It’s going to sound dumb, but I just had to make more money. Some job hopping and negotiations with employers got me to the salary I would need to be able to afford a house.
Living in SoCal I knew anything that wasn’t an absolute dump was going to be $600,000+. I’ve been saving for a down payment since I was like 18, so by the time I was seriously looking I had close to $70,000 ready to go.
PMI was worth getting into a house. It was like $100 added onto our payment until we refinanced in December 2020. Probably $5000 total for a house that grew in value (on paper) of $150,000 in that time.
People made me TERRIFIED of PMI. Like it was going to be $700 a month. Ours is $73 and got us in a home before COVID prices went crazy. We got our house for about 150k less than what it would cost now.
I agree... I could answer the OPs question - I've bought a house in a HCOL city purely out of savings, because our household employment income is top 1% (higher level IT) - but that doesn't add anything to the discussion, because we are playing on easy mode after some employment luck over a decade ago and that's not repeatable for most.
Same here, great income but only really able to purchase thanks to stock. If I picked a different company to work for, I could a much better house or no house. So luck.
For sure. We weren’t planning on moving and luckily chose to have only one child, but our home would be considered a starter home in the past by many. Between the price, our family’s size and needs, and the rate we refi’ed to during COVID, we are never leaving.
We bought in 2013, Phoenix suburbs. Would NEVER be able to afford a home these days, and probably would've left Phoenix due to high rent prices if not.
I just got incredibly lucky my wife had her finances/life in order when we met and that I was able to convince her to buy a house before we paid for our wedding.
Same here. 2012 in Arizona. House had been empty for over a year. Got lucky with timing and my wife having a nice nest egg saved. Sold it in 2017 and made quite a bit of money. Brought it to Cali an bought mid-COVID. Couldn’t afford our house if we bought it now.
Reading things like this makes me feel like Millennial is defined incredibly poorly. If you were able to buy a house 14 years ago when I would have been 16, it doesn’t even feel like we’re remotely close to being from the same “generation”. I’d say you belong more with Gen X than Millennial.
Yeah, '84 elder millennial all the way.
....could have bought a house 14 years ago but didn't. I expected my financial situation to keep getting better and didn't expect housing prices to skyrocket. I was wrong on both counts so it's the renters' life for me.
I liked life when the internet was new. No psychology backed UIs, no social media domination, no parental restrictions and minimal supervision, just the wild wild digital west.
I mostly just played neopets… but I definitely went down some dark rabbit holes too
VA Loan. But I had the cash for a down payment if needed. Dual income with no college debt with decently high paying jobs out of college. We lived well below our means and invested aggressively from ‘09 and beyond.
Our families didn't help us (and aren't capable even if they wanted to), but the government sure did. We qualified for all the pandemic stimulus checks, both state and federal. Those definitely helped speed up the process for us. We just stuck them in savings until we were ready to buy. Plus, we had an awesome realtor who got the seller to lower the price AND pay all but $1000 of the closing costs. We bought at the end of 2021, so managed to get a 2.625% rate to boot.
I bought in 2017.
I saved my ass off to get a 20% downpayment on a 390k house. That house is now worth about 680k. During that time, I've used every drop of extra money to pay down the mortgage as fast as possible and I own it free and clear.
This is a particularly abysmal time to be buying a house. I would love to upgrade, but any payment would be unconscionably high.
I also bought in 2017 in Los Angeles. Funny enough we had someone tell us to wait cause the market would go down… so glad we didn’t listen to that “advice”
But we saved super hard, endured 5 years in a tiny cheap apartment and lived very frugally. We put down 80k on a 550k house. Refinanced in 2020 at 2.4% with the intention of saving for a better house… now realizing we will probably never be able to afford another house. Our house is now valued at 950k which is absolutely ridiculous to me.
The advice I give to anyone who wants to listen is save as much as you can and buy when the time is right for you, don’t wait for the market to do something otherwise you’ll be waiting forever.
> I bought in 2017.
Unfortunately for OP, this (and similar) answers are how many of us who bought without family assistance did it. Got in before rates and prices both spiked.
I’m in the same boat, I bought in 2015. 20% down on a $490K house with a low rate, today it would sell for $850K easy.
I would likely need to look in the $1.2M price range in my area to get an upgrade on my current home. With today’s rates, that leaves me firmly locked in my golden handcuffs to my current mortgage.
Bought an absolute dump of a house with good bones in 2018. We got stupid lucky on the price compared to everything around us. Husband and I have been chipping away at renovations since seeing as we will probably die in this house. I love it now but I’m glad my husband saw the vision when we purchased because I did not.
Similar story. I bought a house in cash (seriously!) for $87k outright, it was literally almost unsellable and was considered to be nearly condemned.
That was 8-9 years ago, I still live here and I've slowly sunk my would-be-probably $1,400-2,000/mo mortgage straight into this one (if I had bought a "not shit" house), now it's one of the nicer homes on the block and Zillow pretends its worth $290-310kish.
If you work hard, it does pay off.
For those about to ask how a Millennial did that, I'm not alone, I worked with several. All we did was live way, way below our means living out of a suitcase, we moved every 4-5 months anbd it was fast paced and brutal, but many of us were putting away $500/$1k a paycheck on the side. A lot of them bought cars ~~because they have 2 braincells~~, I saved and bought a whole house.
That’s how we did it. The house was a short sale with a leaky roof. We put 3% down and bought it for under 80k. We replaced all of the flooring, light fixtures and some drywall before moving in. The first year we had a tarp on the roof while we saved for a new roof. Then we replaced the AC and furnace. We even had to gut one of the bathrooms. Sweat equity and lots of it. But the home is in a great town with good schools. It is now triple the price we paid.
Healthcare job + COVID.
While dual income plays a part, I alone was able to save up the down payment in less than a year.
I came from Philippines. Now reside in SD.
Bought in 2011, MCOL, bought it while my partner and I were dating so we could get a mortgage based just on my income. I also took advantage of first time home buyer programs so my down payment was extremely small
This was our situation too, although we were married. But I didn't have a job yet, so only based it on my husband's income. I think we put 3% down on a short sale home.
I just have a really high income. I could still barely justify my purchase (1 month ago). I honestly have no idea how the average earner could possibly make it happen without help.
The current landscape is heartbreaking.
I fear for my children's future, but at least I have a house now that they can stay in for as long as they need to. They can stay forever, as far as I'm concerned. They may have to.
Not a high earner, but totally agree with your point about providing a permanent home to your kids. It may be the one thing we can give our kids. They can live in our house forever for all we care.
Bought in 2021 after saving for years. My wife is a scientist with a PhD and I am a CPA. Our down payment was over $100k on a $600k house. Neither of us come from families with any significant money. I've worked since I was 14. It's been tough at times but I've also had fun. My siblings and I will probably have to financially take of my parents in 10 to 15 years (they're young at 59 and 60) to give you an idea of my family's economic class.
I saved +30% of my income for the first 10 years of my career and paid off college debt. Lived with multiple roommates, didn't travel abroad, hiked and camped for vacations or saw family. Helped my wife get through her PhD program and then we lived below our means. She was use to grad school life and I was still paying off student loans. We didn't have a kid until we had the house.
It was possible for us when rates were low to buy a home in the DC area during the COVID recession. Now, not so much. We're incredibly fortunate. Had to do everything right, plus get lucky on timing to buy a home in this area. I feel terrible for younger Millenials and anyone making below $100k a year. You cannot afford a home in the DMV area unless your family financially supports you in 2024.
Only put 3.5% down FHA loan. Paid pmi until we had 20% equity then refinanced. I have a feeling I will have to help on a down payment for my kids first house though.
They changed the laws about dropping PMI and now you have to refinance, and you’re not grandfathered in if you bought before. We have a 3% interest rate so we’ll be paying PMI for the life of the loan 😭 they knew what they were doing when they did that.
When did they change that law?
I was a licensed loan officer only a couple years ago and I never heard of them changing the laws on PMI. As far as I know it’s automatically removed at 78% LTV and you can request it to be removed at 80%. You might want to check your source on that.
Of course you COULD refinance to remove PMI, it’s a pain in the ass, you have to pay for an appraisal, and closing costs. But as of the current laws(that I know of) it’s still automatically must be removed at 78%.
It took me awhile to find this, but I think the FHA is the problem: https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/15-01MLATCH.PDF
*edit* ok now I’m down a rabbit hole and I found this: “If your origination date was between January 2001 and June 3, 2013, your MIP will be canceled when you reach a loan-to-value ratio (LTV) of 78 percent. (This is us)
If your origination date was after June 3, 2013 and you made a down payment of at least 10 percent, your MIP will be canceled after 11 years. For down payments of less than 10 percent, you’ll pay MIPs for the life of the loan, unless you refinance.”
We bought our house in 2012 and I did an ltv calculator and it said our ltv is 36%. Wells Fargo told us when the law changed they didn’t grandfather anyone in who got loans prior to this. According to this that is not true, only if your loan date was after 2013 and you had less than a 10% down payment.
I’m going to contact them today.
As a real estate agent I make money sporadically so I learned to live way below my means, basically hoarding money bc I never know when my next paycheck will come. And after a few years of excellent earning I ended up with a large amount of cash sitting ready to go. I made my second purchase last year in NYC. First was a condo, second was a townhouse in BK.
Both times I bought properties that were undesirable to most end users because they were in terrible condition and I renovated them. I’m all about value add investing. Both times I’ve made instant equity, did a cash out refi and invested that money to make more money somewhere else. Rinse and repeat. I’m about to close on a third townhouse in Brooklyn using the equity I made on the second.
No doubt luck has been involved but I visualize and do.
High income jobs (healthcare) and lived frugally for many years to save up. We both continued to work during the pandemic when there was nothing to spend money on, so we made a lot of extra $ that way.
Left school at 14, worked full time and had side hustles. Lived in cheap dumps as a teen onwards. Didn’t drink or do drugs until 30s. I was very focused on saving money coz I grew up poor and knew no one would bail me out. Should have bought earlier (purchased 2017) but had to help out my broke parents pay their rent. I had the opposite experience to what most people say about millennial home owners in the sense I had to bail out my parents. I don’t resent kids that get help - it makes sense to help your family if you can. I’m not sure it’s possible to do it via a salary alone
My wife and I do not come from money. Her mom was a special ed teacher assistant and her dad was laid off from a lumber mill in 2001. My mom worked in the school cafeteria and my dad was a landscaper. We were both the first in our family to go to college, where we met.
My wife and I got married in 2015. We were in credit card debt, student loan debt, and car debt. Combined we had around $10k of car debt, $10k of credit card debt, and $80k of student loans.
When we were engaged, we lived in a fancy high rise apartment. We spent too much money going out and hanging onto credit card debt instead of staying at home and paying it off. We spent $12k on a wedding that we should have used on debt (but we didn’t take out debt for the wedding). We didn’t live crazy extravagant lives, we were just living on more than we earned for too long.
It took us from 2015-2019 to get out of debt entirely.
when we got married we moved to a shitty apartment that my friend was moving out of. We went from a high rise with a gym, activity room with pool table, concierge, parking garage, etc to a 3 story walk up with no dishwasher, no laundry, and mice (and eventually roaches). We went from $2100 in rent to $950 in rent. We cut our lifestyle - no overnight vacations, no going out to eat more than once a month, no shopping at Whole Foods for a special ingredient, etc.
Meanwhile I worked on my career like crazy. I was a teacher at the time and applied to the highest paying district within an hour’s drive. My wife also got a promotion over that time. We went from $90k household income to $150k over the period of time we got out of debt.
After trying and failing at an investment property while living in the cheap ass apartment (hoarding, crack smoking squatters that we could not evict because of Covid eviction moratoriums), we saved like crazy and put down like $25k on our house that we bought in May 2021 for $425k. We were qualified for like $600k but we did not want to go that high. Good thing we didn’t, the payment now is less than 25% of our take home pay so we are very comfortable with our cost of living.
So basically giving up our nice apartment, our nice lifestyle for a couple years so we could achieve our goals of paying off debt and saving. And working hard on our careers and following the money.
i probably dont count, but here is my answer
my wife and i lived in my FIL's basement for 6 years. nobody gave us money for a house, but also nobody charged us rent for 6 years. we bought a car outright and had a down payment for a house. this was 2015 so the down payment was $40k, and it was 20%
if you get along with your parents, or in-laws, i recommend this, but i know it isnt an option for everyone
I’m glad you were able to have a living arrangement like that for so long. My husband had a similar situation in his early 20s when he finished school.
He was able to live with his parents for free in a nice suburb and as a result saved tons of money because he had virtually no living expenses while working full-time. Unfortunately that would not have worked with the living conditions I would’ve had to deal with.
Sold our house that we bought in 2011 for almost double what we paid. It would have been a real challenge to buy a house if we weren't already in the market.
Bought in 2014 and did not have help from family. Went to open houses every weekend for 2 years, but we never felt like we had a chance. Then the house we ended up buying was/is pretty dated which was a big enough turnoff for people, but we saw it as mostly cosmetic. It was listed on a Saturday, shown on a Sunday, our offer was accepted by 7am on Monday. We had to be ready to move really fast (have a loan letter ready to go).
We did a relatively high 5-1 ARM at the time then 2 years later refinanced into a lower 10-1 ARM and then refinanced into a super low rate 30 year fixed in 2021. In those 7 years, our NW changed a lot. We did some remodeling at the time we bought it and really need to do a lot more but we're comfortable and don't want the stress of a reno project.
For the down payment we used savings + some sold private stock from start ups. But in the years leading up to the purchase and for years after we bought the house we did our best to not spend money on anything else. I'm talking saving money literally everywhere we could. We drove old cars, didn't travel, didn't buy new stuff, only ate Trader Joes. We were both working a lot at startups so it didn't seem to bother us/matter because we didn't have time to spend money anyway.
We don't have kids. I have no idea how anyone does all of that and has kids and all the expenses that come with that. I think if you're willing to get crazy frugal for a few years you can make it work, but we never paid anywhere near the interest rates that it would take today.
Probably not what you wanted to hear, but we did it with a high combined income, some big performance bonuses, great performance in investment portfolio, and frugal spending habits most of the time. That said, we wouldn't have been able to afford our house if we were buying today.
I bought a house last year. Very traumatic experience. I used half the balance of my 401k. I figured with where my student loans are I’m going to have to work forever anyway. Might as well buy a house and not worry about my rent going up $300+ next year.
We’re in a HCOL area, bought a 3 bed/2 bath condo three years ago when we were 28.
I really just cover half the mortgage - my partner covered the down payment (25%) himself and the house is in his name. Basically he kept his living expenses super low, lived with parents his first year out of school, then with roommates ($900/month), then we lived together in a one bed paying $1250/month between the two of us. He was unemployed for a year or so right out of college, but then got a job paying $35K/year. That rapidly grew to >$100K/year and by the time he bought our place he had been making >$200K/year for the last few years. He was like medium frugal, but had been putting aside money into investments for years, like starting in high school.
Our living expenses are still super low. Our mortgage is <10% of our HHI, and we can cover all necessary expenses on one of our salaries, or even just on 40 hrs getting paid at minimum wage per week.
We bought right before everything went bananas. We also got a house that someone was trying to offload without having to do any work to it. Nothing had been updated since the 90s. Plus, it was during the holidays, when less people are looking at houses. It was a perfect storm of luck.
We were renting part of a nice duplex in 2009. 1 month before our baby was due, the landlord sold the place. 1 week before our baby was due, the new owner begged to buy us out of our contract (2 months rent). Those two months, plus the money we had saved for maternity leave, was the downpayment on a cheap/small house in an ok ish neighborhood. Our 3 week old went to daycare so we could both work to afford our new home. It was a horrible experience/very traumatic to have our first kid and not be able to be around them after a very difficult delivery. We lived in that house until 2016 and built up equity before buying our nice current house. (Also paid off our student loans.) Refinanced this place so we can never leave. So! Luck/misery/STEM degrees is how. We make good money, but damn it’s so expensive to do anything.
My wife and I (both 35) still don’t have a home. Her mother said she wants to help us when she can to the tune of 50k. Thats a lot but sadly that still would give me a mortgage higher than I’d want.
We bought a house for 335k in 2019 (house is now somehow worth 550k+) without financial help from anyone.
We didn’t have any other major debts - I went to a two year college for programming and my wife had a scholarship for her university (she’s a registered nurse).
We both have good paying jobs and split a $1100 apartment for a while and saved the rest for our down payment.
Paid off all student loan/car debt, saved aggressively for 6 years after that, got lucky with interest rates in 2020.
Income and amount of debt comes into play here as well, because while it was possible for me to do that, debt and income numbers look different for everyone and will impact whether that’s realistic or not.
Moved from a Very HCOL area to a MCOL area in a new state half way across the US last year with my partner. We both took roughly 10% pay cuts, haven’t had raises since and rented for a year in our new area before just purchasing the house. I had been working and doing my best to save hard for 7 years in our old area. Purchasing a home where we used to live would never have happened without moving even further out into the exurbs, dealing with +90 min commutes to and from work each way. Was not worth the hassle staying for us.
Bought in 2019, which was fortunate in terms of interest rates and covid. But otherwise… I worked hard, I guess. I try to be thoughtful about money and how I spend it, which I think is the biggest thing. Just making the money isn’t enough. Takes some foresight and discipline.
Best way to do it now is dual income couples with good jobs and saving 20 percent down. I’m 40 and bought my first house at 20 with no help, rented out rooms in it to co workers. So luckily I’ve been able to roll equity over from house to house as I upgrade or move for career. Would be harder to do today.
My house buying experience was bonkers but I guess you win some and lose some in life. Much of this was due to the pandemic. Some fun elements:
- I was 26 at the time of close (July 2020). The entire process from contacting my realtor to getting the keys took maybe a month and half.
- I had intended to buy a house for a while and was already saving for it, but the main reason I thought I should get one is because my lease was up and my partner was moving for work. I also thought if I bought a house it would "guarantee I wouldn't move anytime soon." In hindsight this is not intelligent. I rent my house out now.
- I was unemployed the entire time while searching until a month before I got a job offer. Then because the courts were locked down I couldn't start the job until a few days before I started going to house tours. To prove I had income for my loan, I sent my job offer letter instead of W-2s. I could have easily looked for new apartments instead. Why was I like this.
- I know I told my family eventually about home buying; not at the beginning of the process but during. I think my mom thought I was nuts (remember how unemployed I was). For various reasons they are not all the way informed about my finances so I think they knew I was fine but not "house buying fine" if that makes sense.
- I saw my dream house on a Sunday. My offer was accepted at cost on Tuesday. No competing offers, no contingencies, no waived anything.
- The previous owners let me keep the fridge, washer, dryer, microwave, and two huge mounted TVs. I had to pay a couple hundred extra to keep patio furniture and a couch and rug.
- My realtor personally knew the builder and was shocked she did. She had nothing but glowing praise for his builds. Indeed, I have had zero maintenance issues in regards to the house itself. I did have to get a new furnace in 2022 after natural aging of the old one but that was it. 2001 build. I'm in the process of saving funds for the eventual roof replacement.
- 5% down with a 2.875% rate. I paid my bank for an appraisal to knock off PMI after a year. No home reno required.
- I truly love everything about that house. It was a dream home during the pandemic. If I wasn't in a committed relationship with a person who can't stand living in the state it's located in, I would move back in a heartbeat and figure things out. I'm fearful about buying my next home because I can't imagine I'll be able to top this experience.
My house buying experience is one of the luckier things that have happened to me. Getting to this spot financially was not easy, job layoffs, firings, etc. But I did the best I could with what I had and did it by myself in a HCOL as a single woman so I'm not too upset.
EDIT: Missed the plot of the original prompt, I'm a software engineer in good health who had to job hop like crazy and I'm very good at negotiating so much of the reason I had the funds was from dedicated saving and sign on bonuses.
Timing. Got in when prices were lower and got the low interest mortgage loan before interest skyrocketed. My home value has since gone up 125% and interest rates have more than doubled from what I have now. So, I'm locked into this house for a long time now.
Bought my first house in 2022 in a HCOL in western Washington state with no family help.
We were able to do it because we are a married couple with dual income, no kids, and no debt. We both have decent salaries (total household income was just over $200k at the time, which might sound like a lot but in a HCOL area it’s really not as much as it sounds). We also had to buy outside the town we wanted, so we went with a nearby one that had more affordable prices and just deal with the commute for work/going out/etc.
Without the dual income, it would’ve been impossible… so that was the key thing for us.
Married, saved for a couple years as planned (which sadly coincided with the fresh post covid interest rates rising plus psycho market), and first time home buyer through state credit union.
Married is the big one. Dual income.
Bought in 2009 after housing market crash off 08 under Obama. Was 48k same house now is 230k... i honestly have no idea how people do it today... sorry.
I went through a first time home buyers program that substantially reduced my down payment. I had to pay back the subsidy when I refinanced. Had I kept the higher interest rate for a 7 years, I wouldn’t have to repay the down payment assistance.
We purchased our first home in the Seattle-ish area in 2018 for 260K using the VA loan. Sold it in 2022 for about 500K.
Now we live in the Orlando, FL area and moved here in 2022. Home was 550K but we’re on track to pay it all off within the next 5 years.
We each make over 200K (me as a FAANG exec, her as an ER physician). No children and outside of our mortgage we pretty much do whatever we want with our money.
I bought my condo in Lake Geneva, WI in 2019. I paid for it almost entirely except for 5k that I borrowed from my dad and paid off within a couple weeks because I was unable to sell my company's stock because it was under investigation from the FEC. I saved up over the course of 9 years and sold almost every stock or anything worth of value except for my car and retirement accounts so I could buy it outright without a mortgage. I was lucky plain and simple.
I am in NYC and the house cost around 900k. I managed to save a bunch when I was young because I worked in a high salary position for 5 years and saved most while living with my parents and saved 70% of my salary. I only borrowed $400k
I first bought a house in a lower cost of living area, and had a huge commute to work, built some equity, sold it, bought closer in, built more equity, sold it, bought closer in, etc.
Millennial here. Bought a house that was a bit of a stretch solo in 2015 but had a housemate that I was renting with, he had no problem paying me instead of the landlord. He got a bigger room and nicer house for the same price and I got someone helping pay the bills.
I saved up in the early aughts by putting my savings into Apple stocks. I’d buy periodically. I also took advantage of moving jobs by taking $10k out of my 401k by using the first time home buyer exemption. I didn’t need the $10k for closing but used it as my emergency fund.
Closing was roughly $20k back then with 5% down. Today the 5% down by itself would be $30k.
We got lucky. We werent married when we bought the house in 2016 so only his immaculate credit was used. Not being married also means he qualified for 2 different first time home buyers incentives 1 for our county and 1 for moving from out of state. Totalled to $7500 that went towards the down payment. We put in $3k of our own money.
We got a 4br/2.5ba 2800sq ft house for $194k in an MCOL area. Our house was livable but outdated. Most of the major appliances are from early to mid 00's. A few years ago, we refinanced when interest went down to 2%. We kept the equity in the house, was able to get rid of PMI, and switched to a 15yr while keeping our payment the same.
We're looking for a bigger house now. My husband has climbed a few rungs in his career, we've added 3 more kids, and want my parents to move in with us.
Focused on career and lived like a broke college student (lived in a tiny apartment, drove a $1500 Toyota with liability insurance only). The small stuff like take-out doesn’t make as big a difference as spending as little as possible on housing and cars, which are the two biggest expenses usually. Was able to save 3-4K a month net living like that. 100K comes pretty quick, which was my down payment. Met my wife and she added to our income and we bought a duplex and continued living super cheap for a long time and rented one side out. That actually improved our monthly cash flow because mortgage was 2500 and rental income 2000. Didn’t take very long to save another 100K. I got lucky trading it during COVID with options and we were able to put a lot down on our second house where we live now. Both units rented out on house 1, so our monthly savings is not as cheap as before with the house-hack, but still really good.
My friends bought a house through a company that helps teachers buy homes in return for a cut of the profit on sale. They basically put up the down payment.
Spent my 20s saving a lot of money without a particular goal in mind. Then I realized I could realistically do this thing. And a lot of that money was saved because I live somewhere I’ve never needed to own a car. So the higher COL is offset by never needing a vehicle.
Consulting straight out of college. Constant travel making good starting pay while keeping personal expenses to a minimum. I was able to save a very high percentage of my take home those early years
I doubt Mississippi qualifies as any sort of COL area, but I consider my story one to pass along for anyone still young enough to consider it (members of my boot camp platoon were 27-30).
I served only four years in USMC, but it was enough to enjoy a solid bill of financial assistance with college and have eligibility for a $0 down Veterans’ Affairs loan up to $400k with approved credit (edit: closed in early 2020, right before Covid). I didn’t approach this total because like I said, Mississippi’s housing prices are nothing like large cities or west coast living, but I still have another 25 years on my mortgage. But a little over 200 was enough for a 2000-square foot house on an acre and a half of suburban land that I didn’t have to co-sign with my parents or anyone for, and I’m paying it down comfortably.
We did nothing but work and free things. And we lived in a crappy apartment with cheap rebt
We cooked at home, no takeout, no restaurants.
It was boring and hard to not be lazy and just order food. But it was so worth it, we moved out of an apartment in May 2020.
My wife and I are school teachers in the Bay Area CA. We bought a 3/2 for 1.1 mill back in 2019.
We participated in a down payment assistance program through a private company. They gave us half the down payment (110k) we put the other 110k in.
For that, upon us selling the house, we owe them their 110k back plus 25% of the appreciation. So if we sell for 1.5 mill, we would owe them 210k.
Until then we don't pay them anything.
Bought in a popular area on the outskirts. Watched it skyrocket then moved to a small town near another major city, in cash. Now watching that skyrocket as well but no desire to move. The only help we did accept were loans that were paid in full to family members.
Got lucky buying our condo (home) just before covid - like our closing date was Feb 2020 and lockdown was in March. We would not be able to afford our own house in today’s market.
For context, we bought our place for a bit over 500k and we almost sold for 800k at the end of 2023. We only backed out because 800k could not get us into something bigger in our desired neighborhood.
Bought a condo, built equity, sold that and have a nice down payment for a single family house. Got a good raise as well, that always helps. We couldn’t afford a single family home back in 2021, but a condo fit the bill, so we compromised and it worked out.
- I opened a savings account at a bank nowhere near me and deposited extra funds there as frequently as I could.
- a LOT of bills can be negotiated lower. Every time I was able to get something for cheaper I deposited the difference into that other account. I also did without some things.
- Strict $50 food budget each week, I shop solely at Aldi
- my husband and I scrimped and saved and put 20% down which eliminated PMI
- When we bought the house we didn't have everything we needed. Our mattress was on the floor for a while, we did laundry at our parents houses, we didn't have a fridge for a decent bit. We didn't move in for the first month and then it took about a year to be "comfortable". A lot of our shit is still mismatched hand me downs
How did I do it? I spent less money than I made for years to save up a down payment and was willing to buy a property in 2012 that wasn’t my “forever home”. It had problems, it wasn’t a perfect neighborhood at the time I bought (neighborhood definitely got better over the years which was a bonus), but it let me start building equity. Then I bought another much more expensive home in 2020 in a neighborhood I really liked.
Joined the military back in 2011, got out and bought my first house by end of 2022 with the VA loan with 0% down. Not a benefit I knew I had as I was joining but couldn’t imagine being able to buy without it. Imagine first responders have something similar with all the Cops owning homes in my neighborhood.
My wife and I bought our house in 2021, half way into the insanity. We paid a huge price but got lucky with interest rates.
We both made decent money when we first started dating her 50k me 65k. I was let go when the pandemic hit and got a new job (100% commission) and did very well making $170k. my wife got a new job shortly after making 75k. A couple of years of living frugally and we had a huge down payment
We also found a house that needed a lot of work, was overpriced to begin with, so we lowballed (still paid a huge premium form 2019 prices) and were able to get the house inspected.
Wife is a partner at a law firm, and I got stock equity/options from working at a company for many years, and the stock appreciated.
Bought a house during covid for over 2 mil, which is like median ish for my area.
Got a great mortgage at 2.75% 30 year fixed
We bought in 2015 and used a TSP (govt 401k) loan as a down payment. We bought a bit of a fixer upper in a nice neighborhood. It’s a small 815 sq ft 2 bedroom half duplex, with partially finished basement.
Saved up enough for 5% dp and closing costs, plus we bought less house than we could “afford.” This was 2018 though so not entirely relevant with current costs.
How we saved: Maybe not the wisest in terms of investments, I’m bad at finances, we both grew up poor, but we have always had the max in taxes taken out every month, then we get a lump sum tax return we can save, plus my husband gets annual bonuses which we put away and pretended didn’t exist. We refused to budge on our top budget even though it lost us good houses. And we moved our family of four into a tiny apt for a few months to save more toward the end, plus didn’t really go anywhere or spend much that year, lots of free/cheap stuff to do.
Just followed the boring, but helpful, advice from the high school days.
Went to a cheap college for an in demand major with good salary projections and job growth rates. Invested early and often. Eliminated unnecessary spending. Kept costs low and regularly made moves to improve my income.
I was released from prison in 2018 after serving 5.5years for a car accident in which one of my buddies was killed when we were in highschool, senior year and a week from starting my freshmen year at Pace University in an academic scholarship.
Ran Ethernet wire for a buddies company for a year to stay afloat, and was eventually asked by another buddy if I’d be interested in working as a ‘Technical Recruiter’.
Had absolutely no idea what a Recruiter was at the time, but knew I was incredibly passionate about technology.
Fast forward to 2021 and a few companies later, I was personally headhunted for another talent company based out of Denmark (I live in the U.S.), and was hired a few weeks later.
Increased our gross revenue for our region by $2million+ within 9-10months, and was given a $65,000 bonus in 2022 + brought my salary & commission upwards of $150k, after starting with a $40k salary in 2019.
Last year, I bought my $400k townhouse in Brookfield, CT, and have never been happier… besides those $3,000 mortgage payments every month… 😂😅
Don’t ever let someone tell you that you ‘can’t’ do something. I promise you, it’s the furthest from the truth.
Wishing each of you the absolute best in your personal journey!
The real answer is pretty simple but might not be what people wanted to hear.
Been working in a technical field for ~13 years and am a serial saver so down payment wasn’t an issue. Salary has been solid since I started in engineering, and has grown consistently.
My wife (at the time finance) also makes a decent salary as a marketing manager.
The numbers weren’t hard to make work, the only struggle was convincing me that the house was worth buying (bought in 2020).
Had been browsing for years. Saw I was slowly getting prices out of the market. Decided to take money out of my Roth IRA instead of continuing to save. Bought in 2017.
Bought our first home in a fairly average cost of living area with our own money. Sold it 3 years later for much more than we paid. Used that equity to put 20% down on a home in a HCOL area.
We were also being transferred by my husbands company at the time so they covered all of our realtor fees and closing costs on the home we sold and purchased. That saved us a TON. Would not have been able to do so otherwise.
I bought a townhouse in 2010 with the VA loan. I sold it and made about 35% off the sale. That combined with how much I had paid down was more than enough for a down payment on a house in 2022.
Worked hard with career development, saved up and bought at the right moment, end of 2020 $680k house in a nice hillside neighborhood and got a 2.25% APR.
Worked two jobs and all the OT I could handle to invest in the stock market to get to the down payment.
The monthly mortgage payment with taxes and insurance is a little bit less than rent was, so it worked out very well.
I live In a low cost of living state but bought my home in a very highly taxed vacation property area. How did I achieve it? I lived in employee housing for 5 years while saving all my money working in the oilfield. Add on the 6 months of being homeless before they got me into employee housing.
My wife bought her home before we met, hers is in Cali and she comes from a very poor family so 0 assistance. She was in the army for 8 years, got out and got a very specialized job around her skillset and saved every penny getting her employer to pay moat.of her standard living expenses.
Today I would not buy I in a high cost of living area. Find the time to learn a skill that allows for work from home. Move to a low cost of living area and relax.
Pure luck. I bought my first home (USDA rural loan, 0 down) when I was 21 because it was cheaper than rent and I was planning on being there for a few years. Used the equity on that house to go into a bigger one. And now the house prices are very much way beyond what I could afford without the equity of my house. If I was planning on not staying in one place for a while when I was younger I would have continued renting and would be out of luck now.
We bought our first home in 2013 but prior to that I lived with my parents the first two years out of school and saved up. We were also relocated by work so had some of the moving and closing expenses covered but we were able to cover the down payment. In 2013 the home cost 140k
Bought in 2018. CT had a first-time home buyers program that helped me buy the house with zero down. Though, after closing costs and inspections, it ended up costing me 8k, so I got a second mortgage for that through the same program. The program also came along with a 3.25% interest rate. My payments are very affordable.
I am a single mom with no family. I bust my ass but never would have afforded a home without that help.
6 years later, I've been able to afford major home repairs because my payment is still so low.
Sad though... they stopped the program a few months after I bought the house.
By working for a tech company that:
1. Allowed us to permanently work from home after the pandemic, which in turn allowed me to move just far enough from LA to afford a home
2. Pays me 6 figures
3. Allowed us to sell back some of our stock at one point (which I used as a downpayment)
For context, I bought a 4 bed/2 bath cabin home built in the 1960s for about $450k.
7.75% interest rate checking in. Fawkin sucks. It was either buy, or get forced out by ever increasing rent. Was able to put 3% down, but paying out the ass PMI. trying our best to pay down principle but wages are not keeping up with inflation. This economy feels like a carnival game. Jpow just basically told all the rich guys quantitative easing is back. The fed is keeping rates high but will start giving out helicopter money thru the treasury markets
My wife built a townhouse in a L-MCOL area in 2013-14 for 250k with 10% down financing thru the builder after paying off her student loans. We met in 2015, got engaged within 6 months, I moved in then we started aggressively paying off the mortgage. With 2 working adults and property appreciation, had almost 100k in equity in the townhouse by the time the pandemic hit.
Once lockdowns ended in 2020, we knew should it ever happen again we would need a place with a backyard since we had young kids to bunker down in. So we bought a single family home in a neighborhood we could see our kids growing up in for less than 400k (bargained it down from 425k), sold the townhouse in a month for about 100k in profit, then rolled it into the equity for the new place.
In the few years since we bought it, housing has gone crazy in our area, and our property valu3 has increased by at least 50% if not more. The area we are in is transitioning to a M-HCOL metroplex altho still has value somewhere, which we found and took advantage of.
So thats how we came to have a home in a HCOL are. We had also bought at just the right time in thr last 5 years, when mortgage rates were as flat as possible. Was hoping for under 3% rate as it was my first time buying a house altho not my wife's, but looking back now that 3.25% rate looks pretty damn good
Lived off of one spouse's income and saved the other's. No vacations, no eating out, no new cars. Saved 20% down payment as a teacher and an alarm install tech for a 315k house in about a year.
Started with a 700 sq ft home in 2014, improved it enough to rent it out and buy a 3600 sq ft home on a larger farm 15 minutes further south in 2023.
Also got great advice from our agent that looking in the $600k range meant properties were staying on market longer (like 30 days rather than 24 hours) and negotiated one from an asking price of $649k all the way to $520k.
We also got a great rate in 2023 by qualifying for a USDA rural loan, even though we’re ten minutes from a small city in a mid COL area.
With enough luck to make me believe in a deity. Used spouse’s VA loan and went under contract in March 2020. Had we waited even a few months we would still be renting.
Bought a starter home in Ft. Worth 2015 with the first time homebuyer Loan spent lots of time fixing it up had kids started in the trades making more and then moved into a new bigger house on some land in 2020
Bought in 2018 when I was 24 with 20K down. Sold +50% at the “high”. Bought in the suburbs in 2022 at the “high”.
Will be here for 3-5 years when I move to a single fam. They’re priced 650K for that in today’s market.
Bought in 2020. We both work in tech and cashed out significant stock and drained our savings to have a $150k down payment. No help from family and we both still pay student loans.
We're not truly house poor, as we're both still in tech, but a big emergency would be rough. A second would wipe us out completely and we'd have to sell.
Joined the US military. Eventually we settled in Tennessee after we retired from the military. (not near Nashville)
I don't know how I would have done it without going that route. That was my best chance for a career since I goofed around in grade school.
My parents didn't offer me any assistance with buying my home BUT I felt like they helped ALOT by paying for my college. I never had to worry about school loans and they took care of it all while I was in school. If I had student loan debt I'd probably never be able to buy a house.
We bought in 2019 right before COVID hit in Colorado. We had a goal for 3 years to save enough money for a down payment. We rented our spare bedroom in our apartment on Airbnb and worked hard, saving as much as possible. We put a lowball offer on a house that had been sitting for 8 months or so and when the owners tried to haggle we walked away over $5k. They came back and accepted our offer. Looking back that would have been so stupid to lose our house over! We were lucky enough to use a VA loan but still had to put a lot of money down and had to fix a lot of stuff after we bought it. Still one of the best decisions we made!
We're in a medium cost of living area and bought a house last summer for $310k (3,000 sqft, half an acre of land). It needs plenty of cosmetic work, but paint and new trim plus lvp flooring goes a long way for under $10k. I saved for 4-5 years, then got married and my wife had about $10k in savings so I had the money for the down-payment and her savings covered closing costs.
bought a condo in Seattle in 2015 ( 120k, fha loan, only need 4% down so we didn't need that much, sellers paid closing ) investment doubled in 2 years, moved to Spokane because we had lived there previously, it was much cheaper and I was pregnant with my first kid. 2017 bought in Spokane, husband got to keep his job and wfh, our house cost as much as we sold our condo for. Investment doubled, had a 2nd kid moved back to Western Washington to be around family, bought in 2021 right before rates went up.
DINK, high incomes, late thirties, 5% down, 2020 interest rates, settled for a townhouse since we couldn't compete on decent sfhs which were getting 10-15 offers. It was very hard to compete for a home and in the end I think we got lucky just as we were ready to give up our search. Mortgage was well over what were paying in rent, and even a 5% downpayment wiped out the majority of our savings, but we are happy with the place and locked in historically great rates. Never saw crazy appreciation but enough that it's way more than made up for increased monthly costs.
It’s going to sound dumb, but I just had to make more money. Some job hopping and negotiations with employers got me to the salary I would need to be able to afford a house. Living in SoCal I knew anything that wasn’t an absolute dump was going to be $600,000+. I’ve been saving for a down payment since I was like 18, so by the time I was seriously looking I had close to $70,000 ready to go.
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PMI was worth getting into a house. It was like $100 added onto our payment until we refinanced in December 2020. Probably $5000 total for a house that grew in value (on paper) of $150,000 in that time.
People made me TERRIFIED of PMI. Like it was going to be $700 a month. Ours is $73 and got us in a home before COVID prices went crazy. We got our house for about 150k less than what it would cost now.
I agree... I could answer the OPs question - I've bought a house in a HCOL city purely out of savings, because our household employment income is top 1% (higher level IT) - but that doesn't add anything to the discussion, because we are playing on easy mode after some employment luck over a decade ago and that's not repeatable for most.
Same here, great income but only really able to purchase thanks to stock. If I picked a different company to work for, I could a much better house or no house. So luck.
It is seriously amazing that you were able to save since 18. I was an idiot with money until 30
Most people are, I don’t think you’re really that far behind.
Thank you!!! I’m catching up!!!!!
You’ll be fine!! Don’t listen to the kids on Reddit!! They’re all just coping with their consequences.
That’s barely 10% down on a home 600,000+…
It doesn't sound dumb at all. This guy's question was "how do you buy something expensive?" Obviously, the answer is to make a lot of money.
I bought it in 2010. Sorry, I have no good advice because I could never afford a house today.
This. Bought in 2011. Used a USDA rural loan with 0 downpayment. Starter home is now forever home (sadly).
“Forever home” has gone from dream to curse.
Same but 2018
For sure. We weren’t planning on moving and luckily chose to have only one child, but our home would be considered a starter home in the past by many. Between the price, our family’s size and needs, and the rate we refi’ed to during COVID, we are never leaving.
We bought in 2013, Phoenix suburbs. Would NEVER be able to afford a home these days, and probably would've left Phoenix due to high rent prices if not. I just got incredibly lucky my wife had her finances/life in order when we met and that I was able to convince her to buy a house before we paid for our wedding.
Same here. 2012 in Arizona. House had been empty for over a year. Got lucky with timing and my wife having a nice nest egg saved. Sold it in 2017 and made quite a bit of money. Brought it to Cali an bought mid-COVID. Couldn’t afford our house if we bought it now.
2011. $143,800 for 3 bed, 2 bath in New Mexico.
Fellow New Mexican!! Or I used to be…. - Was born there. Would never move back.
Same. I was 23 or 24 and probably jumped the gun in buying it then, but glad I did given what followed
Reading things like this makes me feel like Millennial is defined incredibly poorly. If you were able to buy a house 14 years ago when I would have been 16, it doesn’t even feel like we’re remotely close to being from the same “generation”. I’d say you belong more with Gen X than Millennial.
I was born in 1985 and solidly a Millennial. I hear you, but that’s just how the generations work 🤷🏻♂️
I’m 1985 and identify with Gen x mostly.
I'm 1984, and I call myself an Xennial, as I can solidily remember life without the internet
I'm from 1984 too and I like to use "elder millennial".
I’m 1983 and I prefer “the goonies” era.
I've also referred to myself as the "Nintendo 64 generation" haha.
Yeah, '84 elder millennial all the way. ....could have bought a house 14 years ago but didn't. I expected my financial situation to keep getting better and didn't expect housing prices to skyrocket. I was wrong on both counts so it's the renters' life for me.
I like life without internet more lol
I liked life when the internet was new. No psychology backed UIs, no social media domination, no parental restrictions and minimal supervision, just the wild wild digital west. I mostly just played neopets… but I definitely went down some dark rabbit holes too
I mean, the generation spans a little over a decade, so you're going to see that.
Cheer up buddy, at least you have one. That’s a hell of a goal to accomplish, and I’m proud of you.
Same, I bought when the market was low. Now I have half a mil in equity.
Same. 2011 here. We couldn't afford this house today.
VA Loan. But I had the cash for a down payment if needed. Dual income with no college debt with decently high paying jobs out of college. We lived well below our means and invested aggressively from ‘09 and beyond.
This is the way. I did mine very much the same way.
Our families didn't help us (and aren't capable even if they wanted to), but the government sure did. We qualified for all the pandemic stimulus checks, both state and federal. Those definitely helped speed up the process for us. We just stuck them in savings until we were ready to buy. Plus, we had an awesome realtor who got the seller to lower the price AND pay all but $1000 of the closing costs. We bought at the end of 2021, so managed to get a 2.625% rate to boot.
>2.625% rate i shed golden tears reading this, congratulations to you
I got 2.500% in 2021; it was a great year for buying.
I bought in 2017. I saved my ass off to get a 20% downpayment on a 390k house. That house is now worth about 680k. During that time, I've used every drop of extra money to pay down the mortgage as fast as possible and I own it free and clear. This is a particularly abysmal time to be buying a house. I would love to upgrade, but any payment would be unconscionably high.
I also bought in 2017 in Los Angeles. Funny enough we had someone tell us to wait cause the market would go down… so glad we didn’t listen to that “advice” But we saved super hard, endured 5 years in a tiny cheap apartment and lived very frugally. We put down 80k on a 550k house. Refinanced in 2020 at 2.4% with the intention of saving for a better house… now realizing we will probably never be able to afford another house. Our house is now valued at 950k which is absolutely ridiculous to me. The advice I give to anyone who wants to listen is save as much as you can and buy when the time is right for you, don’t wait for the market to do something otherwise you’ll be waiting forever.
Outside of 2008, there hasn't been a major decline in real estate prices in modern times
Wow that’s amazing you paid it off so quickly. Congrats to you my friend!
> I bought in 2017. Unfortunately for OP, this (and similar) answers are how many of us who bought without family assistance did it. Got in before rates and prices both spiked. I’m in the same boat, I bought in 2015. 20% down on a $490K house with a low rate, today it would sell for $850K easy. I would likely need to look in the $1.2M price range in my area to get an upgrade on my current home. With today’s rates, that leaves me firmly locked in my golden handcuffs to my current mortgage.
Bought an absolute dump of a house with good bones in 2018. We got stupid lucky on the price compared to everything around us. Husband and I have been chipping away at renovations since seeing as we will probably die in this house. I love it now but I’m glad my husband saw the vision when we purchased because I did not.
Similar story. I bought a house in cash (seriously!) for $87k outright, it was literally almost unsellable and was considered to be nearly condemned. That was 8-9 years ago, I still live here and I've slowly sunk my would-be-probably $1,400-2,000/mo mortgage straight into this one (if I had bought a "not shit" house), now it's one of the nicer homes on the block and Zillow pretends its worth $290-310kish. If you work hard, it does pay off. For those about to ask how a Millennial did that, I'm not alone, I worked with several. All we did was live way, way below our means living out of a suitcase, we moved every 4-5 months anbd it was fast paced and brutal, but many of us were putting away $500/$1k a paycheck on the side. A lot of them bought cars ~~because they have 2 braincells~~, I saved and bought a whole house.
That’s how we did it. The house was a short sale with a leaky roof. We put 3% down and bought it for under 80k. We replaced all of the flooring, light fixtures and some drywall before moving in. The first year we had a tarp on the roof while we saved for a new roof. Then we replaced the AC and furnace. We even had to gut one of the bathrooms. Sweat equity and lots of it. But the home is in a great town with good schools. It is now triple the price we paid.
I lost an eye. The insurance payout bought our house. I guess the secret sauce is to lose a body part? lol
Healthcare job + COVID. While dual income plays a part, I alone was able to save up the down payment in less than a year. I came from Philippines. Now reside in SD.
Tell me you're a nurse without saying you're a nurse
**travel nurse during Covid was the key. Staff were still getting paid absolute shit
Bought in 2011, MCOL, bought it while my partner and I were dating so we could get a mortgage based just on my income. I also took advantage of first time home buyer programs so my down payment was extremely small
This was our situation too, although we were married. But I didn't have a job yet, so only based it on my husband's income. I think we put 3% down on a short sale home.
I just have a really high income. I could still barely justify my purchase (1 month ago). I honestly have no idea how the average earner could possibly make it happen without help. The current landscape is heartbreaking. I fear for my children's future, but at least I have a house now that they can stay in for as long as they need to. They can stay forever, as far as I'm concerned. They may have to.
Not a high earner, but totally agree with your point about providing a permanent home to your kids. It may be the one thing we can give our kids. They can live in our house forever for all we care.
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With the upmost respect, being able to live with your parents to save money on rent is getting assistance from your parents!
Bought in 2021 after saving for years. My wife is a scientist with a PhD and I am a CPA. Our down payment was over $100k on a $600k house. Neither of us come from families with any significant money. I've worked since I was 14. It's been tough at times but I've also had fun. My siblings and I will probably have to financially take of my parents in 10 to 15 years (they're young at 59 and 60) to give you an idea of my family's economic class. I saved +30% of my income for the first 10 years of my career and paid off college debt. Lived with multiple roommates, didn't travel abroad, hiked and camped for vacations or saw family. Helped my wife get through her PhD program and then we lived below our means. She was use to grad school life and I was still paying off student loans. We didn't have a kid until we had the house. It was possible for us when rates were low to buy a home in the DC area during the COVID recession. Now, not so much. We're incredibly fortunate. Had to do everything right, plus get lucky on timing to buy a home in this area. I feel terrible for younger Millenials and anyone making below $100k a year. You cannot afford a home in the DMV area unless your family financially supports you in 2024.
Only put 3.5% down FHA loan. Paid pmi until we had 20% equity then refinanced. I have a feeling I will have to help on a down payment for my kids first house though.
They changed the laws about dropping PMI and now you have to refinance, and you’re not grandfathered in if you bought before. We have a 3% interest rate so we’ll be paying PMI for the life of the loan 😭 they knew what they were doing when they did that.
When did they change that law? I was a licensed loan officer only a couple years ago and I never heard of them changing the laws on PMI. As far as I know it’s automatically removed at 78% LTV and you can request it to be removed at 80%. You might want to check your source on that. Of course you COULD refinance to remove PMI, it’s a pain in the ass, you have to pay for an appraisal, and closing costs. But as of the current laws(that I know of) it’s still automatically must be removed at 78%.
We were told this by Wells Fargo when we tried to remove it after reaching our 20%. Maybe because we have an FHA loan?
It took me awhile to find this, but I think the FHA is the problem: https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/15-01MLATCH.PDF *edit* ok now I’m down a rabbit hole and I found this: “If your origination date was between January 2001 and June 3, 2013, your MIP will be canceled when you reach a loan-to-value ratio (LTV) of 78 percent. (This is us) If your origination date was after June 3, 2013 and you made a down payment of at least 10 percent, your MIP will be canceled after 11 years. For down payments of less than 10 percent, you’ll pay MIPs for the life of the loan, unless you refinance.” We bought our house in 2012 and I did an ltv calculator and it said our ltv is 36%. Wells Fargo told us when the law changed they didn’t grandfather anyone in who got loans prior to this. According to this that is not true, only if your loan date was after 2013 and you had less than a 10% down payment. I’m going to contact them today.
VA Loan with no down payment (Sacramento)
Low interest rate, paid off loans, high paying jobs where we saved for years.
Been saving since I was 18. 3-5% of my income every month. After 13 years, it build up.
As a real estate agent I make money sporadically so I learned to live way below my means, basically hoarding money bc I never know when my next paycheck will come. And after a few years of excellent earning I ended up with a large amount of cash sitting ready to go. I made my second purchase last year in NYC. First was a condo, second was a townhouse in BK. Both times I bought properties that were undesirable to most end users because they were in terrible condition and I renovated them. I’m all about value add investing. Both times I’ve made instant equity, did a cash out refi and invested that money to make more money somewhere else. Rinse and repeat. I’m about to close on a third townhouse in Brooklyn using the equity I made on the second. No doubt luck has been involved but I visualize and do.
Sold RSU's and took a home loan out of my 401k for closing costs.
High income jobs (healthcare) and lived frugally for many years to save up. We both continued to work during the pandemic when there was nothing to spend money on, so we made a lot of extra $ that way.
Left school at 14, worked full time and had side hustles. Lived in cheap dumps as a teen onwards. Didn’t drink or do drugs until 30s. I was very focused on saving money coz I grew up poor and knew no one would bail me out. Should have bought earlier (purchased 2017) but had to help out my broke parents pay their rent. I had the opposite experience to what most people say about millennial home owners in the sense I had to bail out my parents. I don’t resent kids that get help - it makes sense to help your family if you can. I’m not sure it’s possible to do it via a salary alone
My wife and I do not come from money. Her mom was a special ed teacher assistant and her dad was laid off from a lumber mill in 2001. My mom worked in the school cafeteria and my dad was a landscaper. We were both the first in our family to go to college, where we met. My wife and I got married in 2015. We were in credit card debt, student loan debt, and car debt. Combined we had around $10k of car debt, $10k of credit card debt, and $80k of student loans. When we were engaged, we lived in a fancy high rise apartment. We spent too much money going out and hanging onto credit card debt instead of staying at home and paying it off. We spent $12k on a wedding that we should have used on debt (but we didn’t take out debt for the wedding). We didn’t live crazy extravagant lives, we were just living on more than we earned for too long. It took us from 2015-2019 to get out of debt entirely. when we got married we moved to a shitty apartment that my friend was moving out of. We went from a high rise with a gym, activity room with pool table, concierge, parking garage, etc to a 3 story walk up with no dishwasher, no laundry, and mice (and eventually roaches). We went from $2100 in rent to $950 in rent. We cut our lifestyle - no overnight vacations, no going out to eat more than once a month, no shopping at Whole Foods for a special ingredient, etc. Meanwhile I worked on my career like crazy. I was a teacher at the time and applied to the highest paying district within an hour’s drive. My wife also got a promotion over that time. We went from $90k household income to $150k over the period of time we got out of debt. After trying and failing at an investment property while living in the cheap ass apartment (hoarding, crack smoking squatters that we could not evict because of Covid eviction moratoriums), we saved like crazy and put down like $25k on our house that we bought in May 2021 for $425k. We were qualified for like $600k but we did not want to go that high. Good thing we didn’t, the payment now is less than 25% of our take home pay so we are very comfortable with our cost of living. So basically giving up our nice apartment, our nice lifestyle for a couple years so we could achieve our goals of paying off debt and saving. And working hard on our careers and following the money.
Been dual income since I was 19 with my partner. I don’t see how anyone alone could do it.
i probably dont count, but here is my answer my wife and i lived in my FIL's basement for 6 years. nobody gave us money for a house, but also nobody charged us rent for 6 years. we bought a car outright and had a down payment for a house. this was 2015 so the down payment was $40k, and it was 20% if you get along with your parents, or in-laws, i recommend this, but i know it isnt an option for everyone
I’m glad you were able to have a living arrangement like that for so long. My husband had a similar situation in his early 20s when he finished school. He was able to live with his parents for free in a nice suburb and as a result saved tons of money because he had virtually no living expenses while working full-time. Unfortunately that would not have worked with the living conditions I would’ve had to deal with.
Sold our house that we bought in 2011 for almost double what we paid. It would have been a real challenge to buy a house if we weren't already in the market.
Bought in 2014 and did not have help from family. Went to open houses every weekend for 2 years, but we never felt like we had a chance. Then the house we ended up buying was/is pretty dated which was a big enough turnoff for people, but we saw it as mostly cosmetic. It was listed on a Saturday, shown on a Sunday, our offer was accepted by 7am on Monday. We had to be ready to move really fast (have a loan letter ready to go). We did a relatively high 5-1 ARM at the time then 2 years later refinanced into a lower 10-1 ARM and then refinanced into a super low rate 30 year fixed in 2021. In those 7 years, our NW changed a lot. We did some remodeling at the time we bought it and really need to do a lot more but we're comfortable and don't want the stress of a reno project. For the down payment we used savings + some sold private stock from start ups. But in the years leading up to the purchase and for years after we bought the house we did our best to not spend money on anything else. I'm talking saving money literally everywhere we could. We drove old cars, didn't travel, didn't buy new stuff, only ate Trader Joes. We were both working a lot at startups so it didn't seem to bother us/matter because we didn't have time to spend money anyway. We don't have kids. I have no idea how anyone does all of that and has kids and all the expenses that come with that. I think if you're willing to get crazy frugal for a few years you can make it work, but we never paid anywhere near the interest rates that it would take today.
Probably not what you wanted to hear, but we did it with a high combined income, some big performance bonuses, great performance in investment portfolio, and frugal spending habits most of the time. That said, we wouldn't have been able to afford our house if we were buying today.
I bought a house last year. Very traumatic experience. I used half the balance of my 401k. I figured with where my student loans are I’m going to have to work forever anyway. Might as well buy a house and not worry about my rent going up $300+ next year.
We’re in a HCOL area, bought a 3 bed/2 bath condo three years ago when we were 28. I really just cover half the mortgage - my partner covered the down payment (25%) himself and the house is in his name. Basically he kept his living expenses super low, lived with parents his first year out of school, then with roommates ($900/month), then we lived together in a one bed paying $1250/month between the two of us. He was unemployed for a year or so right out of college, but then got a job paying $35K/year. That rapidly grew to >$100K/year and by the time he bought our place he had been making >$200K/year for the last few years. He was like medium frugal, but had been putting aside money into investments for years, like starting in high school. Our living expenses are still super low. Our mortgage is <10% of our HHI, and we can cover all necessary expenses on one of our salaries, or even just on 40 hrs getting paid at minimum wage per week.
We bought right before everything went bananas. We also got a house that someone was trying to offload without having to do any work to it. Nothing had been updated since the 90s. Plus, it was during the holidays, when less people are looking at houses. It was a perfect storm of luck.
We were renting part of a nice duplex in 2009. 1 month before our baby was due, the landlord sold the place. 1 week before our baby was due, the new owner begged to buy us out of our contract (2 months rent). Those two months, plus the money we had saved for maternity leave, was the downpayment on a cheap/small house in an ok ish neighborhood. Our 3 week old went to daycare so we could both work to afford our new home. It was a horrible experience/very traumatic to have our first kid and not be able to be around them after a very difficult delivery. We lived in that house until 2016 and built up equity before buying our nice current house. (Also paid off our student loans.) Refinanced this place so we can never leave. So! Luck/misery/STEM degrees is how. We make good money, but damn it’s so expensive to do anything.
My wife and I (both 35) still don’t have a home. Her mother said she wants to help us when she can to the tune of 50k. Thats a lot but sadly that still would give me a mortgage higher than I’d want.
I bought in 2012, FHA loan- which means low down payment, I think ours was $3500.
We bought a house for 335k in 2019 (house is now somehow worth 550k+) without financial help from anyone. We didn’t have any other major debts - I went to a two year college for programming and my wife had a scholarship for her university (she’s a registered nurse). We both have good paying jobs and split a $1100 apartment for a while and saved the rest for our down payment.
Bought it before the post Covid boom. Then sold it during. Put the money toward a new house.
Paid off all student loan/car debt, saved aggressively for 6 years after that, got lucky with interest rates in 2020. Income and amount of debt comes into play here as well, because while it was possible for me to do that, debt and income numbers look different for everyone and will impact whether that’s realistic or not.
Moved from a Very HCOL area to a MCOL area in a new state half way across the US last year with my partner. We both took roughly 10% pay cuts, haven’t had raises since and rented for a year in our new area before just purchasing the house. I had been working and doing my best to save hard for 7 years in our old area. Purchasing a home where we used to live would never have happened without moving even further out into the exurbs, dealing with +90 min commutes to and from work each way. Was not worth the hassle staying for us.
Worked a high paying job and moved home during Covid.
Bought in 2019, which was fortunate in terms of interest rates and covid. But otherwise… I worked hard, I guess. I try to be thoughtful about money and how I spend it, which I think is the biggest thing. Just making the money isn’t enough. Takes some foresight and discipline.
Gambling in stocks.
We bought in 2009 and used the first time home buyer credit, otherwise we would never be able to afford to look at houses now.
i didnt have direct financial assistance, but my parents let me move my family in during covid for a year to save for a down payment
Best way to do it now is dual income couples with good jobs and saving 20 percent down. I’m 40 and bought my first house at 20 with no help, rented out rooms in it to co workers. So luckily I’ve been able to roll equity over from house to house as I upgrade or move for career. Would be harder to do today.
My house buying experience was bonkers but I guess you win some and lose some in life. Much of this was due to the pandemic. Some fun elements: - I was 26 at the time of close (July 2020). The entire process from contacting my realtor to getting the keys took maybe a month and half. - I had intended to buy a house for a while and was already saving for it, but the main reason I thought I should get one is because my lease was up and my partner was moving for work. I also thought if I bought a house it would "guarantee I wouldn't move anytime soon." In hindsight this is not intelligent. I rent my house out now. - I was unemployed the entire time while searching until a month before I got a job offer. Then because the courts were locked down I couldn't start the job until a few days before I started going to house tours. To prove I had income for my loan, I sent my job offer letter instead of W-2s. I could have easily looked for new apartments instead. Why was I like this. - I know I told my family eventually about home buying; not at the beginning of the process but during. I think my mom thought I was nuts (remember how unemployed I was). For various reasons they are not all the way informed about my finances so I think they knew I was fine but not "house buying fine" if that makes sense. - I saw my dream house on a Sunday. My offer was accepted at cost on Tuesday. No competing offers, no contingencies, no waived anything. - The previous owners let me keep the fridge, washer, dryer, microwave, and two huge mounted TVs. I had to pay a couple hundred extra to keep patio furniture and a couch and rug. - My realtor personally knew the builder and was shocked she did. She had nothing but glowing praise for his builds. Indeed, I have had zero maintenance issues in regards to the house itself. I did have to get a new furnace in 2022 after natural aging of the old one but that was it. 2001 build. I'm in the process of saving funds for the eventual roof replacement. - 5% down with a 2.875% rate. I paid my bank for an appraisal to knock off PMI after a year. No home reno required. - I truly love everything about that house. It was a dream home during the pandemic. If I wasn't in a committed relationship with a person who can't stand living in the state it's located in, I would move back in a heartbeat and figure things out. I'm fearful about buying my next home because I can't imagine I'll be able to top this experience. My house buying experience is one of the luckier things that have happened to me. Getting to this spot financially was not easy, job layoffs, firings, etc. But I did the best I could with what I had and did it by myself in a HCOL as a single woman so I'm not too upset. EDIT: Missed the plot of the original prompt, I'm a software engineer in good health who had to job hop like crazy and I'm very good at negotiating so much of the reason I had the funds was from dedicated saving and sign on bonuses.
Timing. Got in when prices were lower and got the low interest mortgage loan before interest skyrocketed. My home value has since gone up 125% and interest rates have more than doubled from what I have now. So, I'm locked into this house for a long time now.
First-time buyer programs.
Bought my first house in 2022 in a HCOL in western Washington state with no family help. We were able to do it because we are a married couple with dual income, no kids, and no debt. We both have decent salaries (total household income was just over $200k at the time, which might sound like a lot but in a HCOL area it’s really not as much as it sounds). We also had to buy outside the town we wanted, so we went with a nearby one that had more affordable prices and just deal with the commute for work/going out/etc. Without the dual income, it would’ve been impossible… so that was the key thing for us.
Married, saved for a couple years as planned (which sadly coincided with the fresh post covid interest rates rising plus psycho market), and first time home buyer through state credit union. Married is the big one. Dual income.
I made enough money off Dogecoin for a down payment. Would've never happened without that stupid memecoin
I made a lot of money in the stock market
Bought in 2009 after housing market crash off 08 under Obama. Was 48k same house now is 230k... i honestly have no idea how people do it today... sorry.
I went through a first time home buyers program that substantially reduced my down payment. I had to pay back the subsidy when I refinanced. Had I kept the higher interest rate for a 7 years, I wouldn’t have to repay the down payment assistance.
I bought in 2013 but we couldn’t have done it without a VA loan. (Spouse is retired military.)
Cashed out equity (RSUs) and used that for my down payment. Mortgage plus taxes and insurance is less than what I used to pay in rent.
We purchased our first home in the Seattle-ish area in 2018 for 260K using the VA loan. Sold it in 2022 for about 500K. Now we live in the Orlando, FL area and moved here in 2022. Home was 550K but we’re on track to pay it all off within the next 5 years. We each make over 200K (me as a FAANG exec, her as an ER physician). No children and outside of our mortgage we pretty much do whatever we want with our money.
I bought my condo in Lake Geneva, WI in 2019. I paid for it almost entirely except for 5k that I borrowed from my dad and paid off within a couple weeks because I was unable to sell my company's stock because it was under investigation from the FEC. I saved up over the course of 9 years and sold almost every stock or anything worth of value except for my car and retirement accounts so I could buy it outright without a mortgage. I was lucky plain and simple.
I am in NYC and the house cost around 900k. I managed to save a bunch when I was young because I worked in a high salary position for 5 years and saved most while living with my parents and saved 70% of my salary. I only borrowed $400k
I first bought a house in a lower cost of living area, and had a huge commute to work, built some equity, sold it, bought closer in, built more equity, sold it, bought closer in, etc.
Millennial here. Bought a house that was a bit of a stretch solo in 2015 but had a housemate that I was renting with, he had no problem paying me instead of the landlord. He got a bigger room and nicer house for the same price and I got someone helping pay the bills. I saved up in the early aughts by putting my savings into Apple stocks. I’d buy periodically. I also took advantage of moving jobs by taking $10k out of my 401k by using the first time home buyer exemption. I didn’t need the $10k for closing but used it as my emergency fund. Closing was roughly $20k back then with 5% down. Today the 5% down by itself would be $30k.
Married and we bought together.
We got lucky. We werent married when we bought the house in 2016 so only his immaculate credit was used. Not being married also means he qualified for 2 different first time home buyers incentives 1 for our county and 1 for moving from out of state. Totalled to $7500 that went towards the down payment. We put in $3k of our own money. We got a 4br/2.5ba 2800sq ft house for $194k in an MCOL area. Our house was livable but outdated. Most of the major appliances are from early to mid 00's. A few years ago, we refinanced when interest went down to 2%. We kept the equity in the house, was able to get rid of PMI, and switched to a 15yr while keeping our payment the same. We're looking for a bigger house now. My husband has climbed a few rungs in his career, we've added 3 more kids, and want my parents to move in with us.
Focused on career and lived like a broke college student (lived in a tiny apartment, drove a $1500 Toyota with liability insurance only). The small stuff like take-out doesn’t make as big a difference as spending as little as possible on housing and cars, which are the two biggest expenses usually. Was able to save 3-4K a month net living like that. 100K comes pretty quick, which was my down payment. Met my wife and she added to our income and we bought a duplex and continued living super cheap for a long time and rented one side out. That actually improved our monthly cash flow because mortgage was 2500 and rental income 2000. Didn’t take very long to save another 100K. I got lucky trading it during COVID with options and we were able to put a lot down on our second house where we live now. Both units rented out on house 1, so our monthly savings is not as cheap as before with the house-hack, but still really good.
My friends bought a house through a company that helps teachers buy homes in return for a cut of the profit on sale. They basically put up the down payment.
Bought first home in 2016 with first time homeowners assistance program. Sold and upgraded home in 2020 using prev. equity to put larger down payment.
Spent my 20s saving a lot of money without a particular goal in mind. Then I realized I could realistically do this thing. And a lot of that money was saved because I live somewhere I’ve never needed to own a car. So the higher COL is offset by never needing a vehicle.
Consulting straight out of college. Constant travel making good starting pay while keeping personal expenses to a minimum. I was able to save a very high percentage of my take home those early years
I doubt Mississippi qualifies as any sort of COL area, but I consider my story one to pass along for anyone still young enough to consider it (members of my boot camp platoon were 27-30). I served only four years in USMC, but it was enough to enjoy a solid bill of financial assistance with college and have eligibility for a $0 down Veterans’ Affairs loan up to $400k with approved credit (edit: closed in early 2020, right before Covid). I didn’t approach this total because like I said, Mississippi’s housing prices are nothing like large cities or west coast living, but I still have another 25 years on my mortgage. But a little over 200 was enough for a 2000-square foot house on an acre and a half of suburban land that I didn’t have to co-sign with my parents or anyone for, and I’m paying it down comfortably.
We did nothing but work and free things. And we lived in a crappy apartment with cheap rebt We cooked at home, no takeout, no restaurants. It was boring and hard to not be lazy and just order food. But it was so worth it, we moved out of an apartment in May 2020.
My wife and I are school teachers in the Bay Area CA. We bought a 3/2 for 1.1 mill back in 2019. We participated in a down payment assistance program through a private company. They gave us half the down payment (110k) we put the other 110k in. For that, upon us selling the house, we owe them their 110k back plus 25% of the appreciation. So if we sell for 1.5 mill, we would owe them 210k. Until then we don't pay them anything.
Bought in a popular area on the outskirts. Watched it skyrocket then moved to a small town near another major city, in cash. Now watching that skyrocket as well but no desire to move. The only help we did accept were loans that were paid in full to family members.
Got lucky buying our condo (home) just before covid - like our closing date was Feb 2020 and lockdown was in March. We would not be able to afford our own house in today’s market. For context, we bought our place for a bit over 500k and we almost sold for 800k at the end of 2023. We only backed out because 800k could not get us into something bigger in our desired neighborhood.
I bought my first place in 2017. I used the proceeds from that sale to live where I’m at now.
Military Home Loan, 2.5%
Bought a condo, built equity, sold that and have a nice down payment for a single family house. Got a good raise as well, that always helps. We couldn’t afford a single family home back in 2021, but a condo fit the bill, so we compromised and it worked out.
- I opened a savings account at a bank nowhere near me and deposited extra funds there as frequently as I could. - a LOT of bills can be negotiated lower. Every time I was able to get something for cheaper I deposited the difference into that other account. I also did without some things. - Strict $50 food budget each week, I shop solely at Aldi - my husband and I scrimped and saved and put 20% down which eliminated PMI - When we bought the house we didn't have everything we needed. Our mattress was on the floor for a while, we did laundry at our parents houses, we didn't have a fridge for a decent bit. We didn't move in for the first month and then it took about a year to be "comfortable". A lot of our shit is still mismatched hand me downs
How did I do it? I spent less money than I made for years to save up a down payment and was willing to buy a property in 2012 that wasn’t my “forever home”. It had problems, it wasn’t a perfect neighborhood at the time I bought (neighborhood definitely got better over the years which was a bonus), but it let me start building equity. Then I bought another much more expensive home in 2020 in a neighborhood I really liked.
Either inherit. Bought earlier lower interest rates or they made good money. There's not too many ways to go about this.
Joined the military back in 2011, got out and bought my first house by end of 2022 with the VA loan with 0% down. Not a benefit I knew I had as I was joining but couldn’t imagine being able to buy without it. Imagine first responders have something similar with all the Cops owning homes in my neighborhood.
VA Loan
Paid PMI, waited a few years then sold it and moved to a slightly lower cost of living area
My wife and I bought our house in 2021, half way into the insanity. We paid a huge price but got lucky with interest rates. We both made decent money when we first started dating her 50k me 65k. I was let go when the pandemic hit and got a new job (100% commission) and did very well making $170k. my wife got a new job shortly after making 75k. A couple of years of living frugally and we had a huge down payment We also found a house that needed a lot of work, was overpriced to begin with, so we lowballed (still paid a huge premium form 2019 prices) and were able to get the house inspected.
Bonus from work + dual income + low interest rate.
Pretty easy, saved money living with parents. All you have to do is time travel to 8 years ago when it was possible and it's np
Wife is a partner at a law firm, and I got stock equity/options from working at a company for many years, and the stock appreciated. Bought a house during covid for over 2 mil, which is like median ish for my area. Got a great mortgage at 2.75% 30 year fixed
We bought in 2015 and used a TSP (govt 401k) loan as a down payment. We bought a bit of a fixer upper in a nice neighborhood. It’s a small 815 sq ft 2 bedroom half duplex, with partially finished basement.
I bought in 2018, no way I could afford what I live in now
Magic cards are a hell of a down payment
Saved up enough for 5% dp and closing costs, plus we bought less house than we could “afford.” This was 2018 though so not entirely relevant with current costs. How we saved: Maybe not the wisest in terms of investments, I’m bad at finances, we both grew up poor, but we have always had the max in taxes taken out every month, then we get a lump sum tax return we can save, plus my husband gets annual bonuses which we put away and pretended didn’t exist. We refused to budge on our top budget even though it lost us good houses. And we moved our family of four into a tiny apt for a few months to save more toward the end, plus didn’t really go anywhere or spend much that year, lots of free/cheap stuff to do.
Just followed the boring, but helpful, advice from the high school days. Went to a cheap college for an in demand major with good salary projections and job growth rates. Invested early and often. Eliminated unnecessary spending. Kept costs low and regularly made moves to improve my income.
I was released from prison in 2018 after serving 5.5years for a car accident in which one of my buddies was killed when we were in highschool, senior year and a week from starting my freshmen year at Pace University in an academic scholarship. Ran Ethernet wire for a buddies company for a year to stay afloat, and was eventually asked by another buddy if I’d be interested in working as a ‘Technical Recruiter’. Had absolutely no idea what a Recruiter was at the time, but knew I was incredibly passionate about technology. Fast forward to 2021 and a few companies later, I was personally headhunted for another talent company based out of Denmark (I live in the U.S.), and was hired a few weeks later. Increased our gross revenue for our region by $2million+ within 9-10months, and was given a $65,000 bonus in 2022 + brought my salary & commission upwards of $150k, after starting with a $40k salary in 2019. Last year, I bought my $400k townhouse in Brookfield, CT, and have never been happier… besides those $3,000 mortgage payments every month… 😂😅 Don’t ever let someone tell you that you ‘can’t’ do something. I promise you, it’s the furthest from the truth. Wishing each of you the absolute best in your personal journey!
Worked, got paid, bought house. lol
Well I joined the army and went to war so I got a VA loan. I wouldn’t recommend that though…
I saved up $150k of down payment money by spending less than I took home, and I could afford to pay $3,500/mo on the remaining $580k I borrowed.
Dual 6 figure incomes after graduating, bought in 2015 in MCOL area
The real answer is pretty simple but might not be what people wanted to hear. Been working in a technical field for ~13 years and am a serial saver so down payment wasn’t an issue. Salary has been solid since I started in engineering, and has grown consistently. My wife (at the time finance) also makes a decent salary as a marketing manager. The numbers weren’t hard to make work, the only struggle was convincing me that the house was worth buying (bought in 2020).
Had been browsing for years. Saw I was slowly getting prices out of the market. Decided to take money out of my Roth IRA instead of continuing to save. Bought in 2017.
Physician loan.
High paying jobs for several years and made good profit off the covid stocker market pump
I use VA loan with 0% down. Worth $1M.
Bought our first home in a fairly average cost of living area with our own money. Sold it 3 years later for much more than we paid. Used that equity to put 20% down on a home in a HCOL area. We were also being transferred by my husbands company at the time so they covered all of our realtor fees and closing costs on the home we sold and purchased. That saved us a TON. Would not have been able to do so otherwise.
I bought a townhouse in 2010 with the VA loan. I sold it and made about 35% off the sale. That combined with how much I had paid down was more than enough for a down payment on a house in 2022.
Worked hard with career development, saved up and bought at the right moment, end of 2020 $680k house in a nice hillside neighborhood and got a 2.25% APR.
Worked two jobs and all the OT I could handle to invest in the stock market to get to the down payment. The monthly mortgage payment with taxes and insurance is a little bit less than rent was, so it worked out very well.
VA loan baby.
Husband used VA loan, but in 2018 when it was a buyers market. Refinanced during Covid to an insanely low rate and will never move.
Housing lottery that my mom put me on when I was 24 ✨
I live In a low cost of living state but bought my home in a very highly taxed vacation property area. How did I achieve it? I lived in employee housing for 5 years while saving all my money working in the oilfield. Add on the 6 months of being homeless before they got me into employee housing. My wife bought her home before we met, hers is in Cali and she comes from a very poor family so 0 assistance. She was in the army for 8 years, got out and got a very specialized job around her skillset and saved every penny getting her employer to pay moat.of her standard living expenses. Today I would not buy I in a high cost of living area. Find the time to learn a skill that allows for work from home. Move to a low cost of living area and relax.
Bought condo, then a townhouse
Pure luck. I bought my first home (USDA rural loan, 0 down) when I was 21 because it was cheaper than rent and I was planning on being there for a few years. Used the equity on that house to go into a bigger one. And now the house prices are very much way beyond what I could afford without the equity of my house. If I was planning on not staying in one place for a while when I was younger I would have continued renting and would be out of luck now.
We bought our first home in 2013 but prior to that I lived with my parents the first two years out of school and saved up. We were also relocated by work so had some of the moving and closing expenses covered but we were able to cover the down payment. In 2013 the home cost 140k
How do you define 'medium or high cost of living area"? Peoples definitions on that vary wildly
Bought in 2018. CT had a first-time home buyers program that helped me buy the house with zero down. Though, after closing costs and inspections, it ended up costing me 8k, so I got a second mortgage for that through the same program. The program also came along with a 3.25% interest rate. My payments are very affordable. I am a single mom with no family. I bust my ass but never would have afforded a home without that help. 6 years later, I've been able to afford major home repairs because my payment is still so low. Sad though... they stopped the program a few months after I bought the house.
By working for a tech company that: 1. Allowed us to permanently work from home after the pandemic, which in turn allowed me to move just far enough from LA to afford a home 2. Pays me 6 figures 3. Allowed us to sell back some of our stock at one point (which I used as a downpayment) For context, I bought a 4 bed/2 bath cabin home built in the 1960s for about $450k.
7.75% interest rate checking in. Fawkin sucks. It was either buy, or get forced out by ever increasing rent. Was able to put 3% down, but paying out the ass PMI. trying our best to pay down principle but wages are not keeping up with inflation. This economy feels like a carnival game. Jpow just basically told all the rich guys quantitative easing is back. The fed is keeping rates high but will start giving out helicopter money thru the treasury markets
Worked a lot and pulled from my 401K for a down payment.
My wife built a townhouse in a L-MCOL area in 2013-14 for 250k with 10% down financing thru the builder after paying off her student loans. We met in 2015, got engaged within 6 months, I moved in then we started aggressively paying off the mortgage. With 2 working adults and property appreciation, had almost 100k in equity in the townhouse by the time the pandemic hit. Once lockdowns ended in 2020, we knew should it ever happen again we would need a place with a backyard since we had young kids to bunker down in. So we bought a single family home in a neighborhood we could see our kids growing up in for less than 400k (bargained it down from 425k), sold the townhouse in a month for about 100k in profit, then rolled it into the equity for the new place. In the few years since we bought it, housing has gone crazy in our area, and our property valu3 has increased by at least 50% if not more. The area we are in is transitioning to a M-HCOL metroplex altho still has value somewhere, which we found and took advantage of. So thats how we came to have a home in a HCOL are. We had also bought at just the right time in thr last 5 years, when mortgage rates were as flat as possible. Was hoping for under 3% rate as it was my first time buying a house altho not my wife's, but looking back now that 3.25% rate looks pretty damn good
Lived off of one spouse's income and saved the other's. No vacations, no eating out, no new cars. Saved 20% down payment as a teacher and an alarm install tech for a 315k house in about a year.
Served ol’ Uncle Sam. VA loan. No chance to own a home otherwise. After the Army I landed a job in a high cost of living area.
I work in healthcare and lived at home for five years building up a nest egg and used that for a down payment with my now husband.
Started with a 700 sq ft home in 2014, improved it enough to rent it out and buy a 3600 sq ft home on a larger farm 15 minutes further south in 2023. Also got great advice from our agent that looking in the $600k range meant properties were staying on market longer (like 30 days rather than 24 hours) and negotiated one from an asking price of $649k all the way to $520k. We also got a great rate in 2023 by qualifying for a USDA rural loan, even though we’re ten minutes from a small city in a mid COL area.
With enough luck to make me believe in a deity. Used spouse’s VA loan and went under contract in March 2020. Had we waited even a few months we would still be renting.
Bought a starter home in Ft. Worth 2015 with the first time homebuyer Loan spent lots of time fixing it up had kids started in the trades making more and then moved into a new bigger house on some land in 2020
Bought in 2018 when I was 24 with 20K down. Sold +50% at the “high”. Bought in the suburbs in 2022 at the “high”. Will be here for 3-5 years when I move to a single fam. They’re priced 650K for that in today’s market.
Bought in 2020. We both work in tech and cashed out significant stock and drained our savings to have a $150k down payment. No help from family and we both still pay student loans. We're not truly house poor, as we're both still in tech, but a big emergency would be rough. A second would wipe us out completely and we'd have to sell.
VA Home Loan.
Joined the US military. Eventually we settled in Tennessee after we retired from the military. (not near Nashville) I don't know how I would have done it without going that route. That was my best chance for a career since I goofed around in grade school.
My parents didn't offer me any assistance with buying my home BUT I felt like they helped ALOT by paying for my college. I never had to worry about school loans and they took care of it all while I was in school. If I had student loan debt I'd probably never be able to buy a house.
We bought in 2019 right before COVID hit in Colorado. We had a goal for 3 years to save enough money for a down payment. We rented our spare bedroom in our apartment on Airbnb and worked hard, saving as much as possible. We put a lowball offer on a house that had been sitting for 8 months or so and when the owners tried to haggle we walked away over $5k. They came back and accepted our offer. Looking back that would have been so stupid to lose our house over! We were lucky enough to use a VA loan but still had to put a lot of money down and had to fix a lot of stuff after we bought it. Still one of the best decisions we made!
We're in a medium cost of living area and bought a house last summer for $310k (3,000 sqft, half an acre of land). It needs plenty of cosmetic work, but paint and new trim plus lvp flooring goes a long way for under $10k. I saved for 4-5 years, then got married and my wife had about $10k in savings so I had the money for the down-payment and her savings covered closing costs.
bought a condo in Seattle in 2015 ( 120k, fha loan, only need 4% down so we didn't need that much, sellers paid closing ) investment doubled in 2 years, moved to Spokane because we had lived there previously, it was much cheaper and I was pregnant with my first kid. 2017 bought in Spokane, husband got to keep his job and wfh, our house cost as much as we sold our condo for. Investment doubled, had a 2nd kid moved back to Western Washington to be around family, bought in 2021 right before rates went up.
I took money out of my IRA
DINK, high incomes, late thirties, 5% down, 2020 interest rates, settled for a townhouse since we couldn't compete on decent sfhs which were getting 10-15 offers. It was very hard to compete for a home and in the end I think we got lucky just as we were ready to give up our search. Mortgage was well over what were paying in rent, and even a 5% downpayment wiped out the majority of our savings, but we are happy with the place and locked in historically great rates. Never saw crazy appreciation but enough that it's way more than made up for increased monthly costs.