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Old 05-20-2015, 09:08 AM
 
Location: Dallas, TX
2,825 posts, read 4,438,917 times
Reputation: 1830

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And back to my point, they were asking what the "average" millennial makes. Not what the average person graduating from TCU with an MBA going into finance makes at his dad's firm. The "average" salary in DFW is no where near 70K, it's closer to the mid 40's if I remember correctly.

Yup, 47K working 40 hours a week with now days off.

Occupational Employment and Wages in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, May 2014 : Southwest Information Office : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
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Old 05-20-2015, 09:10 AM
 
Location: Dallas, Texas
506 posts, read 2,141,860 times
Reputation: 385
I have a friend who's a mortgage broker and he's told me he thinks the proverbial pendulum has swung too far to the right regarding loan approval. Where is was perhaps too lenient in the past, it's too stringent now and many, young or old, simply cannot qualify for the same terms many of us who've owned homes for years did. This, compounded with various financial obligations (student loans, consumer debt, car payments, etc.) and overall economic/job uncertainty causes many to delay homeownership.

My wife and I bought our first house in 1987 when we were 27 and 25 and had been married for almost a year. We were nervous but smart enough to NOT listen to our mortgage broker who told us we could qualify for homes twice our comfort level. We bought what WE felt we could afford, not what a lender told us we could afford. Purchasing homes they really couldn't afford is what got a lot of people in trouble when the economy crashed and things got shaky - they were extended beyond their reach with no cushion for any sort of economic downturn. Many younger people today grew up being exposed to this and it's the only thing they've ever known - and they're afraid it'll happen to them.
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Old 05-20-2015, 09:15 AM
 
Location: Dallas, TX
2,825 posts, read 4,438,917 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kt2le View Post
Many younger people today grew up being exposed to this and it's the only thing they've ever known - and they're afraid it'll happen to them.
This is a GREAT point as well. We're still recovering from a terrible market both in housing and the job sector. We don't want to see another dip and be foreclosed on like we have seen many before us do. I will say, the few younger couples/people I know that have purchased have seemed to pick something within their price range. Maybe fairly far out of the city, but not unreasonably out of their budget. Also with the access to technology now, we can find the answer to almost anything in a matter of seconds. We tend to research quite a bit and realize that just because I can qualify for a 500K house, doesn't mean I should buy one.
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Old 05-20-2015, 09:16 AM
 
Location: Frisco, TX
1,399 posts, read 2,157,276 times
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Yeah, it completely depends on the industry. My husband graduated in 2008 with his BS in mechanical engineering (granted at the age of 27...he took his time) and started at $67k. He's at $80k+ with bonuses now at 33. I, on the other hand, graduated at 22 in 2007 and started making only $45k with my business degree.

He had minimal school loans (maybe $25k) and I had none, so we were very lucky in that regard. I think that is really what prevents most people from being able to afford a house.
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Old 05-20-2015, 09:20 AM
 
Location: Dallas, TX
2,825 posts, read 4,438,917 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stephwin View Post
Yeah, it completely depends on the industry. My husband graduated in 2008 with his BS in mechanical engineering (granted at the age of 27...he took his time) and started at $67k. He's at $80k+ with bonuses now at 33. I, on the other hand, graduated at 22 in 2007 and started making only $45k with my business degree.

He had minimal school loans (maybe $25k) and I had none, so we were very lucky in that regard. I think that is really what prevents most people from being able to afford a house.
Yup, student loans can be a killer as well. This generation has more student debt than any generation before.
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Old 05-20-2015, 09:39 AM
 
Location: North Texas
24,561 posts, read 40,119,952 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bencronin04 View Post
People tend to get extremely prideful, and honestly full of sh*t, when it comes to money. It is a very very strange thing.
Too true. I didn't crest $100k until I was 38 years old. Been in I.T. 19 years.
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Old 05-20-2015, 09:42 AM
 
Location: Irving, TX
692 posts, read 849,755 times
Reputation: 1173
Sure hope those Boomers didn't buy into that idiotic mantra of "your house is an investment." (Sure, an investment house is an investment - it's not an investment if you live in it and it takes you 30 years to clear the nut). Because anybody who did so is about to find themselves front-and-center for "the greater fool" school of investing.
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Old 05-20-2015, 09:43 AM
 
Location: Shady Drifter
2,444 posts, read 2,742,605 times
Reputation: 4118
I honestly don't know what the average salary is. It sounds like it's lower than $60,000. That just reinforces my point - even if everything is going great for you, buying a home is an expensive proposition that is simply out of reach for a lot of people with the current cost of housing, even relatively successful people.

With our property taxes and homeowner's insurance costs, affording $250,000 to $300,000 for a house is just not possible for a lot of people, but finding a house at or under that seems virtually impossible.
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Old 05-20-2015, 09:44 AM
 
Location: Irving, TX
692 posts, read 849,755 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BigDGeek View Post
Too true. I didn't crest $100k until I was 38 years old. Been in I.T. 19 years.
My wife and I, over-educated academics, didn't crest 100k on *both* incomes until our early 40s.
The housing market looks a lot different from down here. A lot more like California and a lot less like "let's try to retire here."
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Old 05-20-2015, 09:45 AM
 
4,538 posts, read 6,414,581 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stephwin View Post
Yeah, it completely depends on the industry. My husband graduated in 2008 with his BS in mechanical engineering (granted at the age of 27...he took his time) and started at $67k. He's at $80k+ with bonuses now at 33. I, on the other hand, graduated at 22 in 2007 and started making only $45k with my business degree.

He had minimal school loans (maybe $25k) and I had none, so we were very lucky in that regard. I think that is really what prevents most people from being able to afford a house.
By comparison in high price cities like San Fran and Manhattan and Silicon Valley home buyers need 10x their age in income to afford a decent place.
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