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Yeah we are in process of building a new house. The mortgage officer was telling us with our credit we could put less than 20% down and yet not have to pay PMI...
I live in the Boston area and I often wonder how people afford what they do. I've saved and worked hard and my DH and i were able to buy a nice home in a nice town with good schools in our 40s. I see other people in their 30s dropping 1.5 million on homes in towns with even better schools (and sending their kids to private) like it's nothing. Either they have really good salaries or their parents are giving them money. More often than not it's their parents.
you have no idea where the money is coming from, though.
A thousand for an apartment?
Where do you find that?
Here in California, you can't rent one room for a thousand dollars a month.
A one bedroom apartment on average is $1700 a month, and that would be in a less desirable neighborhood.
I guess they find it in one of 1,000 or more places not called "SoCal" or "Bay Area"
I don't think your scenario is very typical for most people that could never plan their life out to that level of detail. Life happens.....some things you can control but other things you can't. Babies also tend to come along when you least expect it. Having a first child over the age of thirty increases the risks of pregnancy complications significantly....if a woman can conceive at all.
Babies rarely come along when you least expect it. Contraception is extraordinarily effective. And being over 30 isn't an issue - but they will check the mom, especially over 35.
So indeed, one CAN plan "for the best". Their best may not lead to financial comfort before age 50, and maybe not even before retirement age. But it can provide for their current life, and provide for their retired life - and any children that they're blessed with.
Not nearly as old as you imagine. We're still quite a few years from retirement, and while I agree that we've had an extraordinary string of good fortune, our early decisions set us up to take advantage of that luck. We did not allow life to take us where it wanted because we made a plan and stuck to it. Finishing our educations in marketable fields, purchasing an affordable home in a good area (btw, today I would not necessarily recommend a home purchase, but that's another thread), delaying childbearing to focus on career development, investing aggressively, and scrupulously avoiding unsecured debt meant we were in the position to jump when opportunities came our way. We were not docile recipients of whatever life threw at us. Sorry, but it's the truth. If you want to secure your future, you have to seize your life and make the most of it. Your dismissal of my initial comment as a fairy tale doesn't make it any less a reality. What I wrote reflects my actual life. Here's a summary of my best advice, for the most part the same advice my parents drilled into my head as I entered adulthood, and that which I'm teaching my own children in turn...
* Finish your education, whether it's trade school or the Ivy League
* Choose your partner wisely and once married, stay married
* Delay childbearing
* Take care of your health
* Protect your reputation (especially today when social media mistakes can haunt you for the rest of your life)
* Maintain excellent insurance
* Live beneath your means and aggressively invest the difference
* Don't leave money on the table (make sure you understand your employer's benefits, and use them to your greatest advantage)
* Avoid unsecured debt
* Always approach your work with an eye to your next step
As my spouse likes to say, fail to plan, and you plan to fail. Most people, regardless of how modest their start in life, can implement what I've outlined above, but even if you've already started down the wrong path, stop and turn around. It's never too late to start making better choices.
it's amazing the number of Americans who believe this simply can't be done/is impossible - and worse that they actively tell people they cannot either.
I recently sold my home in Austin. I could've easily employed a multiple offer situation like my realtor was pressing me to do in order to score more money. But I was more interested in making sure whomever moved into my home would be a good citizen b/c I built solid relationships with my neighbors over the years. In other words, I valued who was moving into my home just as much as the money I would receive. I made good money off my home relative to what I paid. But I didn't ask for more than what I placed it on the market for. I suppose this is considered fair market value though my realtor would've preferred to pursue a bidding war which drives up fair market value in the entire community b/c people are paying above and beyond the list price.
Perhaps my employment, other assets, and simple lifestyle doesn't make me as desperate to sell at a higher price than others. I just recognize that a home should be affordable. So if everyone is looking to cash in as much as possible, how can anyone, particularly the next generation, afford a home?
so, you picked the offer from the person that made the lowest income but qualified for their offer price, and only offered you far less than the current "market" value.
As beneficent as you are, surely you'll tell us your former address.
A crash of epic and unprecedented levels is coming. History and economics teaches us that you cannot just print money with no consequences. I erroneously thought the United States of America were above that kind of banana republic behavior. I was wrong.
Fraudulent elections
Socialism
Trillions printed
Repression of free speech
I never ever thought I would see any of this.
Basic math tells you that people making 60k a year cannot buy 400k houses. None of what we are seeing in our economy can be backed by sound economic fundamentals. Enjoy the last days of your first world life folks because change is a comin.
You're so all out WRONG! Why?
There is no major fraud in our elections. Sidney Powell in her lawsuit defense indicated that no reasonable person would believe such.
There will not be more socialism. Not even from the Democrats. There are enough pro corporate Democrats to join with pro corporate Republicans to stop major new socialism from happening, such as Medicare For All.
Lots of pent up demand from the restrictions of covid will ensure a great economy, even better than Trump's, especially if vaccines work to end the pandemic. Most loans will be paid off on time, so nothing bad coming, like a recession.
Repression of free speech? No, you and I just did it. Lots of social media outlets around to go to, in order to declare your deep devotion to far right causes and belief in strange conspiracies.
I doubt most banks would welcome a mortgage on a 400k house that is risky from lack of income and assets.
Last edited by StillwaterTownie; 04-07-2021 at 07:26 PM..
Move to upstate NY. You can get a nice house for $150-200k here. Unfortunately, the only good jobs are government jobs, and you have to know the right people to get them. The rest of the jobs are low wage retail and fast food jobs.
Property taxes are between 4 and 5%. Quite a few houses also require $20-30k for deferred maintenance. So it’s not as cheap as it looks.
I bet the above is typical for most anywhere else in the country where there is little, if any, demand from not many people wanting to move there.
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