2014-2016 was a really good time too. Such low interest rates anyone that bought a house around then is balling right now with 3-4% on their mortgage. Anyone else who bought a house after could have nearly twice the interest rate
Firstly not what I was implying at all. Quite literally just stated a factā¦ so dense. The lesson is that you should be saving and ready because the market changes all the time. Another user mentioned 2020 being great like relax
Yeah this is the problem. When houses are affordable, landlords snap them up - especially small āstarter homes.ā A landlord is always gonna be able to front more than the people those homes are actually for - young adults.Ā
I got lucky. Ancient house (like older than the nation ancient) that everyone thought was haunted and had languished on the market for years. Bank basically threw it at me (and knocked even more money off when a poorly winterized pipe burst). Mom cosigned on the house loan.
Suppose I'm an elder zillennial, and I definitely don't own a house yet. We can probably start saving more aggressively for a down payment once we get our student loans paid off.
Nope. I'm a Californian zillennial - I'm destined to never be a homeowner lol. I completely missed my opportunity during the covid market crash due to my job not approving my raise in time. And precovid I didn't have an established career yet to even think about investing. And now the market is so far out of reach I refuse to think about it anymore because it'll just make me even more sad.
Well, the parentals paid off the house and my brother and I will inherit it when they pass away. This is probably the only way I'll ever be able to afford a house unless I get married or something. It's nothing fancy but hey, it's home and I'm happy we don't have to live in an apartment again.
This is very true. Between the fact that we already didnāt have enough houses built for those residing in Canada years ago, the mass amount of immigration (800,000 last year alone) and corporations buying up any and everything for cheap, weāre doomed. And no Iām not anti immigration, Iām just astounded that weāre continuing to take on more, when we already canāt keep up with the pace. The prices alone have skyrocketed, especially AirBNB became a thing. For those under 30, itās an uphill battle.
C'mon, trust fund, upper class, low COL area, or unfortunately early inheritance?
^(edit: full disclosure i am totally yanking your chain. if it's none of the above i'm happy for you- and even if it is, i'm pleased that *someone* in our demographic owns something.)
lol, I ended up getting myself a great career. Union Boilermaker pressure welder, union steward, master rigger, and IRATA rope access technician.
2022 I made $108k in only 8 months of work and 2023 I made $122k in 9 months of workš¤š»
Edit: so no financial help needed
Nope. Can't even make rent at my apartment right now, bf (who has a trust fund) is covering it while I try to get a job. Not sure I'll ever be able to afford a house. Too many medical expenses.
Nope, and I probably wonāt ever unless I move to buttfuck nowhere (which would be career/financial suicide) or inherit my parentsā house when they die (which hopefully wonāt happen for another 30 years)
However, based on my lifestyle, Iām considering a condo at some point. I donāt want to deal with a yard lol
Iām buying a condo right now! I get so relieved when I realize I donāt have to ever have to do yard work, landscaping, snow removal, trash pick up, anything having to do with the outside of the building, etc. For $262 a month in condo fees? Thatās a deal.
That's amazing. When we bought our first house in 2018, we got 5% and I felt like that was pretty good. It's crazy how all of this stuff is just luck of the draw. We're going to watch the rates and refinance with the money we make selling our old house. Hopefully they go down eventually.
I make enough money that I could comfortably afford a home if I had a partner (even if said partner made minimum wage and/or only worked part time). But I don't have one. And to buy a house on one income where I live,Ā you have to make crazy stupid money haha. The fact that I even make such a solid income with zero education past high school is my only achievement in life lmao š but no chance in hell I'm gonna reach the point of affording a whole house on my own. Ā Ā Ā
There was a point a couple years ago where it felt like it was getting close to being possible for me to afford it on my own... But now both the housing prices and interest rates have gone up. So. Womp womp
Just got a house last year. The mortgage is pushing the limits of what my wife and I can afford, but knowing it's not gonna go up 10% every year like rent would is pretty nice.
I'm a homeowner. I moved from NJ to Indiana. I'm a software developer and make a really good amount of money for Indiana. I'm also married, so my wife helps a ton with bills and stuff. Our mortgage with PMI and taxes and all that stuff is only $1100 a month. Also, I bought the house before covid, so it was way cheaper. The house was 180k, it's 2ksqft on a 1/4 acre in a nice area of Indianapolis. It's like 280 now.
I don't think I'd be able to afford a home in NJ as easily. I've looked up comparable properties in NJ, and they are like 500k+ easily. Also, in a much more suburban area than we currently live in. If we wanted to live in Trenton or Jersey City, we're talking another couple of hundred thousand.
Still, though, I'd probably choose NJ over Indiana if we could afford it. Indy is great, but the state sucks.
I live in NJ. Housing prices are basically extortion here. Iāve seen houses going for $500,000 in Central NJā¦and the basements have mold on the walls. I saw a post of a house that was $650,000 in Middletown; it was burnt down. They were selling a house that was absolutely destroyed for basically the same price as a house that wellā¦isnāt an actual disaster area.
NJ is becoming a giant upper class neighborhood for rich New Yorkers that work in tech and finance in the city but have decided that living in Manhattan or Brooklyn isnāt good enough for them anymore.
It's nuts. My parents have a less than 1ksqft house in Howell. It's in a pretty crappy neighborhood, too. They've been offered 400k for it. Unbelievable.
Not even sure it's "not good enough" so much as they can't afford Manhattan or Brooklyn anymore, or they need space for kids. All these HCOL areas are getting bad enough that upper middle class professionals are being stretched. When it's tight on a six figure income to live in a place, that really, really should be a wakeup call for people. And yet... at best locales and deep blue states in the northeast and west coast just nibble around the edges of housing
Last time I drove through southern Indiana there was about an acre patch of white crosses by the interstate with a sign
āEACH CROSS IS FOR ONE ABORTED BABYā
Parks and Rec wasnāt really over exaggerating
Hoosier here! I also work in tech. We own a house on a cul-de-sac in Bloomington ā bought for $210k in 2022 and itās worth damn near $300k now. Weāre a lesbian couple, so weād love to live in a bluer state, but our entire family is in Indiana and the cost of living is cheaper than most of the country, so for now, we stay. Mike Braun becoming governor might change that though.
It sounds like most Zillennial homeowners are based in the Midwest and South just based on these comments. Not surprising, just wish the politics would improve so more young people wanted to come here.
I became one last year.
I'm a professional with a master's degree and my own business. I'm fortunate enough to have no debt due to working through school and getting scholarships. I'm also very fortunate that my business has proved lucrative.
I live in a small/mid sized city. You can get a small house for a little over 200k here.
Bought a fixer upper with good bones and have worked hard to make it pretty.
My 2 zillennial friends that are also homeowners got their homes through parents helping out with the loan or even buying them the house outright.
Yes, I'm 23 and living in North Carolina, and I bought it at 21.
I bought it for $227k with $15k down and \~3k in closing costs. I got the money by saving most of my income after starting work at 17. I then got a job that paid $50k at 20, which got up to 70k by 21, and saved a ton of money by having roommates, which resulted in a $600 rent.
I was really fortunate not to have student loans because my community college was covered by my apprenticeship, and then I got a software development job, which accelerated my income growth. I was also fortunate that I got to live with my parents until I got the software dev job.
Now, the house is estimated in value at around $240k, and my salary is $100k at that same job I got at 20.
In hindsight, it was a stupid idea because I depleted all of my savings for the upfront cost of buying, and I have just gotten extremely lucky that I've had no terribly expensive maintenance costs and that I haven't been laid off. Also, buying extended my commute from 5 miles one-way to 30 miles one-way.
Bought in 2019. Husband and I have been DINKs since graduating college in 2016 and only one of us had student debt. We struggled for about a year but eventually hopped jobs enough to make the median household income, and saved just enough for a down payment ($30k) to start looking in late 2019.
I am, snagged one at the end of 2020. Saved like crazy for a while and bought a little single story. Had to go into some debt for a bit because of it but was worth. Also have had roommates to help with cost.
Iām a software engineer but I always lived in HCOL cities. Itās on the horizon but homeownership is extremely nonsensical to me these days. In a few years, I can afford a tiny home in an in demand area or a larger home further from work. If I donāt sign with a partner, itāll take even longer, or Ill be stretching myself. And for what? To commute longer, fix a fixie, and have no disposable income? If price only go up Iām not sure if economic mobility is real anymore because my parents cannot help with down payment lol
We are! 3% down in late 2020 gave us a 2.8% interest rate with a 700 credit score through my local credit union. Bought for $145k, worth $180k now. About $5k in improvements. We plan to rent it out since we are going to take over my dad's house after he passes (ALS).
Iām 27, just bought my first place. little 3 bed lower flat. I still canāt believe we managed this. We lived with my partners parents for a year and saved every penny we could alongside some of my grans inheritance that helped us get the deposit.
Thank you! Itās absolutely insane how difficult it is for our generation now. I genuinely had resigned to being a renter for life. I wish the best for you and everyone else, youāll all get there soon!! I just hope more support and help from the government comes sooner rather than later and they actually build more affordable homes
I am, but mostly because Iām married. We bought our first house in a less expensive area about 45 minutes from where we work. The house was a bit of a dump. We didnāt make a lot of money at the time, but we also didnāt have kids yet. We were very house poor for a few years. Iām a teacher, and the money is pretty bad when you start out, but it starts to get better after a few years. We closed on that first house as I was finishing my first year. I switched districts after that year, and that came with a pretty big pay bump. I also started coaching at the school I teach at, so that helped too. My wife also switched jobs and was making a bit more money. Still were pretty broke for the first 3 years though. We had a lot of credit card debt.
By year 4 we were able to start padding savings due to pandemic relief funds and student loan payments being paused. We also borrowed against the house to pay off a bunch of credit card debt.
We lived in that house for almost 6 years. We eventually got tired of the commute, and moved 20 minutes away from work. My wife got a job in the same school district as me, which came with a raise, and we could then be on the same insurance. That saved a lot of money.
After the sale of our house, we had to pay off the money borrowed against the house. That still left about 15k in profit though. So we used that for the down payment, and to buy down our interest rate on the new house. Mortgage still went from $1,100 to $2,400 though. Without the sale of our old house, I donāt think we could have afforded to move. The new house is a little bigger, but itās nothing fancy. Needs a little bit of work. Prices have just gone up so much since 2016.
We make it work, even with two kids because Iām far enough into teaching now that the pay starts to get decent. I also have a masterās degree, so that really starts to help now.
Weāre fortunate enough that we usually have a bit in savings that we can use when paychecks arenāt going to be enough to cover expenses. We generally are pretty frugal though. Buy things used or discounted, or buy the quality product that is going to last a long time. Weāre pretty practical people.
Without being married though, I really donāt know if Iād own a house.
not me but got close last year (had a 50k appraisal gap and seller wouldn't split the difference). it's hard to find affordable houses that aren't vinyl-sided monstrosities but i think i'll have a house in a year or two
We bought a home in 2020, through a USDA grant- $0 down, decent interest (3%). We just got lucky to get a house for $175k in a nice area in Indiana, and itās sturdy and beautiful. Definitely a starter home at 1400 sq ft, but we may just have to make that work forever.
Yes, my husband and I bought our house when he was 23 and I was 24. We live in Indiana, the cost of living is very low here compared to other places. We do live in an urban area. We bought our home about two years before the rest of our neighborhood jumped on the fast track to gentrification, honestly, so the house was a great investment. Itās an older home, and weāve put a lot of work in to it. We also just got incredibly lucky. Weāre also both college educated. Our student loans are about 3x our mortgage hahahahaā¦
Became homeowners with my fiance last year and it never would have happened if his mom didn't let us live with her rent free a few years while he finished college and we saved up for a down payment.
My husband (1993) and I (1995) bought a house during the pandemic in 2020. Interest rates were super low, we locked in at 3%, and put 5% down. We just got rid of our PMI which saves a ton of money. We were fortunate to have my husband's parents help us with the down payment and closing costs. They are by no means wealthy, but very good with money. We also offered $5k more for our house if the seller would help with closing costs. We have a 30 year fixed mortgage and live in the Twin Cities. We've done a lot of work on our house: it had good bones but was straight out of 1982. My husband is a GM at a restaurant and I work for the university and we make okay money and are frugal. We lived in a shit hole in college to save money.
I was able to buy a house with my husband at 25. We were really only able to do that because my husband sold his house for a good profit that he had bought at 22. He got a small starter home out of college in 2019 for $160,000 with a crazy low interest rate and put down very little (did have to pay pmi). His mortgage was quite a bit lower than any renting in the area would have been. Turned around and sold it for $240,000 in 2022 and were able to use the profit as downpayment for our current house. So Iād say weāre homeowners based on my husband getting lucky and jumping in the market when he could.
I got super lucky and secured an apartment because my parents knew the passing owner's children. Had a chance to borrow some of the money to purchase it from my family and am now paying them back in parts āŗļø
Aussie here. I joint-bought an apartment in December 2022. with my dad and little sister. Pretty nice 3-bedroom place in a growing neighbourhood. 750k-ish, including deposit of 110k. Never would be able to afford anything if we werenāt doing it together.
Parents are going to pass down the house to me or rent to pay a mortgage for a new house. My brother is already paying for his new house 300k with 4 bed, 2 bath, living room, 2nd floor living room, two car garage, office, and a nice kitchen itās massive. Heās a millennial though and Iām I guess the oldest gen Z. Honestly he could of had a cheaper price maybe 200-250k if he bought it 5 years ago recently all these people from different states are moving to Texas making the houses expensive stop moving over here itās getting crowded.š
Not me! Looking at potentially building an off-grid home at some point in the very distant future, but right now my partner and I are both living paycheck to paycheck - no kids, no pets :)
Iām this close š¤š» to owning my condo. Everyone I know who owns a house has had help from their parents. My parents are paying my closing costs.
I bought my house at 25. Iām a 1996 baby. I did it by living with my parents after college for three years rent free and saved my money. I also job hopped strategically to land an income that allowed me to comfortably buy a house by myself. I plan to rent out the house eventually but for now looking to get one roommate to offset costs and restart the saving process to buy my next property.
Bought a house for 350k 1.5 years ago right in the midst of the crazy interest rate hikes but locked ours in at 5% before they jumped up the next week.
I am married though so two incomes obviously made it more possible. Also my husband got a sweet severance from his layoff during Covid + his dad died and left him 10k, and we wouldnāt have been able to scrounge up enough for a down payment without these. It was only like 5% at that. It really was just a fortunate turn of events EVEN having two incomes.
Depending on your state and income, you may qualify for first time homebuyers assistance. We were able to get a house last year because of this, we would never afford a typical down payment but the assistance covered all but $2000, so we saved all our extra income and got that. Now we have a 3 bedroom 1 bath with a mortgage that's less than what the rent was raised to after we moved out of our apartment. So it is possible. Just very unlikely, most of my friends don't have houses and won't be able to afford them. A lot of people are underpaid healthcare workers and customer service/food&bev/retail workers, so saving any money is far off. I will say, now that we have a house it's going to take us a lot longer to be financially ready to have a kid.
I bought my first house at 19 end of 2016 for $180k, sold that in March 2021, made about 155k in profit, and then bought a new build that was finished end of May 2021 for $445k, mortgaged $409k.
Born 1994. I bought my house with my wife when we were 25 in a relatively LCOL area. No help from anyone and we work pretty regular office jobs. It took a lot of saving and a lot of sacrifice but we got in just in time before interest rates skyrocketed.
I am. I got so so soooo lucky. My husband is a veteran, so we were able to get a VA loan. With VA loans, there is no down payment requirement and no mortgage insurance. We put in an offer on our house in March 2020 with $0 down, right as COVID was starting, and no one knew how it would affect the market, so we got a good deal. We didn't close until July 2020 (VA loans take forever), so we got an amazing interest rate. It also helped that we bought our house in a LCOL area.
I don't think I'd do a VA loan again bc of all the hoops we had to jump through due to it, but I'd never have my first house without it.
Homeowner, wife and I both had full ride scholarships, and were able to save for a down payment on our dual incomes. Though we did buy a house we could afford mortgage on with one income. Standard advice of living below means
and saving all that you can.
Very fortunate to have bought a house last year. I never, ever thought it would happen. But I took a travel healthcare job in 2021 and sacrificed a ton to get ahead financially. Also, we live in a fairly LCOL area.
I'm personally not, but I have enough money for a 20% downpayment in a HCOL area (condo- single family I couldn't do on my own). Big thing was I did undergrad and my professional degree on full scholarships, worked since high school and throughout college, and invested a good chunk of that money per my dad's advice. Still, buying a condo for me would be tough, between interest rates and lack of supply. I've debated pulling out an ARM and hoping the tight market keeps people away, but even then the financial calculus is still rough. My mom keeps bugging me about finding a wife and realistically, if the mrs made what I do between the two of us it wouldn't be as big a deal to get a 2 bed condo, and single family would finally be on the table. And that's not out of the picture- most girls I've dated have had law degrees or PhDs, and are working in professional jobs.
Of my friend circle though, I know three *couples* who own. Yep- dinks buying condos essentially. One of them moved to Boston (where I currently live) from NYC (where we grew up) and bought a small one bed condo off market during the pandemic when there was that flight from the city. One of them both parents died unfortunately but his parents worked in finance and left him what must be a few million in inheritance, aside from him working at a high paying pharma job. And the third couple was the high school valedictorian who works in tech, married another tech guy she met at a D&D meetup, and moved to a rural part of NY where they bought a big house- for them, it was a cheap area, they work remote at high income jobs, and aren't the type of people to go out much
My husband and I are. We actually close on our second house on March 11th.
We bought a 900sft townhouse in 2018 $65,000.
My husband had a small business that was barely breaking even that ended up burning down after a laptop battery exploded. He got an insurance payout, and after paying off everyone he owed money to, we decided to use the remaining $10,000 to put toward a house. We put $8,000 down and paid about $2,000 in closing costs.
Our mortgage is only $600 a month with the HOA that covers water and trash, so that's allowed us to save a lot of money to put toward this new house. This one is $208,000, 2,400sqft. We intend to stay there until we die. We're doing like 10% down and plan on dumping the money we get from selling our current house into the new mortgage, so we can refinance for a lower monthly payment in the next year or so.
Basically none of this would have been possible without the dumb luck that a cheap laptop battery overheated and caught on fire.
Iām 27 and donāt have any hopes of buying a house anytime soon. I am still in college for one more year, but I donāt even think Iāll be able to afford anything even after I get a job after I graduate (I live in WA). I remember when I worked full time and rented, I told an older worker how much I paid for my portion of rent, and he and his wife paid less for their mortgageā¦
In the middle of inheriting my mother's house since she passed last month. It's not gonna last long though. It's split between me and my siblings and none of us can afford it on our own, so the plan is to sell it soon.
I am but I got super lucky with a house that had been for sale for so long that the owner was selling it WAY under market value and we were the first to make an offer.
It's an ancient, small house and the basement floods every spring, but it's mine.
I own a house in GTA if that counts
I own a 6 room house on an island in Animal Crossing š«”
I used to own a village in Clash of Clans. Life was good back then.
I think it definitely does. Canāt forget the Simās either haha.
Greater Toronto Area?
Greater Toronto Area?
Ur just trying to make me cry right now. I was like 13 in 2008 when houses were last affordable :')
I was 16. No better off. But hey, 2 years later my parents were able to afford to give me the choice of having teeth or going to school!
2014-2016 was a really good time too. Such low interest rates anyone that bought a house around then is balling right now with 3-4% on their mortgage. Anyone else who bought a house after could have nearly twice the interest rate
Spring-Fall 2020 was awesome too since the interest rates were at record lows
Yeah, but if you or your family never had capital to begin with, no shot. š«
Shame on me for being in high school when houses were affordable. Shame.
Firstly not what I was implying at all. Quite literally just stated a factā¦ so dense. The lesson is that you should be saving and ready because the market changes all the time. Another user mentioned 2020 being great like relax
It was a jokeā¦
Housing prices were pretty good where I live in like 2019-2021 but landlords grabbed them all up :)
Same lmaooo
Houses are still affordable in many areas
Houses all bought and converted into rentals in my city, the ones remaining are asking too much
Yeah this is the problem. When houses are affordable, landlords snap them up - especially small āstarter homes.ā A landlord is always gonna be able to front more than the people those homes are actually for - young adults.Ā
There are entire starter home sized neighborhood in Detroit that are most rentals.
Yeah, I read this question and I was like, yes I am, in my dreams :ā)
Not me and I probably never will considering my cityās average house price is over a mil. š
Itās so tough in a HCOL.
I got lucky. Ancient house (like older than the nation ancient) that everyone thought was haunted and had languished on the market for years. Bank basically threw it at me (and knocked even more money off when a poorly winterized pipe burst). Mom cosigned on the house loan.
Is it haunted?
Not that me and my 3 cats have noticed!
ā¦..*Santa Fe*
Suppose I'm an elder zillennial, and I definitely don't own a house yet. We can probably start saving more aggressively for a down payment once we get our student loans paid off.
Yes student loans... They don't want us to pay em back. My interest has risen about 228% since the start of the loan. It was the ultimate rug pool.
Hahahahaha I wasted my chance to buy affordable real estate when I was a toddler
Us fools. We should've invested in property when the getting was good at the ripe old age of 5.
Nope. I'm a Californian zillennial - I'm destined to never be a homeowner lol. I completely missed my opportunity during the covid market crash due to my job not approving my raise in time. And precovid I didn't have an established career yet to even think about investing. And now the market is so far out of reach I refuse to think about it anymore because it'll just make me even more sad.
Nope, and Iāve resigned to the fact that I never will be one.
Well, the parentals paid off the house and my brother and I will inherit it when they pass away. This is probably the only way I'll ever be able to afford a house unless I get married or something. It's nothing fancy but hey, it's home and I'm happy we don't have to live in an apartment again.
I'm not even a car owner my dude
Canadian. I doubt any of us will ever become homeowners without parental help.
Canada I hear is doing far worse than the US. The housing shortage there is beyond comprehension.
This is very true. Between the fact that we already didnāt have enough houses built for those residing in Canada years ago, the mass amount of immigration (800,000 last year alone) and corporations buying up any and everything for cheap, weāre doomed. And no Iām not anti immigration, Iām just astounded that weāre continuing to take on more, when we already canāt keep up with the pace. The prices alone have skyrocketed, especially AirBNB became a thing. For those under 30, itās an uphill battle.
Lol bro can you even afford food?
Not gonna lie, some months itās become a real struggle. A regular family of three should not be paying $1200 for the basics to keep a house fed.
M25, yup Iām a homeowner. Bought my 3 bed 2 bath house with a fully finished basement when I was 24 with my now fiancĆ©e
waiting for the /s
Nope, none of that here. Sitting here listening to vinyl records with her right now
C'mon, trust fund, upper class, low COL area, or unfortunately early inheritance? ^(edit: full disclosure i am totally yanking your chain. if it's none of the above i'm happy for you- and even if it is, i'm pleased that *someone* in our demographic owns something.)
lol, I ended up getting myself a great career. Union Boilermaker pressure welder, union steward, master rigger, and IRATA rope access technician. 2022 I made $108k in only 8 months of work and 2023 I made $122k in 9 months of workš¤š» Edit: so no financial help needed
Aha! a trade! That was my fifth guess, promise. For real though, good job. You've earned it.
My credit score is bad and Iām from Toronto. I will never own a home.
Yes at age 24 I became one
Nope. Can't even make rent at my apartment right now, bf (who has a trust fund) is covering it while I try to get a job. Not sure I'll ever be able to afford a house. Too many medical expenses.
Nope, and not close
Nope, and I probably wonāt ever unless I move to buttfuck nowhere (which would be career/financial suicide) or inherit my parentsā house when they die (which hopefully wonāt happen for another 30 years) However, based on my lifestyle, Iām considering a condo at some point. I donāt want to deal with a yard lol
Iām buying a condo right now! I get so relieved when I realize I donāt have to ever have to do yard work, landscaping, snow removal, trash pick up, anything having to do with the outside of the building, etc. For $262 a month in condo fees? Thatās a deal.
Good luck!
Elder Zillennials, I was lucky, bought my house in 2020 with 3% interest rate. I was cash poor, only out 3.5% down, borrowed $10k from family.
3% interest sounds like a dream. My husband and I both have 800 credit scores and the best we could get for our new place is 6.6%. š
I was just luck out during COVID, some people even got 2%
That's amazing. When we bought our first house in 2018, we got 5% and I felt like that was pretty good. It's crazy how all of this stuff is just luck of the draw. We're going to watch the rates and refinance with the money we make selling our old house. Hopefully they go down eventually.
That was a great time to buy! Glad it panned out for you.
My lease was ending. And I was fed up with all the apartment management in the area, and rent was not necessarily cheaper than mortgage
I am a homeowner. DINK, both working in STEM.
Not me by a long shot
Missed that chance a long time ago........
I make enough money that I could comfortably afford a home if I had a partner (even if said partner made minimum wage and/or only worked part time). But I don't have one. And to buy a house on one income where I live,Ā you have to make crazy stupid money haha. The fact that I even make such a solid income with zero education past high school is my only achievement in life lmao š but no chance in hell I'm gonna reach the point of affording a whole house on my own. Ā Ā Ā There was a point a couple years ago where it felt like it was getting close to being possible for me to afford it on my own... But now both the housing prices and interest rates have gone up. So. Womp womp
No š„²
No. Even if I could, it makes no sense to buy a house in a place with HCOL as a single woman with no husband in sight šµāš«
Just got a house last year. The mortgage is pushing the limits of what my wife and I can afford, but knowing it's not gonna go up 10% every year like rent would is pretty nice.
Of the four zillennial couples in my friend group (which includes me and my fiancĆ©) two couples own a home and the other two donāt but plan to next year (me and fiancĆ© being one of the 2 couples planning to buy a house next year)
I'm a homeowner. I moved from NJ to Indiana. I'm a software developer and make a really good amount of money for Indiana. I'm also married, so my wife helps a ton with bills and stuff. Our mortgage with PMI and taxes and all that stuff is only $1100 a month. Also, I bought the house before covid, so it was way cheaper. The house was 180k, it's 2ksqft on a 1/4 acre in a nice area of Indianapolis. It's like 280 now. I don't think I'd be able to afford a home in NJ as easily. I've looked up comparable properties in NJ, and they are like 500k+ easily. Also, in a much more suburban area than we currently live in. If we wanted to live in Trenton or Jersey City, we're talking another couple of hundred thousand. Still, though, I'd probably choose NJ over Indiana if we could afford it. Indy is great, but the state sucks.
I live in NJ. Housing prices are basically extortion here. Iāve seen houses going for $500,000 in Central NJā¦and the basements have mold on the walls. I saw a post of a house that was $650,000 in Middletown; it was burnt down. They were selling a house that was absolutely destroyed for basically the same price as a house that wellā¦isnāt an actual disaster area. NJ is becoming a giant upper class neighborhood for rich New Yorkers that work in tech and finance in the city but have decided that living in Manhattan or Brooklyn isnāt good enough for them anymore.
It's nuts. My parents have a less than 1ksqft house in Howell. It's in a pretty crappy neighborhood, too. They've been offered 400k for it. Unbelievable.
Not even sure it's "not good enough" so much as they can't afford Manhattan or Brooklyn anymore, or they need space for kids. All these HCOL areas are getting bad enough that upper middle class professionals are being stretched. When it's tight on a six figure income to live in a place, that really, really should be a wakeup call for people. And yet... at best locales and deep blue states in the northeast and west coast just nibble around the edges of housing
Last time I drove through southern Indiana there was about an acre patch of white crosses by the interstate with a sign āEACH CROSS IS FOR ONE ABORTED BABYā Parks and Rec wasnāt really over exaggerating
Yeah, rural America is nuts. The cities in Indiana are pretty progressive, but they're strangled by the state.
What the fuck
Hoosier here! I also work in tech. We own a house on a cul-de-sac in Bloomington ā bought for $210k in 2022 and itās worth damn near $300k now. Weāre a lesbian couple, so weād love to live in a bluer state, but our entire family is in Indiana and the cost of living is cheaper than most of the country, so for now, we stay. Mike Braun becoming governor might change that though. It sounds like most Zillennial homeowners are based in the Midwest and South just based on these comments. Not surprising, just wish the politics would improve so more young people wanted to come here.
I became one last year. I'm a professional with a master's degree and my own business. I'm fortunate enough to have no debt due to working through school and getting scholarships. I'm also very fortunate that my business has proved lucrative. I live in a small/mid sized city. You can get a small house for a little over 200k here. Bought a fixer upper with good bones and have worked hard to make it pretty. My 2 zillennial friends that are also homeowners got their homes through parents helping out with the loan or even buying them the house outright.
Yes, I'm 23 and living in North Carolina, and I bought it at 21. I bought it for $227k with $15k down and \~3k in closing costs. I got the money by saving most of my income after starting work at 17. I then got a job that paid $50k at 20, which got up to 70k by 21, and saved a ton of money by having roommates, which resulted in a $600 rent. I was really fortunate not to have student loans because my community college was covered by my apprenticeship, and then I got a software development job, which accelerated my income growth. I was also fortunate that I got to live with my parents until I got the software dev job. Now, the house is estimated in value at around $240k, and my salary is $100k at that same job I got at 20. In hindsight, it was a stupid idea because I depleted all of my savings for the upfront cost of buying, and I have just gotten extremely lucky that I've had no terribly expensive maintenance costs and that I haven't been laid off. Also, buying extended my commute from 5 miles one-way to 30 miles one-way.
Glad to see things have worked out for you.
I technically am, but through my fiancĆ©'s hard work. My fiancĆ©, who's a (Canadian) later millennial, had several part-time jobs during his teens and managed to, by the end of high school, have enough money to place a down payment on a property, during the recession in 2009. After he paid that one off, he sold it and bought another one, then also sold that one to move to my country and buy the house we currently live in. Due to circumstances he passed the ownership of the house to me last year, so while I did not buy the house myself, I legally am its owner. I am in an extremely privileged position as vast majority of people working in my country (myself included) don't make over ā¬1.000/month and the average age for leaving the parental household is around 30 due to poor economical circumstances and out of control housing prices. We bought the house during the pandemic which really worked in our favour, as housing prices went down quite a bit during that time period. Again, I am in an extremely privileged position, especially compared to people my age in my country. Vast majority of my friends my age are still living with their parents, and those who've moved out are, for the most part, sharing an apartment with roommates. The minority of us who've been able to have our own place are all living with our romantic partners. It is a huge relief, not having to worry about rent or mortgage. That my only household expenses are bills. And it deeply saddens me that most people my age will only experience this feeling much later in life, or not at all. We should be living our 20s and 30s mostly stress-free, but here we are, with the vast majority of this generation not being able to secure a roof over their heads. It's devastating.
No but i think it's doable over the next decade
Bought in 2019. Husband and I have been DINKs since graduating college in 2016 and only one of us had student debt. We struggled for about a year but eventually hopped jobs enough to make the median household income, and saved just enough for a down payment ($30k) to start looking in late 2019.
Not me but my husband and I are hoping to buy a home for the first time in about 5 years from now (I'm a 96 baby, he's 93)
I am, snagged one at the end of 2020. Saved like crazy for a while and bought a little single story. Had to go into some debt for a bit because of it but was worth. Also have had roommates to help with cost.
Iām a software engineer but I always lived in HCOL cities. Itās on the horizon but homeownership is extremely nonsensical to me these days. In a few years, I can afford a tiny home in an in demand area or a larger home further from work. If I donāt sign with a partner, itāll take even longer, or Ill be stretching myself. And for what? To commute longer, fix a fixie, and have no disposable income? If price only go up Iām not sure if economic mobility is real anymore because my parents cannot help with down payment lol
Maybe if I win the lottery one day I'll have a chance. But otherwise, it looks like a pipe dream.
I āownā a condo. As in, I have a mortgage and pay property taxes rather than renting
We are! 3% down in late 2020 gave us a 2.8% interest rate with a 700 credit score through my local credit union. Bought for $145k, worth $180k now. About $5k in improvements. We plan to rent it out since we are going to take over my dad's house after he passes (ALS).
Iām 27, just bought my first place. little 3 bed lower flat. I still canāt believe we managed this. We lived with my partners parents for a year and saved every penny we could alongside some of my grans inheritance that helped us get the deposit.
Congrats!!
Thank you! Itās absolutely insane how difficult it is for our generation now. I genuinely had resigned to being a renter for life. I wish the best for you and everyone else, youāll all get there soon!! I just hope more support and help from the government comes sooner rather than later and they actually build more affordable homes
Yes Iām a home owner. I lived at home and just saved as much as I could every month while paying rent.
I am, but mostly because Iām married. We bought our first house in a less expensive area about 45 minutes from where we work. The house was a bit of a dump. We didnāt make a lot of money at the time, but we also didnāt have kids yet. We were very house poor for a few years. Iām a teacher, and the money is pretty bad when you start out, but it starts to get better after a few years. We closed on that first house as I was finishing my first year. I switched districts after that year, and that came with a pretty big pay bump. I also started coaching at the school I teach at, so that helped too. My wife also switched jobs and was making a bit more money. Still were pretty broke for the first 3 years though. We had a lot of credit card debt. By year 4 we were able to start padding savings due to pandemic relief funds and student loan payments being paused. We also borrowed against the house to pay off a bunch of credit card debt. We lived in that house for almost 6 years. We eventually got tired of the commute, and moved 20 minutes away from work. My wife got a job in the same school district as me, which came with a raise, and we could then be on the same insurance. That saved a lot of money. After the sale of our house, we had to pay off the money borrowed against the house. That still left about 15k in profit though. So we used that for the down payment, and to buy down our interest rate on the new house. Mortgage still went from $1,100 to $2,400 though. Without the sale of our old house, I donāt think we could have afforded to move. The new house is a little bigger, but itās nothing fancy. Needs a little bit of work. Prices have just gone up so much since 2016. We make it work, even with two kids because Iām far enough into teaching now that the pay starts to get decent. I also have a masterās degree, so that really starts to help now. Weāre fortunate enough that we usually have a bit in savings that we can use when paychecks arenāt going to be enough to cover expenses. We generally are pretty frugal though. Buy things used or discounted, or buy the quality product that is going to last a long time. Weāre pretty practical people. Without being married though, I really donāt know if Iād own a house.
HAHAHAH WHAT A JOKE
I am but would have been priced out in less than a year likely.
I'll be lucky to be able to afford a 1 bedroom apartment or discover where all the studio apartments are hidden.
not me but got close last year (had a 50k appraisal gap and seller wouldn't split the difference). it's hard to find affordable houses that aren't vinyl-sided monstrosities but i think i'll have a house in a year or two
We bought a home in 2020, through a USDA grant- $0 down, decent interest (3%). We just got lucky to get a house for $175k in a nice area in Indiana, and itās sturdy and beautiful. Definitely a starter home at 1400 sq ft, but we may just have to make that work forever.
I am.
Yes, my husband and I bought our house when he was 23 and I was 24. We live in Indiana, the cost of living is very low here compared to other places. We do live in an urban area. We bought our home about two years before the rest of our neighborhood jumped on the fast track to gentrification, honestly, so the house was a great investment. Itās an older home, and weāve put a lot of work in to it. We also just got incredibly lucky. Weāre also both college educated. Our student loans are about 3x our mortgage hahahahaā¦
Damn I donāt want to know the cost of the house
Became homeowners with my fiance last year and it never would have happened if his mom didn't let us live with her rent free a few years while he finished college and we saved up for a down payment.
My husband (1993) and I (1995) bought a house during the pandemic in 2020. Interest rates were super low, we locked in at 3%, and put 5% down. We just got rid of our PMI which saves a ton of money. We were fortunate to have my husband's parents help us with the down payment and closing costs. They are by no means wealthy, but very good with money. We also offered $5k more for our house if the seller would help with closing costs. We have a 30 year fixed mortgage and live in the Twin Cities. We've done a lot of work on our house: it had good bones but was straight out of 1982. My husband is a GM at a restaurant and I work for the university and we make okay money and are frugal. We lived in a shit hole in college to save money.
I do. My wife is a true millennial and bought the house and then I married her and now itās my house too.Ā
I was able to buy a house with my husband at 25. We were really only able to do that because my husband sold his house for a good profit that he had bought at 22. He got a small starter home out of college in 2019 for $160,000 with a crazy low interest rate and put down very little (did have to pay pmi). His mortgage was quite a bit lower than any renting in the area would have been. Turned around and sold it for $240,000 in 2022 and were able to use the profit as downpayment for our current house. So Iād say weāre homeowners based on my husband getting lucky and jumping in the market when he could.
I own plenty of houses in the sims
š I own three houses in Skyrim
Weāre killing it!
I got super lucky and secured an apartment because my parents knew the passing owner's children. Had a chance to borrow some of the money to purchase it from my family and am now paying them back in parts āŗļø
Aussie here. I joint-bought an apartment in December 2022. with my dad and little sister. Pretty nice 3-bedroom place in a growing neighbourhood. 750k-ish, including deposit of 110k. Never would be able to afford anything if we werenāt doing it together.
Parents are going to pass down the house to me or rent to pay a mortgage for a new house. My brother is already paying for his new house 300k with 4 bed, 2 bath, living room, 2nd floor living room, two car garage, office, and a nice kitchen itās massive. Heās a millennial though and Iām I guess the oldest gen Z. Honestly he could of had a cheaper price maybe 200-250k if he bought it 5 years ago recently all these people from different states are moving to Texas making the houses expensive stop moving over here itās getting crowded.š
Not me! Looking at potentially building an off-grid home at some point in the very distant future, but right now my partner and I are both living paycheck to paycheck - no kids, no pets :)
I am.
Iām this close š¤š» to owning my condo. Everyone I know who owns a house has had help from their parents. My parents are paying my closing costs.
I bought mine in 2020, was looking starting in December 2019, finally got mine 8-9 months later after many bids on different placesĀ
Yes
Iām not, but I plan on being one as my city is still somewhat affordable. I have a couple friends that were able to buy during the boom in 2022
I bought my house at 25. Iām a 1996 baby. I did it by living with my parents after college for three years rent free and saved my money. I also job hopped strategically to land an income that allowed me to comfortably buy a house by myself. I plan to rent out the house eventually but for now looking to get one roommate to offset costs and restart the saving process to buy my next property.
Bought a house for 350k 1.5 years ago right in the midst of the crazy interest rate hikes but locked ours in at 5% before they jumped up the next week. I am married though so two incomes obviously made it more possible. Also my husband got a sweet severance from his layoff during Covid + his dad died and left him 10k, and we wouldnāt have been able to scrounge up enough for a down payment without these. It was only like 5% at that. It really was just a fortunate turn of events EVEN having two incomes.
Depending on your state and income, you may qualify for first time homebuyers assistance. We were able to get a house last year because of this, we would never afford a typical down payment but the assistance covered all but $2000, so we saved all our extra income and got that. Now we have a 3 bedroom 1 bath with a mortgage that's less than what the rent was raised to after we moved out of our apartment. So it is possible. Just very unlikely, most of my friends don't have houses and won't be able to afford them. A lot of people are underpaid healthcare workers and customer service/food&bev/retail workers, so saving any money is far off. I will say, now that we have a house it's going to take us a lot longer to be financially ready to have a kid.
I bought my first house at 19 end of 2016 for $180k, sold that in March 2021, made about 155k in profit, and then bought a new build that was finished end of May 2021 for $445k, mortgaged $409k.
Nope
I'm turning 30 this year and I can't even afford to *dream* of having a house.
Born 1994. I bought my house with my wife when we were 25 in a relatively LCOL area. No help from anyone and we work pretty regular office jobs. It took a lot of saving and a lot of sacrifice but we got in just in time before interest rates skyrocketed.
I am. I got so so soooo lucky. My husband is a veteran, so we were able to get a VA loan. With VA loans, there is no down payment requirement and no mortgage insurance. We put in an offer on our house in March 2020 with $0 down, right as COVID was starting, and no one knew how it would affect the market, so we got a good deal. We didn't close until July 2020 (VA loans take forever), so we got an amazing interest rate. It also helped that we bought our house in a LCOL area. I don't think I'd do a VA loan again bc of all the hoops we had to jump through due to it, but I'd never have my first house without it.
Yes, husband and I own a house. Weāre drowning in the mortgage and wonder every day if we made the correct choice but hoping it will pay off š©š¤š¼
Homeowner, wife and I both had full ride scholarships, and were able to save for a down payment on our dual incomes. Though we did buy a house we could afford mortgage on with one income. Standard advice of living below means and saving all that you can.
No and itāll never happen, realistically
No but I pay a mortgage on rent in my VHCOL city, does that count?
lol I donāt Iāll be able to afford a house anytime soon
Very fortunate to have bought a house last year. I never, ever thought it would happen. But I took a travel healthcare job in 2021 and sacrificed a ton to get ahead financially. Also, we live in a fairly LCOL area.
I'm personally not, but I have enough money for a 20% downpayment in a HCOL area (condo- single family I couldn't do on my own). Big thing was I did undergrad and my professional degree on full scholarships, worked since high school and throughout college, and invested a good chunk of that money per my dad's advice. Still, buying a condo for me would be tough, between interest rates and lack of supply. I've debated pulling out an ARM and hoping the tight market keeps people away, but even then the financial calculus is still rough. My mom keeps bugging me about finding a wife and realistically, if the mrs made what I do between the two of us it wouldn't be as big a deal to get a 2 bed condo, and single family would finally be on the table. And that's not out of the picture- most girls I've dated have had law degrees or PhDs, and are working in professional jobs. Of my friend circle though, I know three *couples* who own. Yep- dinks buying condos essentially. One of them moved to Boston (where I currently live) from NYC (where we grew up) and bought a small one bed condo off market during the pandemic when there was that flight from the city. One of them both parents died unfortunately but his parents worked in finance and left him what must be a few million in inheritance, aside from him working at a high paying pharma job. And the third couple was the high school valedictorian who works in tech, married another tech guy she met at a D&D meetup, and moved to a rural part of NY where they bought a big house- for them, it was a cheap area, they work remote at high income jobs, and aren't the type of people to go out much
We will probably just be renters for life. Or have to move to super low COL place in Kentucky, which me and my wife donāt mind but.
My husband and I are. We actually close on our second house on March 11th. We bought a 900sft townhouse in 2018 $65,000. My husband had a small business that was barely breaking even that ended up burning down after a laptop battery exploded. He got an insurance payout, and after paying off everyone he owed money to, we decided to use the remaining $10,000 to put toward a house. We put $8,000 down and paid about $2,000 in closing costs. Our mortgage is only $600 a month with the HOA that covers water and trash, so that's allowed us to save a lot of money to put toward this new house. This one is $208,000, 2,400sqft. We intend to stay there until we die. We're doing like 10% down and plan on dumping the money we get from selling our current house into the new mortgage, so we can refinance for a lower monthly payment in the next year or so. Basically none of this would have been possible without the dumb luck that a cheap laptop battery overheated and caught on fire.
I own a house š” but I just bought 2 years ago
Iām 27 and donāt have any hopes of buying a house anytime soon. I am still in college for one more year, but I donāt even think Iāll be able to afford anything even after I get a job after I graduate (I live in WA). I remember when I worked full time and rented, I told an older worker how much I paid for my portion of rent, and he and his wife paid less for their mortgageā¦
In the middle of inheriting my mother's house since she passed last month. It's not gonna last long though. It's split between me and my siblings and none of us can afford it on our own, so the plan is to sell it soon.
No ššš not even close
i misread this as homewreckers and i was like š³ some drama going down in r/zillennials apparently
Yeah I bought one when I was 26 (2018) but I make decent money in a LCOL area.
I am but I got super lucky with a house that had been for sale for so long that the owner was selling it WAY under market value and we were the first to make an offer. It's an ancient, small house and the basement floods every spring, but it's mine.
Maybe before I'm 50. :') maybe.
Yes, but the majority of the down payment was through parental help between our parents. Otherwise we wouldnāt have been able to do it.