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I've saved for seven years toward a home. I thought I'd be there by now, but the absolute dumbest thing I did is not buy when the market was low. I didn't think I was ready at the time.
To get a nice house now is at least $140-150k and many of them need roofs. Go below that and the houses are either far worse, in run down neighborhoods, or have an inground pool which I do not want.
Like I found a not so bad place for $115k that needs a little work but good area. But it has an inground pool and a spa that I'd have to have demoed.
Oh $150k sounds cheap, until you figure in that the average income in my area is only about $40k a year.
I have a good amount for a down payment, fortunately probably more than most do, but to get one of these $150k houses down to a monthly payment I could afford I'd have to put at least half of it down and then I'd have practically anything left in the bank after closing costs. And if the house needs a roof, A/C unit, etc forget it. Not to mention building savings again with the high mortgage costs would be almost impossible.
Very, very frustrating. I'm almost to the point where I'm thinking about buying land and building a house a little along, because there's just nothing I feel like I can afford that I'm remotely interested in buying or living in.
There is just no market here for first time buyers wanting a single family home anymore sadly. The ones I know buying homes have lots of income and help with the down payment. For what I can get half a crappy 2/1 duplex now I could have bought a very nice 3/2/2 single family 5+ years ago.
Yes lots of people are experiencing what you are. We are in the same spot To get something nice you have to put most all of your money down so you can afford the payment. Then there’s nothing left over for fixing things up. Perhaps building might be an idea or putting a mobile home on some land. The other option would be to buy A lower-priced house then you first wanted fix that up and sell it after a few years and go for another one
Yes lots of people are experiencing what you are. We are in the same spot To get something nice you have to put most all of your money down so you can afford the payment. Then there’s nothing left over for fixing things up. Perhaps building might be an idea or putting a mobile home on some land. The other option would be to buy A lower-priced house then you first wanted fix that up and sell it after a few years and go for another one
At least I know I'm not the only one. I hope you can find something nice and affordable sooner rather than later!
At least I know I'm not the only one. I hope you can find something nice and affordable sooner rather than later!
Most of the states we want to live in we are priced out. We will end up somewhere in a small place that costs way too much in a place we’re nit crazy about. Lol crazy stuff
Maybe Im missing something, but it seems like someone with income of $40,000 should be able to afford a $150,000 mortgage. Using the mortgage calculator a $150,000 30 year mortgage at 4% interest is $716, which isnt including taxes and insurance, I realize. I would think that renting would cost at least that much. If you have something to put down on it, the payment would be even less. Im not saying things wouldnt be tight for a while, but at least you are building equity instead of renting and ending up with nothing.
I was in the same boat. Rented in one of the most expensive areas in the US and when I was finally ready to buy, there was nothing affordable on my not high salary. I couldn't afford to rent or to buy, totally priced out. I had to move over 40 miles away.
Even that far out, I could only buy a very small place with many deferred maintenance issues. I am slowly fixing things up here and there.
I earn a lot more than you, and I've got a lot of savings, yet I'm priced out of a lot of places I would like to buy.
My big ongoing worry, though, is property taxes. You know they're only going to go up. A property tax bill that's no sweat right now is going to be real worrisome when I retire.
And people still keep saying they are going to wait for the housing market to crash again, not knowing that these things don't just happen randomly and there are signs like when everyone starts qualifying for loans when they shouldn't and people start going into foreclosure. Yeah keep waiting it out and see what happens. Stop waiting, buy what you can afford.
I earn a lot more than you, and I've got a lot of savings, yet I'm priced out of a lot of places I would like to buy.
My big ongoing worry, though, is property taxes. You know they're only going to go up. A property tax bill that's no sweat right now is going to be real worrisome when I retire.
Property taxes are a big concern. Better to buy in a state which puts cap on tax/valuation increases and provides tax relief to seniors. Unfortunately if you buy something and then sell it before retiring, to buy somewhere else, tax caps don't help... will end up with new valuation, not having the benefits of all the years of tax caps working. (every day I'm thankful for having multiple citizenships, because of taxes among other things - nice to have an option to move somewhere where you pay only nominal property taxes, I mostly don't use what they're supposed to pay for anyway)
And people still keep saying they are going to wait for the housing market to crash again, not knowing that these things don't just happen randomly and there are signs like when everyone starts qualifying for loans when they shouldn't and people start going into foreclosure. Yeah keep waiting it out and see what happens. Stop waiting, buy what you can afford.
There's big dollar inflation going on (very different from official cooked-up fake numbers) which is reflected by these housing price increases. There's no increase in real value (I'd say rather a depreciation of all the aging crapshacks) - it's simply the inflation. They're pumping massive amounts of cheap liquidity into financial markets right now - while this is happening, there'd be enough money to keep the housing price pump going, I guess.
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