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My wife did mortgages for over 30 years before retiring last year. Qualifying for a mortgage doesn't mean you can afford it. And you can never tell from the outside looking in. She's seen people with all the trappings of success drowning in debt and blue collar people who look to be struggling killing it in their financial life.
My wife had a very loyal following because she always was honest with people and really did care they didn't get in over their heads. That's not always the case as most real estate and mortgage people are commission. They don't care what happens to you after the sale.
That being said, from her experience, most can afford the mortgage. It's the stuff they do after buying the house that gets them in trouble. Cars, boats, travel trailers, and other stuff usually does people in. And if they don't qualify? Mostly car payments and sadly, student loans followed by excessive credit card debt.
Regulations are very strict now so I do not understand how a large number of people cannot afford the mortgage they qualified for. If they couldn't afford it, why did they qualify for the mortgage. What I bolded above is the only reason people would have issues. Right? Unless I'm missing something here...
Well, what proportion of mortgage holders are behind in their payments? Here it is around 1%, so the other 99% are managing to afford the home they are paying off, even if it is not easy.
Lucky how you were able to profit from his parent’s death. I’m sure when they passed they envisioned their life savings passing to his ex wife.
I feel the same way. This comment completely disregards the circumstances as to why she divorced. I understand as I have been divorced nearly 30 years now, having no other choice because of an abusive marriage.
Regulations are very strict now so I do not understand how a large number of people cannot afford the mortgage they qualified for. If they couldn't afford it, why did they qualify for the mortgage. What I bolded above is the only reason people would have issues. Right? Unless I'm missing something here...
There's an assumption there that everyone is buying new homes. People buy older homes and often put more money than they thought it needed into getting it C.O. ready. We knew we needed a new septic system when we bought our home, and we knew it needed to be above ground, however due to constraints of the property we ended up needing a new, advanced pump so it ended up being $24,000 instead of the $10,000 to $15,000 everyone thought it would be. We were able to pay it out of savings, but that extra $10,000 was originally supposed to be for a roof. IDK why anyone would assume that it must be trivial, luxury type purchases when people spend after buying a home. It seems much more likely that the spending is related to the home purchase than that they suddenly decided to celebrate their mortgage by buying jet skis.
There's an assumption there that everyone is buying new homes. People buy older homes and often put more money than they thought it needed into getting it C.O. ready. We knew we needed a new septic system when we bought our home, and we knew it needed to be above ground, however due to constraints of the property we ended up needing a new, advanced pump so it ended up being $24,000 instead of the $10,000 to $15,000 everyone thought it would be. We were able to pay it out of savings, but that extra $10,000 was originally supposed to be for a roof. IDK why anyone would assume that it must be trivial, luxury type purchases when people spend after buying a home. It seems much more likely that the spending is related to the home purchase than hat they suddenly decided to celebrate their mortgage by buying jet skis.
Most home improvement stuff here seems to be running 30%+ more expensive than it was 18 months ago. There was a small price increase because of federal policies (tariffs increased the cost of building supplies, immigration policy impacted the semi-skilled labor pool) followed by a big increase because we're Hurricane Michael-adjacent and the demand for people rebuilding things pushed up prices big time.
We spent months this year trying to find someone who would replace some iffy support beams on our back porch and re-screen it with a more durable material and we got turned down by many home improvement companies because it's a job that actually required a week's labor from two skilled carpenters since the porch roof and the house roof are one and the same and that kind of structural work is fussy and involves meeting modern windstorm code and such.
I know you're always supposed to get multiple bids and all but we just went with the first offer we got from a reputable home improvement company that seemed like a price we could live with and then moved on.
Regulations are very strict now so I do not understand how a large number of people cannot afford the mortgage they qualified for. If they couldn't afford it, why did they qualify for the mortgage. What I bolded above is the only reason people would have issues. Right? Unless I'm missing something here...
The loan originators are just following the underwriting requirements, so they’ll be able to easily sell the loan. They have no idea what most of the borrowers other expenses are... children expenses, commuting expense, etc. They honestly don’t care, and they don’t care if the borrower will be able to save for retirement. The originator makes more on a bigger loan.
There's an assumption there that everyone is buying new homes. People buy older homes and often put more money than they thought it needed into getting it C.O. ready. We knew we needed a new septic system when we bought our home, and we knew it needed to be above ground, however due to constraints of the property we ended up needing a new, advanced pump so it ended up being $24,000 instead of the $10,000 to $15,000 everyone thought it would be. We were able to pay it out of savings, but that extra $10,000 was originally supposed to be for a roof. IDK why anyone would assume that it must be trivial, luxury type purchases when people spend after buying a home. It seems much more likely that the spending is related to the home purchase than that they suddenly decided to celebrate their mortgage by buying jet skis.
I wish that buying new homes had much to do with "not spending money" when you take possession, but I'd argue that's not related much at all. If you buy a true "fixer upper," sure, then that's a different story, but if you buy a well maintained older home, it might even be cheaper than a new construction home. All new homes in Las Vegas, no exceptions, do not come with finished backyards. Builders don't do that, YOU do that as the buyer, so in a small, modest home, that might only be $5,000 to $10,000 of landscaping, or heck maybe a few thousand if you did it all yourself and bought what you needed. In a nicer home, it's going to run you $75K to $200K to finish the backyard from decking to pool / hot tub / fire pit, BBQ perhaps, shaded areas, landscaping, etc. It's very pricey, which is something a buyer of an older home doesn't have to deal with. Maybe they have to re-surface the pool in a few years for $10K but at least there IS a pool and landscaping already present.
An older home should already have a soft water system and an RO system, and maybe it needs a little maintenance but if it's working, it should be fine. A new home doesn't come with those systems, so there goes another $4K. These aren't even luxury purchases, it's not possible to live any quality of life with hard water in your pipes and your showers, clothes getting ruined, appliances ruined, you have to do it. HOA rules also require you to finish the backyard within a year of purchase, that's not optional either. You could go cheap, but going cheap in most areas is still going to be $20-30K, not exactly cheap.
Then beyond that, there are no window coverings, which I think everyone would agree is a requirement for a variety of reasons from keeping your home cooler in the desert heat to protecting paintings on the wall to, you know, sleeping successfully or watching TV before sun down. An existing, older home may have ugly window coverings, but it will at least HAVE window coverings. In my experience, a new home is incredibly expensive to get it from "new construction" to "livable dwelling." While a lot of what I've done personally is also luxury upgrades (smart home stuff, repaint the interior walls, epoxy garage, etc. etc.), there have been quite a few costs that were just part of buying a new home after you close.
I wish that buying new homes had much to do with "not spending money" when you take possession, but I'd argue that's not related much at all. If you buy a true "fixer upper," sure, then that's a different story, but if you buy a well maintained older home, it might even be cheaper than a new construction home. All new homes in Las Vegas, no exceptions, do not come with finished backyards. Builders don't do that, YOU do that as the buyer, so in a small, modest home, that might only be $5,000 to $10,000 of landscaping, or heck maybe a few thousand if you did it all yourself and bought what you needed. In a nicer home, it's going to run you $75K to $200K to finish the backyard from decking to pool / hot tub / fire pit, BBQ perhaps, shaded areas, landscaping, etc. It's very pricey, which is something a buyer of an older home doesn't have to deal with. Maybe they have to re-surface the pool in a few years for $10K but at least there IS a pool and landscaping already present.
An older home should already have a soft water system and an RO system, and maybe it needs a little maintenance but if it's working, it should be fine. A new home doesn't come with those systems, so there goes another $4K. These aren't even luxury purchases, it's not possible to live any quality of life with hard water in your pipes and your showers, clothes getting ruined, appliances ruined, you have to do it. HOA rules also require you to finish the backyard within a year of purchase, that's not optional either. You could go cheap, but going cheap in most areas is still going to be $20-30K, not exactly cheap.
Then beyond that, there are no window coverings, which I think everyone would agree is a requirement for a variety of reasons from keeping your home cooler in the desert heat to protecting paintings on the wall to, you know, sleeping successfully or watching TV before sun down. An existing, older home may have ugly window coverings, but it will at least HAVE window coverings. In my experience, a new home is incredibly expensive to get it from "new construction" to "livable dwelling." While a lot of what I've done personally is also luxury upgrades (smart home stuff, repaint the interior walls, epoxy garage, etc. etc.), there have been quite a few costs that were just part of buying a new home after you close.
That’s absolutely correct. We bought a new home build and it costs thousands to get it livable. Garage doors, kitchen handles, appliances, the yard (especially this) , window dressings, ect. When we considered selling when we were going to relocate, that was one of the things we tried to stress in the listing. Sure you can buy one of those other new builds, but this one is actually ready now. Time and money already invested.
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