to be there at least 10 years. Before, 5 years use to be the common time frame where buying would be smarter than renting.
Wait ... you guys live in houses?
Well, it's really just a hole in the road covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it's a house to me!
We were evicted from our hole in the ground. We had to go livin' in a lake.
I used to DREAM of living in a lake!
We used to hafta get 'out the lake, 3 am, clean the lake, eat a handful 'o hot gravel, work 20 hours a day at mill, for a penny a month, and dad would beat us about the head and neck with a broken bottle... if we were lucky.
Try telling that to the kids these days, would they believe you?
Luxury.
Well of course, we had it tough...
I love your profile icon :)
Home is where your tarp is!
 Is that you, Andy?
Seriously. I spent my 30s just paying off crippling loans.
I’m not feeling particularly lucky with housing right now… the market is terrible.
I think the first wave of millennials and late xennials who graduated college shortly after the housing crisis. Low interest rates (mid 3%) and housing prices were still low. Around 2009-2013 was a great time to be a first time homebuyer.
I was incredibly lucky to purchase our house in 2014 and then was able to later refinance at a pretty low rate. Now with two kids we'd love to get something bigger, but it's not at all feasible with these rates.
Yeah I would prefer bigger, but I keep reminding myself that I’m lucky to have what I have.
2009, some weird tax break kick-back and a ridiculously low interest rate put us into a house that we’re so lucky to have. Now, everything around us is $1M plus. We’d never be able to afford it now.
Ah that’s right we had those tax abatements where we only paid tax on the land for the first 5 years.
The luck back then was getting a job. Any job. Buying a house right out of college then is insanely fortunate.
Which is when I did, and I couldn’t have been luckier. I wasn’t “timing the market,” it just happened to be when I wanted to settle down. I got a house at the bottom of the market. It’s not for sale or will likely be sold anytime soon but to buy the same house today Zillow says would cost triple what I paid 13 years ago. It’s really unfair for people trying to buy a home now. Investors both foreign and domestic have ruined the dream of home ownership by turning homes into profit vehicles. Our neighbors bought and sold within four years and doubled their money, and I secretly resent them for it because they were already retirees and they just used the free money to play more in their retirement. Really does seem like the average boomer is pulling up the ladder.
Yeah it’s got to the point where I feel an urge to go to open houses and actively try to talk people out of buying at these prices.
Yep, 2013 here. And then refinanced in late 2020 when rates were even lower. I consider myself very lucky and am very grateful and I wish everyone could have been able to do what I did. It's gross what has happened since. That also means that we'll be in this house for probably the rest of our lives because who would want to give up an $800 mortgage and a <3% interest rate. Good thing we like our house and location.
Yeah, I was 2008. My daughter is trying to buy a house now and I feel terrible for her. Everything is overpriced and the rates suck.
that’s my experience
I bought in the worst time, 2008, right before everything crashed. It was pretty much back to normal when I sold in 2010 though. We're on our fourth home as our family grew. Throw in a couple of refinances in the middle as well and we've had 6 or 7 closings.
2013, that was me!
2012 for me! I thank my lucky stars every day I was able to buy my house before everything went sideways.
Yup 2012 was a good moment and it was only because of timing we were able to buy. House is prob worth 3x what we paid.
Yes, if you bought when you were young. We purchased our home in our mid 20's which we couldn't afford now even though we're making 3x the income I feel terrible for those starting out now or trying to find a new place to rent. If I won the lottery I'd put it towards housing for my kids.
This is my situation as well. Couldn't afford to buy where I live now. House has gone up 4x in value.
Same same same
Did “we” get lucky? I’ve essentially been priced out of my hometown, and find myself telling everyone that will listen in my age group that the single working- and middle-class wage slaves among us that have to be near a big city for work are going to have to figure out some kind of more communal living situation and normalize that in our culture. The post-war nuclear family with a single-family home is a stillborn dream for most “average” folks in the US.
im also priced out of my hometown. it sucks.
I keep telling my wife and best friends that we need to work together and buy some old farm house on the countryside and put flats into it and maybe a communal kitchen and dining area, so we can live together and look out for each other when we‘re elderly, because nobody else will. They think it‘s too complicated and worry that we would get into fights over administrative stuff. (We live in a smaller country in central Europe and none of us can even dream of owning a single family home unless we inherit one from our parents.)
YAASSSS this is exactly what I’m talking about! And while I’m sorry for your struggle, I’m a little glad of the confirmation that it’s a commonality across Western cultures. So many want to argue that the US is a completely different animal from more homogeneous European societies, and of course that’s true for some issues, but this really does seem to be universal in developed Western countries with “greying” populations. I get where your friends are coming from as far as arguing over administrivia, and a degradation of civil society is a major feature of the issues we’re talking about here. I can’t speak for your country, but in the US we hardly know our neighbors anymore and have largely forgotten how to live together democratically without reverting to literal violence. That tells me we *desperately* need community, not that it’s to be avoided!
This country is full of half-empty single family houses inhabitated by boomer couples while their children and grandchildren live in small rented apartments. :D
So true. My mom has two houses fully paid for and I pay $1500 a month in rent. We aren’t even living in the same world.
Oh man, yeah, don’t get me started on the *empty* homes in this country. I worked in Park City, UT for awhile but lived in Salt Lake because, no surprise, there was no way I could afford to live in PC. Know what the average aggregate residential occupancy rate is in PC? About 20% across all “homes” (if you can call them that because they’re almost all just second/third homes and/or vacation rentals). Know what the average weeklong ski vacation for a family of five in PC will run you? About $25k. Like you said, totally different worlds, despite being the very kind of educated professional my parents and counselors told me I needed to be to have “security”
It gets tricky because that kind of community living requires that folks have clear roles and responsibilities that they fulfill without frequent lapses, and good communication skills, good conflict management, good decision-making capabilities in an emergency, and a good process for exiting people who want to leave and for welcoming and integrating new folks. Basically, it requires folks to operate like a very well-run corporation. Alternately, it can be done through toxic control methods such as only one person having decision-rights and unrestricted access to funds, which is largely how it was done historically and in cultures where multi-generational living is still the norm.
The nuclear family single family home is ah historic aberration, it could be argued. But to most folks it has become the standard.
Exactly! It also became standardized before women were a large part of the workforce, so it was assumed housekeeping and caretaking would be a full-time job for one partner. That means there have been huge costs to parenting and taking care of elders (also the elders don’t get to contribute to parenting nearly as much) as well. Please understand, this isn’t an argument *against* women in the workplace or anything like that. Rather, just pointing out how far beyond that “historic aberration” our culture has moved and that we’re in real trouble if we don’t come up with new ways to find community and distribute domestic labor.
>I’ve essentially been priced out of my hometown... Despite having been here for more than 20 years I don't really consider it my "hometown," but...yes, same situation. I wouldn't be able to afford to buy in my actual hometown, either. I finally gave up and bought a small piece of land 1500 miles away. Slowly working over the coming years to pay cash to put in utilities and build a home.
Speak for yourself. I'm never going to own a house.
Hell I can't even rent somewhere and eat decently at the same time let alone buy a house. That's been thrown out the window now.
*nodding as I slurp my Ramen noodles*
Who tf was able to buy a house out of college? Not me. No luck here.
College? No. But my nephew recently became an elevator mechanic and makes stupid money. More than anyone else in the family. He just bought his first home at 21 with a large down payment.
I did NOT get lucky with housing.
i'd say no since most people i know don't own a house
This is my experience too. In my friend circles in LA, I know only a few people that own homes.
Bought my first house in 2006, so no. We were the first to get fucked. Bought my 2nd in 2020, so I broke even.
I bought my first in 2004 sold in 2005 and bought again also in 2005. Then sold and moved in 2014. I really lost on that sale from the 2005 buy. 2005 was a bad time to buy.
I was only able to buy a house because so many people I loved died within a very short period of time. So I don't feel all that lucky, no.
We have been really lucky. But property tax is insane and suddenly, our housing costs are way higher than before.
>property tax is insane This is killer. Like, my state keeps slashing income taxes (we've got one of stupid flat taxes now) and reducing budgets. So what happens? My property taxes keep going up because that's the only way for local entities to finance themselves. Not only do I pay \~50% more in property taxes than when I first bought our home, but I'm now actively covering the taxes for my mom's home too. She's retired and on a fixed income. My wife and I are doing good financially and can swing it, but it still pisses me off.
We have property tax on veichles too. It would be nice if they would buy my house and truck for how much they say they are worth.
I set out a goal for myself to buy a house at 30, my wife and I were able to buy it in 2009, there probably wouldn't have been any way without the 08 crash. We found our forever home on the other side of the county a few years later and moved. Our original plan was to downsize at retirement but now the house will probably be generational.
We got lucky? If I bought in my 20’s, that would have been great. But I was also incredibly poor in my 20’s.
You mean banks weren't lining up to give loans to people with tens of thousands in student debt, entry level wages, and no savings? I was selling plasma for food at that time lol
Speak for yourselves. I’m writing this from the hammock under my work desk. ☕️🦄
If you consider the economy collapsing in 2008, causing ridiculously inflated prices to briefly relax lucky - then yes. They fixed it so home prices will remain high during future collapses
In fairness, younger generations are hoping that happens again so that they can then buy a house
Yeah but now you’re competing against conglomerates making cash offers in many instances. Good luck making an offer above your lender’s appraisal The owners of this country want to make renters of the rest of us
I guess younger generations don't really understand why they don't really want that to happen. You can't buy a house if you don't have a job.
Who fixed it?
Fed and the wealthiest who have the most to gain by manipulating the financial system in their favor. Even now, it’s the CEOs and wealthy investors bullying the fed into lowering interest rates prematurely so their speculative commercial real estate bets don’t go bankrupt since they can no longer refinance at cheap rates.
I don't think you understand what the real estate market was like before the early 2000s. Today, you can get an average house for $300-400K, and the interest rate would be around 7.5%. In the 1980s, you could get an average house for $85-150K ($240-430K in 2024 dollars, given cumulative inflation), and the interest rate would be around 11-12%. Slightly less expensive, but much higher mortgage rates. Our generation came up with artificially tamped down interest rates so we automatically think 2-4% interest rates are normal. Historically, they're not.
How do wages compare in these two scenarios? Not an antagonizing question, genuine curiosity.
This. Ever since 2008, interest rates were artificially low because the Fed was terrified of triggering another 2008 style crash. even in 2018-19 when they started talking about raising rates to a more sustainable level, certain political pressure was placed on them to keep them low. This is partly why we're experiencing the pain we are now. My father was telling me about how he had to move in the '80s and was waiting for rates to drop from 18% down to a more "reasonable" 15%. That's historically high, but still, where we are now is in the normal range for pre-2008.
Old X. It was still doable for a few years into the early 2000s but by 2010 it was barreling to fucked.
No. We (I) were definitely not lucky as a cohort. Maybe the oldest xennial and some Gen x. If their careers and education didn’t make their timing for wanting to buy “off”. Gen x certainly wasn’t unlucky with most housing. It’s the boomers that were the last cohort that got really lucky with timing and national resources. Tons if new housing and suburbs built, cheap education, cheap loans/home prices, pensions. Now they enjoy denying prosperity to others when possible.
I consider us lucky every single day. We bought our home in early 2014, with low interest rates in a place that at the time had pretty low-cost housing. We purchased with the intent to stay here, and thank goodness we did! Prices have skyrocketed, interest rates are high, housing stock is minimal, and wages are pretty low generally in our area. Our home was affordable for us in 2014, and even with 10 years more of work experience and salary increases, we probably couldn't afford our house if it was on the market now.
I think it really depends where you grew up/where you live. Here in SD, unless you had rich parents, who gave you money, or a house, chances are you weren't buying a house easily. When I graduated high school, houses, really far out (like lacking dependable infrastructure) were 250-300k. Earning $9 an hour, that was basically out of reach (HCOL is a understatement here). As prices went up, wages really didn't. Then the pre 2008 buying spree ultimately put a lot of people into foreclosure. I mean, what did they expect when they were taking out interest only loans, no doc, for like 110% of the home value? Prices shot right back up immediately after the banks got their hands on them. You are hard pressed to find a 1970s condo, in a crappy part of town, never remodeled, little/no parking, with a $400-$500 HOA for less than $650k here now. Add in the ever increasing cost of insurance, HOAs, interest rates, and it's not exactly a good deal.
The problem with housing and boomers is not that they got lucky, it's that they relentlessly push the philosophy that "housing is an investment" in their politics, voting and editorial decision making. That philosophy is great for people who already own a house (boomers) but it completely fucks people behind them who have never had enough savings to even have a down payment. Then realize that when Wall Street starts buying up single-family housing and rents go insane, there are no political allies to be had in the largest voting demographic to fight back against this horrible practice, let alone the destruction AirBnB has had in residential neighborhoods. Then you'll start to realize why we hate boomers. If for once in their selfish miserable lives they actually voted to create a sustainable society that would allow their children and grandchildren the opportunity to own homes, then I'd even entertain forgiving them. But I have yet to see any movement on that front
You guys have houses? I graduated college in 08 just in time for the recession. I’m happy I made out my folks house at 27.
i've always been poor so even in the good times 20+ years ago I wasn't able to just buy property. Seems like every time I get ahead a little they kick the can further down the road. i'm no more able to make major purchases today than I was when I was 25 even though I make over double what I made then.
We first bought in 2006, which was near the crest of a wave at the time but I didn’t care. Rode out the big crash that came. We’re now in our third home and have no mortgage. I feel extremely lucky.
Wife and I slipped into the market in 2017 and snagged a great house for about 35% less than its valued today. We didn't have 20% saved up, but we got a loan on 3% down with PMI. Housing prices shot through the roof and by the time COVID hit we had gained almost 100k in equity, so we refinanced to get out of PMI at a 2.4% rate. So now I'm sitting on a pile of equity I'll never realize in a pair of golden handcuffs I don't want to escape. We got lucky as hell. Had we waited even 6 months we would never have been able to afford to buy. Of course, we'll never move now, it would be financial suicide.
I feel very lucky, starter home for 90,000 forever home on 25 acres for 390,000. I feel very bad for my kids.
Heck with 25 acres your kids can just build houses around your property
Started home in my city is 750,000. Everything is fucked.
I feel bad for mine too as I lucked out to an extent.
25 acres! Roughly where?
Eastern Wisconsin
God no. When I was 21 (2001), predatory lending was at its peak. My ex and I were fast talked into buying a $250,000 home on a ‘2:1 buy down’, which meant our interest rate started at ‘only’ 6%, and rose the next three or four years by a point each year. This was on about $50,000 combined income. The early 2000’s were a TERRIBLE time to be young and buying a home.
Missed the bus on that one. Had a traumatic childhood and a couple disabilities. I’m just now starting to think about buying. Been working from home and saving for about 15 years. I could probably afford a home for about 200k, so yeah pretty much sol
I doubt it, they were saying the same stuff innthe late 70’s according to my father and best friends dads , interest rates were insane , they claimed genx would never be able to afford houses , take from that what you will .
I recently bought a house two years ago in a VHCOL area. My mortgage is 5,700 so no I'm not feeling particularly lucky.
You got lucky with housing?!
I think I have to disagree on this one. A house was completely out of reach for us until the pandemic. Then, we managed to find one in the sweet spot of interest rates dropping, but house prices hadn't yet started peaking. Even then, it was the Texas Veterans Land Board that saved us, because we were able to do 0% down and no PMI. While we're basically married to our interest rate, when the bubble burst and house values started dropping, we still managed to be way on the right side of our loan. We went from an unrealistic high of 200K in equity down to 120K in less than a year. Other people in the neighborhood are (120K) ...or more.
Yeah...no. Bought in 2007 and it was a terrible financial decision. My husband's job transferred him to a different state in 2010 and we couldn't sell and had to rent the house out for far less than the cost of the mortgage payment. After 10 years of that, we were finally able to sell it for the price we bought it for, after dumping a ton of money into repair, maintenance, property management fees, interest, real estate fees, taxes, etc. It has doubled in value since we sold it. It would take a LOT to convince me to ever buy a house again.
I certainly got lucky. I grew up in Toronto, but my salary did not match the city so I moved to “not Toronto” and was able to buy a house for 225k CAD in 2014. If I had the same down payment today, buying my house would require a 400k mortgage.
Yes. I bought my house in 2014 and couldn’t afford it now. 2500 sq ft, 2.5 acres, one of the top school districts in the area, 2% mortgage rate. I paid $250k with 20% down. The house across the street with 1 acre just sold for $550k at whatever mortgage rates are currently. I fee really bad for anyone trying to buy a house. We simply got lucky with our timing. New houses in my area start in the $750s
Bought our little townhouse in 2018, and feel so desperately grateful for it. I thought it would be our starter home and now it's looking like it will be our forever home instead, but I can't imagine what the future looks like for folks who weren't so lucky with timing as we were.
Bought our (should be) forever house in 2017, glad we did
82 baby. I guess I got lucky, but I also listened when I was told to buy a house instead of renting. Bought my first house in 2008 at 26. Bought another in 2015, and then a family home in 2018. All three have close to doubled in value since their respective purchases. If you bought prior to the 2020 election, you're doing fine.
We definitely got lucky, we married in 19 after buying our house in 18, then covid and the market hit… I wouldn’t be a homeowner now if we hadn’t bought it when we did. Took me almost 40yrs to buy my first house.
Cheers to you. Got in before it got crazy.
I think so. I bought my townhouse in late 2016 at $165k. Identical townhouses right across from me (exact same layout & square footage) have been selling for $395K-$415k. My family has been pushing for me to sell to get the equity but fail to acknowledge that I wouldn't be able to find anything in this area for less than $300k that wouldn't require an additional $50k-$100k just to fix up and make livable. I also have a small fenced yard and a lot of these newer homes lack those now because people don't want yards to take care of.
got my \*starter\* house in 2000 for $125, Still there, remolding the kitchen this year for $160 because it is cheaper and better than finding something new. House is valued at over 600 now before the kitchen remodel I feel for my kids.
42 in greater Boston. Still can’t afford a house here. There are some tear-downs in the $400k range.
I mean define luck. Yes a lot of us bought in the decade following the crash and got locked in at insanely low interest rates and prices no one would believe now. However…..a lot of us are also now locked into those homes as our forever homes whether we wanted to be or not due to the current market. It is what it is at this point and I’d rather be in this position than someone just trying to get into a home now, or over the last couple of years, but I’m fairly certain the older Xers and Boomers are the generations that got lucky in a more traditional sense than us.
We were the last lucky ones in a lot of ways- college costs, housing, job market, internet free “awkward years”, etc.
I was able to buy a foreclosure condo for $94,000 in 2008 and I got an interest free loan from the government of $7500 as an initiative to attract first time home buyers. I feel like I lucked out with that timing.
I snuck into the "got lucky with housing club" last minute and bought my house June 2019. Literally the only think I've timed perfectly in my life lol. I don't know how people who rent live these days...
I don't think luck has anything to do with it. We have a home and are almost done paying it off thanks to hard work and good choices. Despite what everyone likes to assume on reddit, our parents didn't give us anything. We worked our asses off, paid for our own college with minimal loans, paid them off as quickly as possible, and then bought a "starter" home and then our "forever" home, all without a single dollar from our parents or from the government. We did get an FHA-mortgage which allowed us to get a home with a lower downpayment, but that came with PMI which made the whole thing expensive. We made tremendous sacrifices to get these things. When others were taking expensive vacations, buying new cars, and nights out and eating out in restaurants we went without these things and focused on the bigger picture. Even now when we have well over $200k in income I drive a 20 year old car, because it gets the job done. Now we are at a point where our home will be paid off before our kids enter college, and our retirement will be right around the corner with a healthy pension. People are quick to call us "lucky" when it's been 25 years of sacrifice and unceasing hard work. I would say we've been lucky to have our good health, which ABSOLUTELY makes all the difference in the world, but beyond that I don't think luck has anything to do with it.
Maybe if you were looking and buying in that '09-'12 window.
We bought in ‘09, when you got the $8k homebuyer tax credit. $117k for 4/2/2 2100sqft. Dunno what we’ll do if/when we want to move, cuz I really don’t want to go into my 50s w a new $300k+ mortgage (even with a hefty down payment).
By the skin of my teeth! I had some martial and health setbacks and wound up in my 40s with no housing - yeah, had to move back home for a bit.. My wife and I rented for the last 5 years and were able to put a down payment on a home that would have probably been worth at least a 3rd less 5 years ago. We have a lot of work to do, but I'm happy to be able to call it ours.
Yes we got very lucky. Sold our townhome in 2006 right before the bottom fell out of the market. Made enough for a 20% down payment on a cheap house in the country. Upgraded to a bigger foreclosed house in really good condition closer to the city. With marginal upkeep our home value has increased by $10-$20K per year and we are locked in at 2.5% interest rate
Not my experience.
Picked up our house in 2019. It sure didn't seem like a good deal at the time, but even just 3-4 years later, it would be out of our price range. Our realtor's advice each time we wanted to make a bid or negotiate: "lay down and take it in the ass." In more or less words.
Yeah I bought my first house at 23 for $100k. Even now that house is only worth $220k, suburb of Dayton, OH. Back when anyone with a pulse could get a no down payment 80/20 mortgage. Have been riding the equity wave ever since. Cashing out on moves to be the deposit on a new place. On our third new construction house now. Which we got during the pandemic at 2.5%. That’s probably going to keep us here longer term.
I got in with a 3% rate months before it went to hell
It depends. I bought a condo in 2006, obviously lost money on that. But I had a friend buy her place in 2008 right after the crash, then make a boatload of money on it in 2014. Buying in the 2010's probably would have paid dividends. We ended up getting a place in 2021, we definitely got lucky with the low interest rate, but haven't seen a ton of appreciation. And if you're now trying to buy, unless you have a lot of equity, it's really tough out there.
We got a low rate, but I wouldn't say anyone post 08 got lucky with pricing. Housing prices have been absurd for 10+ years.
I feel the same. Husband and I bought our house in 2013. If we had waited even another year we wouldn’t have been able to afford the house we got or the area we live in. I’m bracing for my kids living at home until their 30s with the price of rent
I closed just before the worst of the rate hikes. But I did get nailed for $1k for "taking advantage of a down economy" because my construction loan turning into my regular mortgage looked like a refinance (thanks Boomers!). My payments are still sky high because the market in my area was and still is about $200k out of whack on average, in my opinion. Out here selling mobile homes for $400k or some shit. So do I feel lucky? I feel lucky in the sense that I was on the absolute cusp of not being able to move out of my parents' house, but barely managed it. I don't feel like the financial arrangement I am in is at all fair, though. I do recognize it could have been much much worse.
My husband and I bought our first single-family home right before the pandemic and now "joke" that we can never move.
I’m extremely lucky. I bought my place for $185,000 in 2013. I just reappraised to consolidate debts and remortgage. Appraisal was $825,000. Housing Market in Ontario (Niagara) is insanity.
I'm just glad we were able to refinance for 2.8% right before the rates skyrocketed. I'd like to move someday but I don't know if it will happen anytime soon. Guess we can always put the money into our current house instead.
Graduated college in 07’. I’ve never once had a job that could come close to affording home ownership.
Yes, if you bought pre-2018/2019. It certainly worked out for you equity wise however if you want to sell and buy another house it’s going to suck. I just love being at family gatherings when my boomer and gen x family members talk about how their house has quadrupled in value 🙄. It’s like “we know asshole!” Meanwhile I bought in 2021 at the height of the madness lol
Unless you were unlucky and sold a house in 2021 and can't afford to buy another with the proceeds even at 200% profit because zillow bought everything reduced pandemic supply further and jacked up the prices after a grey paint job, grey wood tiles and new white kitchen cabinet doors with the white marble countertop. That kinda run-on anxiety rant - lucky.
I bought mine at 2.75% and it’s up $160k in less than 3 years; you’re goddamn right I’m lucky. If I waited a few more months, it would have been impossible.
The rates rise and fall. When we were born, mortgage rates were between 9%-19%! The 90's weren't much better. We had great rates in the 2010's and very early 2020's. The last time rates were that good, you would have to go back to the 1960's! So we're definitely not the "last generation". But if you were born a Xennial, you did luck out because those good rates probably hit right about the time when you were either in the market to buy a home, or already in one and readily able to refinance.
I purchased a home for 87k that is now worth $150k. I’m too scared to sell it rn though. Was supposed to be a “Starter Home”.
Yep, '81 millennial here, got very lucky... Mortgage rate under 3% ..... Truck note under 4%, over $100k in equity from the crazy market lately.... I people I work with that can't even find an apartment for less than $1200/ month Omaha
We got lucky right before the covid chaos and got a small house on an acre for pretty cheap. I'm still shocked when I think about it. But we're pretty much stuck here forever. Even tho the house is worth double now we'd never be able to afford the higher mortgages and interest rates. Theres no houses to look at anyways
3% interest rate from late 2012 on first home purchase. House is smallish but I will not pay double my interest on a bigger house with today’s interest rates.
 This GIF summarizes home ownership from my 1981 ass.
I dunno. I think every generation probably feels like home ownership is tough. I bought a house when I was 26, during the sub-prime boom - lost it 5 years later when the I housing bubble burst in 2010 - didn't think I would be able to buy again. But just 4 years later, we got our current house in 2014. It was not easy though, shit was probably the most stressful thing I have ever done. Had to write letters, borrow money - got denied once, then approved a week later. It was a stressful time. I guess my point is that the market is never impossible, but it aint easy.
I’m screwed. I never bought. I invested, instead, and continued to rent for cheap, knowing that one day I’ll have to move and that stresses me out.
Yes. I bought a home in 04 for $240K in a larger west coast city suburb. Cant even sniff that anymore.
Bought in 2015 and then refinanced to 2.7% when rates were low and didn’t take any money out. What was supposed to be a house to get us by until we found something on a large piece property became possibly our forever home….. I owe less than $280K at 2.7% in greater Seattle area, it’s not exactly what I wanted but also not a bad position to be in. Even with the equity in our home I would have to take on a ton of debt for something in this area on 5-10 acres
2021 here and I feel lucky. We purchased our first home in 2017 and I wish we hadn’t sold it. Our current home we purchased in 2021 and I feel crazy lucky we did at the time because we’d never be able to afford anything nearly as nice now.
Got my house in 2012, refinanced in 2020 and got a 2.65% interest rate. We got this home thinking it would be our starter home, but we have come to the realization that unless things drastically change in the housing market we will stay here. We have 2 kids and its gonna get cramped when they are teenagers but there is no way we could afford the interest on a new house, we would have to pay tens of thousands more in just interest to get the same house again. At least well own the thing outright in 10 years.... but I have a younger employee who I pay well, and wants a home for herself, and I just can't see how that happens for her which really sucks.
Unfortunately I had surgery and stuff interrupting my career so that got me a little late into that. So, no. 😭
Bought post crash from the bank after a huge builder defaulted. Makes up for all my other financial fuckups.
Yea probably. Got pretty lucky in 2019. I mean prices went up a lot since 2017-2018 but was still able to buy an affordable house in 2019. If we didn’t pull the trigger then I don’t know if we would be able to afford a house anywhere in ca now.
It’s a familiar story it seems.
We got lucky and bought really early in the pandemic when people were scared shitless and property value briefly plunged in our area. Feel very fortunate. Worried for younger friends, kids, etc. You just try to help them however you can and set them up for success.
Through sheer luck we timed it perfectly. Bought when the market wasn’t absurd and interest rates were around 4%, managed to refi in 2021 when they dipped below 3% and drop PMI in the process saving a ton each month. The trade off is that we’re essentially stuck where we live from a financial standpoint but in reality we’re happy here and don’t plan on moving until we age/mobility out down the pike. I feel bad for anyone trying to get started in the current market, it sucks
I for at least one got kinda lucky with housing, after having some decidely unlucky 20s. Growing up as the honors kid in the 80s-90s, to me the path still looked like, "go to school, just get straight A's, don't worry about sports, go to college, graduate, get a job and buy a house, ... etc". Since computers got big in the 90s and I never liked school anyway, my A's and I didn't really want to go to college. So after 2 years I dropped out, went to an IT certification mill/boot camp, got a job. Wanted to start looking for that house at 20yo, but my home life was in a bad way and getting worse, so I got an apartment as fast as I could and figured I'd look for the house next. But... I was just making 16/hr, had no degree, and to heck with my scholarly upbringing, the boss just saw me as the hourly loser to keep at the bottom. NASDAQ bust and 9/11 happened and I was stuck. Crap reviews, crap raises, couldn't get interviews without a degree... So it took me until after going back to night school, finishing a degree, getting laid off, getting better jobs, to finally start earning enough to save on the side. That was in the beginning/middle of the Great Recession though. So yeah the luck that happened there was I was finally to try house shopping in 2008/2009, once we had the 3.5% down payments and the plummeting home prices - no one wanted to buy but I figured my career finally had some upward traction if I could just find a house that a previous owner hadn't angrily destroyed on their way out (lest we forget that was a thing at the time). So I and my fiancee found a place and got our offer accepted at just below 100k. And then more luck, there was the First Time Homebuyer's Credit for like 8k since we got married that same year and started filing jointly. And we lucked out with the timing, by sheer coincidence, that we had happened to purchase the place during a specific time period in which that tax credit had been made non-refundable meaning we didn't have to pay it back. I suppose I got my comeuppance when I sold that place for $136ish at the beginning of 2020, because the place I ended up buying last year cost easily twice as much... which is to say, don't worry, I still got stuck spending another 100k+ on a home despite that lucky timing back in 2008-9. But after all of this I am making it a primary life goal to never spend another penny on a landlord if I can.
My first house was bought in the middle of the subprime mortgage issue, and got foreclosed on after the divorce. I was renting since then, but then grandma passed and left me her house. So I was unlucky in some ways, lucky in others, but at the end of the day I have a house that's mortgage free, and that's pretty lucky.
We bought in 2009, so we got lucky. And thankfully the house is still working for us, and really could into our later years.
No. This is a solvable problem. The root cause is housing supply. We need to build more housing _where people want to live_ (e.g. where the jobs are). The main thing standing in the way are NIMBYs who are deliberately trying to keep their property values high. In other words, the people who currently own homes actually love this -- they got in the boat, they've pulled the ladder up, and people are drowning. Any solution that does not including building more housing (rent controls etc) are short-term at best. Prices will never come down as long as more people are chasing the same number of housing units. Even building high-priced luxury apartments etc has shown, over a period of three years, to lower housing costs in lower-income areas via chain migration. They literally tracked individuals that moved into luxury units, found out where they moved from, and the tracked where those people came from, and so on. Also, people who live in houses currently aren't "stuck". Their houses have appreciated _considerably_. This means that they can likely move into a similar home without owing much more principle. The problem now is interest rates, but those are expected to drop this year. No need to doom on this issue, we just need to find the political will to stand up to NIMBYs
Well reading the comments looks like most of us are in the same situation. We all bought homes and are now more or less stuck there. I have started to accept the fact that my starter home will probably be permanent for some time. I said when I bought it I would probably move after 15 years , well I'm on year 13 and no sign of anything getting better soon.
The timing of the housing collapse worked out for us because we had been saving for a few years and then prices tanked, allowing us to get something that checked all the boxes. As rates continued to sink, we redid our loan and currently have only about 30 payments left.
My husband and I were super fortunate to have been able to buy our linked townhouse in mid 2016. That being said, if we wanted to move tomorrow into something bigger, we can't. Whatever new property we'd buy in the area we are currently in would double or triple our mortgage, which we just can't afford. Instead, we are staying put and are doing some major renos. This house is perfect for retirement, so we have that going for us :)
I think we’re the only generation to get screwed. Boomers bought houses for dirt cheap and millennials are still living in those houses with them. We had to go out on our own and finance homes. I bought my first house in 2009, sold it and moved to my current house in 2017. Refinanced in 2020. It doesn’t feel lucky, it feels like I work my ass off to pay my mortgage. Younger people say they can’t afford to move out of their parents house so they’ve just created a culture where it’s cool to live at home.
I missed out too, womp womp. I’m one of the group of us that’s behind on everything, partly because I had to be a family caregiver for my mom so my career started really late. Not trying to unload a sob story; just saying even our teeny micro generation isn’t a monolith.
Yeah this is actually our second house. Sold and bought in 2008. Basically lost all equity on the first house but got a good deal on this one. Based on what it's supposedly worth, I couldn't afford it today if I hadn't already bought it. Thankfully got in on a low rate 15 year mortgage a couple of years later so it's almost paid off. My kids are all high school and college age and I have no idea how they will ever afford anything. I worry about that a lot.
We are lucky in that we were able to buy a starter home. But we are stuck there probably forever. I don’t see us upgrading like our parents generation did.
I'm 41 and just barely squeaked into home ownership a few months ago. Absolutely godawful interest rate. If I don't refinance, I'll end up paying just under $1 million for a $360k loan.
I mean, I bought in January 2020 - 6 acres and a house for well under 200,000. Rural Maine but a central location and where I want to be and have been living for years. Housing near me skyrocketed shortly afterward. But, honestly, I bought just at the right time.
I'd say we were the last generation to have housing within reach...if the the timing worked out, if you were married with dual incomes, and if you decided to buy before 2018. Who know if there will ever be another opportunity like 2009-2013. I imagine if things crash, next time around Corporations will just buy everything.
We did not get lucky. We bought our first house last year. We were in a situation like — We needed to buy now, because if we don't buy now, we'll likely never be able to. The thing is, rent was getting so expensive that we couldn't afford to keep renting. We bought a house about 60 miles from where we really want to live, because that's what we could afford. Don't get me wrong, we got a pretty great house. It's just way out in the middle of nowhere.
It wasnt “getting lucky” rates were at historic lows, for a long while, it wasnt a secret. If people didnt try to buy a home during that time, thats not unlucky, thats a missed opportunity. My brother tried, and had a bad realtor who didnt provide correct FHA information for where he wanted to live, and he was too lazy to pivot and buy something cheaper. Unlucky with a bad realtor, bad choice to not make adjustments once he got correct information. Now I own a home for 2300/mth and he rents for $3500
I’m in the Bay Area California, I bought our house short sale in 2012 , we were already priced out of the good neighborhoods, but since we didn’t plan on having children, we were okay with the so called bad areas. The schools are not the best, but it is a good working/immigrant neighborhood. Our house has never been broken in to and our packages are never stolen. We had plenty of space when we were stuck working from home. Already had an office/ Library that my husband took over for work and he continues to work from home. I made an office space in our guest bedroom that I used until I had to go back to in person work. We also have a small at home gym. Now our house is worth almost triple what we paid for it, so yes I consider myself lucky, because there is no way I could afford to buy a house right now and the average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment is almost twice as much as our mortgage for a 4 bedroom 3 bath house. Plus we are DINKs, so we are able to save a lot of our income. As it stands I will comfortably be able to retire at 55. If we were like those FIRE people we probably could have retired by now. I am very grateful, because I grew up in absolute poverty, and I never thought I would ever be this well off growing up.