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Wow, that's impressive! In NYC at 21! So curious, what type of work did you do and how much was the condo?
My niece and her fiance have excellent jobs in NYC, they are 30 and still renting.
Thank you. Life is Good is right, I lived in the outer boroughs, not Manhattan and it was 23 years ago, on the tail end of the real estate crash in the 90s. I was a legal assistant at a large global law firm during the height of the "Barbarians at the Gate" era. I worked a LOT of overtime and made $$$$, that helped with the downpayment. The condo itself was $100,000, a 2 bed 2 bath, 1100 sq ft handyman special. I sold it for close to four times what I had paid seven years later. I was fortunate enough to purchase during a rare time in NYC real estate history as you will not find any real estate in NYC for $100k ever again.
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Originally Posted by LifeIsGood01
NYC is not Manhattan it has 5 boroughs with Manhattan being ridiculously expensive and other parts not so much. Plus a condo at 21 is possible. I met someone in the early 90s that rented a studio Condo around 33rd street in Manhattan in a nice area, He was from Texas and said it was for sale for around $40K I told him he should find a way to buy it because it was a steal.
I bought in the 90s, so the purchase prices were lower..not $40k though. I had the foresight to know that buying a 2 bedroom would net me the most money at resale, so didn't look at studios and one bedrooms. I had the opportunity to buy a condo in northern Manhattan for 129k..it was in an older building in Inwood, about 1200 sq ft, overlooked the Hudson. I didn't buy it because the neighborhood was transitioning and I was single and often worked nights. I opted to live where I was born and raised instead, but it was in an enduring, good location and near a big well known park.
It was not easy buying a house at 21. It was almost unheard of back then, especially for someone who didn't come from a wealthy family - a regular Jane. People - bankers, my employer, etc. - were very supportive of my endeavor though. My job allowed me to work as long as I could physically stand it to get the money and the mortgage bank (Bank of New York) availed me of the SONYMA program, which allowed me to purchase with less than 20% down. (I put down roughly 15%). I found myself going from paying $675 in rent to double that with a mortgage and condo fees. The bank was taking a risk with me. Thankfully I did as they had expected, my income increased year over year. If I had held onto the condo, I would have been paying far less than a similar rental apartment today.
Becoming a homeowner was probably one of the best decisions I've made and life-changing.
Well, I enjoy a good millennial-bashing as much as anyone else over 50, but I do feel duty bound to point out that resorting to the First National Bank of Mom and Dad is hardly a new phenomenon. In fact, I would suggest that it's been going on as long as there have been well-heeled parents and young adult children trying to get started.
Agreed. Fully paid education and help with a down payment is pretty common among above-average income people. And not just the hated One Percenters, more like the Forty Percenters.
I also want to point out that so much has to do with where one lives and/or is willing to live -- and timing plays a big part, too.
We made more than a 100% profit when we sold our home in the Denver area in 2004 after living in it for 15 years; and our current home is now worth almost twice as much as we paid for it after living in it for not quite seven years, but we lost everything, including our sizable down payment, when we were forced to try to sell our home in rural Maine during the 2008-09 housing crisis, but couldn't do so, and had to get rid of it by a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. (It was either that or foreclosure.)
Also, way back in 1977 in SoCal, my ex and I bought a home for $60,900, and today it is worth ten times that much.
Last edited by katharsis; 06-07-2019 at 10:52 AM..
I also want to point out that so much has to do with where one lives and/or is willing to live -- and timing plays a big part, too.
We made more than a 100% profit when we sold our home in the Denver area in 2004 after living in it for 15 years; and our current home is now worth almost twice as much as we paid for it after living in it for not quite seven years, but we lost everything, including our sizable down payment, when we were forced to try to sell our home in rural Maine during the 2008-09 housing crisis, but couldn't do so, and had to get rid of it by a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. (It was either that or foreclosure.)
Also, way back in 1977 in SoCal, my ex and I bought a home for $60,900, and today it is worth ten times that much.
Absolutely.
I have a friend who moved to Nashville during the Great Recession, bought a house in a neighborhood that rapidly gentrified due to the easy commute, and cashed out with hundreds of thousands in equity, buying a house in another part of Tennessee in cash.
I also want to point out that so much has to do with where one lives and/or is willing to live -- and timing plays a big part, too.
My first real estate purchase was in 1988. I got slaughtered in the S&L Meltdown. I had to accelerate mortgage payments for four years and still had to borrow money against my paid-for car at closing to settle up. All told, I lost 40 cents on the dollar. There was no such thing as as short sale then. You either paid the mortgage off or you went bankrupt.
I'm sure tons of people have similar stories from 2008-2010. Millions of people were completely wiped out.
Becoming a homeowner was probably one of the best decisions I've made and life-changing.
Me too, but I wish I had bought as soon as I started renting and I would have almost been done with paying off the house, in fact I would have profited and moved where I am now south Florida and have had enough to have bought a house outright, you live and you learn. At least I'm a homeowner now, I have a mortgage but it's less than people pay to rent a room in someone's home.
Anyone who put any sort of appreciable amount down was given the money. I don't really feel like that makes this a pertinent story. Anyone can buy a house if they are given the down payment - that is the stumbling block for most and is what the contention is these days - unless you come from money, you have a much harder time getting ahead in life.
And comments like this come from someone who spent their entire lives in academia:
The quote at the top of the article already annoys me. My husband and I bought our apartment in our 20s without a dime from our parents. We also didn't have any incentives or any of these programs discussed in the article. It's in NYC---not a trendy area but a nice one nonetheless. For years, I tracked every dollar we spent before and after we moved into this apartment. We put down 25%.
In the meantime, we are hoping to sell our coop and eventually purchase a home who knows where. I have continued to save for this and I will turn a profit on this coop. We will be putting down a substantial d/p in order to buy another property because that's what we have to do. I would like to move out of NYC ($$$) but there are so many things around that issue alone. Blech.
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Originally Posted by germaine2626
My adult children paid off/will finally pay off their student loans (from great state Universities) when they are about 33. Needless to say neither of them will be buying a house anytime soon.
All of their cousins had their college education paid in full by their parents (and some scholarships). Several/most of them were able to purchase houses by the time that they were 33 (and my children were/are just starting to save for a down payment at that age).
Your parents being financially able to pay for college makes a huge difference in when you can buy a house, even if your parents do not give their adult children money towards a down payment.
My husband and I went to local city colleges. His parents paid for the tuition but he lived at home and the tuition was dirt cheap. I also lived at home (with the exception of one year) but qualified for pell grants and a few scholarships that covered almost everything since we were very low income. Funnily enough, since we didn't really care about college, we just went to our local city colleges, but financially that put us ahead of others.
These people were almost all given their down payment. For quite a few, the mortgage was cheaper than renting. For others - and for some, they ALSO received - the gift of a free-to-them education.
"Our families paid for our educations, we have a great-paying jobs, no debt, and we were gifted the down payment." For one of them, they were "wealth building" by cashing in on a parents' trove of favors from tradesmen in order to flip their home for huge profit. So, who's really DOING the wealth building, there? Daddy paid for school. Daddy paid the down payment. Daddy heavily subsidized repairs and upgrades. Daddy told them what to do and when to do it. Real over-achievers...
<sigh> yep ...
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Originally Posted by turf3
Well, I enjoy a good millennial-bashing as much as anyone else over 50, but I do feel duty bound to point out that resorting to the First National Bank of Mom and Dad is hardly a new phenomenon. In fact, I would suggest that it's been going on as long as there have been well-heeled parents and young adult children trying to get started.
I don't think this is millennial bashing. To me, the issue is that these people are NOT really buying their own houses -- their FAMILIES are giving them the funds so they can "buy" a house. And for many, when things go wrong and repairs are needed, Mommy and Daddy step in and pay for those things too.
Sorry, but that does NOT count as "buying your own house." It didn't for previous generations (in my opinion of course), and it doesn't now.
What really makes me crazy about these stories is that SOME of these "home buyers" (hopefully not all) will later talk about themselves as if they "did it all themselves" so others should also be able to just, you know, "pick themselves up by their bootstraps" as well ... but of course they DIDN'T do it all themselves, rather they came from families that could GIFT THEM tens of thousands of dollars. Most Americans DO NOT come from those types of families and it would be nice if that were acknowledged.
Full disclosure: working-class kid here. I DID have to do it all myself, and that feels totally "normal" to me. I was never "entitled" to anything from my parents after, you know, I turned 18 and became an "adult" myself. And again, THAT is "normal" to me. The idea of thinking that I "bought" a house when MY PARENTS gave me the down payment and then continued to pay for other things "as needed" is just, well, creepy and disgusting to me.
My husband and I went to local city colleges. His parents paid for the tuition but he lived at home and the tuition was dirt cheap. I also lived at home (with the exception of one year) but qualified for pell grants and a few scholarships that covered almost everything since we were very low income. Funnily enough, since we didn't really care about college, we just went to our local city colleges, but financially that put us ahead of others.
Very few people live in cities that have good quality four year Universities, or even poor quality four year colleges. That is great that both you and your husband could live at home all (or most years) but that really is not practical for most college age students in the US.
They got help with down payments (and probably college, car, etc) and I happy for them. My husband and I were also very fortunate to have college paid for by our parents. What makes me nervous are all the 3.5% down or even 0% down loans. Having that LTV can be a precarious position to be in when we go through a recession (and we will). I know 20% can be out of reach in some areas but at least 10% should be standard practice unless you have healthy emergency fund or a very secure job,
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