MA Spring RE will start early & be flooded with inventory (Boston: homes, high school)

[Whatsnext75]

'It can when you have assistance. Loads of the people I know buying in decent towns get 100k+ from family to help with down payments.'

well of course, lol. But that's not what we were talking about. Someone above mentioned that 200k puts you in the top 5% so that should get you into one of the pricier towns. 200k alone will not. 200k plus help from rich family might.

[vtecluder617]

Originally Posted by claiz

A simple search on google can reveal income distribution of MA household as a whole. In particular, the top 5% of household income exceeds 200,000 per year (which validate vtecluder617 and Dm84 point). The thing is the people who visit this board and are interested in real estate (in particular Metrowest/eastern Mass) tend to be very well off. If you are single mom struggling to make ends meet, you don't have time to browse internet forums and real estate threads. That make the discussion biased from the get go. So yeah, in the grand scheme of things, 150K-200K is a lot of money.

That said, in the context of real estate, especially the towns people most often talked about, 150-200K is not a lot of money. The one thing people ignore is while housing is expensive enough, Metrowest (the places people keep talking about) is the very top end of market. There are over 2.8 million households in Massachusetts. Weston+Wellesley+Newton+Brookline+Belmont+Lexingto n+Winchester+Needham (head nod to MikePRU) has total household of less than 110,000. That means those posh neighborhoods represent just a tiny slice of the market - about 4%.

So if you earn top 5% of income (200K), you will be able to afford a top 5% of most pricey neighborhoods. If you don't, you maybe stretching yourself. That said, there is absolutely no problem in NOT living in those posh neighborhoods. Stretching yourself to keep up with the Joneses, however, is another story.

But see, thats the issue. We DON'T live in one of the "affluent" desirable towns in metrowest. We live on the South Shore, which is a great area don't get me wrong, but even here in Hanover prices are absurd. Just do a quick search on Zillow and see what $400-500K will buy you. I assure you, nothing special at all (and there are only 5 houses in that range). And that price range we could probably afford, but would not be able to save a dime.

[claiz]

Whatsnext75 - I would think if you earn 200K alone (without any significant debt and damaged credit score, etc), it should not be that hard to save up a 100-200K downpayment in 3-5 years. Once you have 200K payment and and 800K loan you can afford a $1million house (which is median house price for those neighborhoods), without external help.

The math is simple, you can do it. I suspect a lot of people are doing it. You can debate whether it is a good idea though.

[Dm84]

Originally Posted by claiz

Whatsnext75 - I would think if you earn 200K alone (without any significant debt and damaged credit score, etc), it should not be that hard to save up a 100-200K downpayment in 3-5 years. Once you have 200K payment and and 800K loan you can afford a $1million house (which is median house price for those neighborhoods), without external help.

The math is simple, you can do it. I suspect a lot of people are doing it. You can debate whether it is a good idea though.

You're forgetting taxes, health insurance, 401k etc. $200k isn't $200k in take home pay.

[jan0105]

Originally Posted by claiz

Whatsnext75 - I would think if you earn 200K alone (without any significant debt and damaged credit score, etc), it should not be that hard to save up a 100-200K downpayment in 3-5 years.

You must not have children.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by claiz

Whatsnext75 - I would think if you earn 200K alone (without any significant debt and damaged credit score, etc), it should not be that hard to save up a 100-200K downpayment in 3-5 years. Once you have 200K payment and and 800K loan you can afford a $1million house (which is median house price for those neighborhoods), without external help.

The math is simple, you can do it. I suspect a lot of people are doing it. You can debate whether it is a good idea though.

I think saving that much would be a challenge for the vast majority of people, and there is no way you should be taking out a 800k loan on a 200k salary.

[pennyone]

Originally Posted by claiz

Whatsnext75 - I would think if you earn 200K alone (without any significant debt and damaged credit score, etc), it should not be that hard to save up a 100-200K downpayment in 3-5 years. Once you have 200K payment and and 800K loan you can afford a $1million house (which is median house price for those neighborhoods), without external help.

The math is simple, you can do it. I suspect a lot of people are doing it. You can debate whether it is a good idea though.

An 800K mortgage is just insane. Yes the math is simple, but it's just insane. How can anyone carry around such a huge debt and expect to live past 50?

[pennyone]

Originally Posted by vtecluder617

But see, thats the issue. We DON'T live in one of the "affluent" desirable towns in metrowest. We live on the South Shore, which is a great area don't get me wrong, but even here in Hanover prices are absurd. Just do a quick search on Zillow and see what $400-500K will buy you. I assure you, nothing special at all (and there are only 5 houses in that range). And that price range we could probably afford, but would not be able to save a dime.

What are you talking about? Hanover is a great town. Its RE prices are very well justified.

[Whatsnext75]

'Whatsnext75 - I would think if you earn 200K alone (without any significant debt and damaged credit score, etc), it should not be that hard to save up a 100-200K downpayment in 3-5 years. Once you have 200K payment and and 800K loan you can afford a $1million house (which is median house price for those neighborhoods), without external help.

The math is simple, you can do it. I suspect a lot of people are doing it. You can debate whether it is a good idea though.'

i think most of us are speaking of or thinking of 200k being a combined income. If someone is making a 200k salary alone then they are doing very well. And yes even if it's the combined income that you are talking about what if you already are paying a mortgage on one house?? OR even rent? and yes then there's kids and car payments, etc.

and to the person who called me racist for mentioning foreigners doing illegal things with real estate here, i don't think i saw anyone call the people who were wondering when the baby boomers are leaving ageists. But feel free to continue to jump down my throat for anything I say

[vtecluder617]

Originally Posted by pennyone

What are you talking about? Hanover is a great town. Its RE prices are very well justified.

Oh I know it is, which is why we bought here 3 years ago. I was just pointing out that even though it is not considered one of the "affluent" towns in MA (i.e. Lexington, Weston, Wellesley, Needham, Hingham, etc) it is still unaffordable for a good amount of people. We just barely got into this town in 2013. We couldn't afford our house at the price it was appraised at recently.

Even surrounding towns that are a little bit more "rough around the edges" are becoming increasingly expensive. (Rockland, Abington, Avon)