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If you think it's impossible, it's only because you have given up trying. Show us your budget, I'm sure there are plenty of places to trim to save that 20% down payment...
Location: Formerly Pleasanton Ca, now in Marietta Ga
10,357 posts, read 8,592,498 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 69Charger
20% down in SoCal is impossible.
Why? I've seen a few people buy homes that had less income than $100,000. But they really wanted the house badly and made a lot of sacrifices. I remember them buying really cheap chicken pot pie's at the grocery store and pouring it over rice for their meals just so they could save more money. And I'm talking the lowest price of chicken pot pies that you'd see in the freezer. I'm not even sure if there's really chicken in them. One of my friends was so tight fisted with his money it drove me insane. But he let made less money than me and managed to buy a condo and then later trade up to a nice house . He also had two Porsches. He gave up a lot of other things to do so, but he was highly focused on what he wanted.
On a $300 K house with a $100,000 income? It shouldn't be.
Not going to find anything for $300k in So Cal. Wife and I chosed to move to Houston, TX to afford a nice house. It's tough but like someone mentioned, save and come back to Cali with enough $$ to live comfortably. Well that's the plan
Not going to find anything for $300k in So Cal. Wife and I chosed to move to Houston, TX to afford a nice house. It's tough but like someone mentioned, save and come back to Cali with enough $$ to live comfortably. Well that's the plan
You'd better be finding Roths if your plan is to move from Texas to Cali in retirement
I don't live in CA but isn't the OP's question the classic home buyer conundrum. Live close to work where real estate is expensive or move out and get a bigger, less expensive home but drive a lot. There is no good answer to this regardless of the state. I have experienced both. I would live in a basement to be close to work. My wife had a different idea and we paid dearly for it.
I think there is mounting evidence in favor of living closer to work. Car commutes contribute to obesity and all the health problems related to it. You are also at higher risk of divorce if your daily commute is longer than 1 hour one way. And people forget that the cost of commuting is more than just spending more on gas...They forget they're going to have to replace their car sooner...and they're probably going to want a nicer, more expensive car if they're going to practically live in it for several hours a day....and then there are the health costs from the health problems no one thinks about, etc.
Not going to find anything for $300k in So Cal. Wife and I chosed to move to Houston, TX to afford a nice house. It's tough but like someone mentioned, save and come back to Cali with enough $$ to live comfortably. Well that's the plan
In my experience, most people who move to cheaper locales just never come back. Most get used to their nicer lifestyle in the cheaper place and don't want to pay a lot more for that same lifestyle in CA.
What's the problem? lol
I'm purposely not going to fall into that trap of buying a house that's 5-10x my annual income cause the whole goal of homeownership is to do exactly 1 thing, own the house (i.e. pay it off), not have a mortgage my entire life.
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