is the HOUSING MARKET too risky to invest?

[Seoid]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

I'm in my 20's and bought a house, which I love and is great because I am a project oriented guy (already painted the house, replaced fixtures, re-floored most of it), but basically I've been working on my house constantly since I bought it. Its got good bones so its not eating money up in other ways, but it consumes alot of time that if i were a weekend bar hopper, I'd probably hate. A house is a committment so just go in with eyes open.

Oh yes, that too... I was thinking more along the lines of travel when I said carefree. I'm not really a bar fly, I just play one on the Internet.

As it was, my family owned a condo while we were students (we still have it because it's not selling now!) and I helped with maintenence on the place throughout my 20s. It was a PITA. Sometimes entire weekends were spent arguing with the property management company or fixing things that resulted from property management not taking care of the outside as well as they should have. I do not miss that at all.

No condos! No shared walls.

[GrandviewGloria]

Originally Posted by tstone

One years income for a 20-something... buying a home for only that much would put them in a shack or trailer. That is, unless they are some kind of superstar 20-something.

Exactly! But if the shack is in a good area...maybe the Tennis Court Shack at the back of a broken-up estate, or just some odd little dwelling like that... or even a trailer.... FINE! As long as you own the ground under it, and that ground is keeping up with inflation (as opposed to ground in a place like Detroit, where bad demographics make property virtually worthless).

The quality of the people around you is vastly more important than the quality of the dwelling. You can upgrade a dwelling. You are not allowed to remodel your neighbors.

Our 'first home' was one unit of a complex we bought while we were still in college. Off-campus slum. That unit was less than what we were making in a year, doing odd jobs. No money for paint. So we scrubbed and polished, instead. By the time we sold the property (government interference has made residential rental a hopeless situation for honest landlords), our tenants were people teaching at the U.

[EasilyAmused]

Originally Posted by GrandviewGloria

[/i].

The quality of the people around you is vastly more important than the quality of the dwelling. You can upgrade a dwelling. You are not allowed to remodel your neighbors.

You really do buy your neighbors in a larger city.

[cinnamon_toast]

DON'T DO IT. If anything happens that will cause you to have to sell in the next 5-8 years, you'll regret it mightily. I am speaking from experience and also from watching many well-established people destroy their credit and their sanity trying to sell a home. Renting is not throwing away money. It's having someone else take on the risk of home ownership and right now, at your age and in this unsure market, that's a good thing.