Long form article about Millennials buying their houses, most for the first time.

Despite everything I hear, these stories don't sound any different from when we bought our first house.

Thanks for posting this, I'll have to read the rest of it later (I love long-form articles, but they are kind of... long

I am not a millennial (I believe I count as Gen X, don't remember) but I am definitely older for many of the things I've done -- completed a PhD at age 47, first-time home owner at age 50 (oops, now y'all now I'm as old as the hills Jon) ... Oh and I married at age 30, which isn't particularly unusual these days AFAIK.

Anyway, it's interesting to think about it all...

There's no way we could have purchased a house in a more expensive area. And, actually, I'm starting to think that if we had waited another year, we wouldn't have been able to purchase a house in our neighborhood either! I told myself that after we closed, I wasn't going to look at real estate listings any more, but I still do. And it's crazy. There are no houses in the price range of what we paid with the same square footage, unless they are basically fixer-uppers that would need to be totally gutted before moving in. The older homes are in horrible shape, or if they are in good shape or are newer, they are more expensive by $70,000 or more. The university is expanding and it looks like real estate prices in this zip code are going to rise, so I do feel very lucky that we were able to get this house now, and for the amount that we paid.

yup, this does not seem at all different from previous generations, to me.

in my own case, the only reason i was able to get a mortgage to buy a house was because i had a half-time staff job working for the university (my freelance income was more than twice that, but no lender would consider freelance income), and because i qualified for a HUD affordable homeownership grant that paid 2/3 of my down payment.

i would never have bought my house were it not for two other factors: when i moved from nyc to montana, a friend gave me some good advice--"buy a house there as soon as you can or else when you are middle aged you will have nothing."

and, when i was going door to door looking for a place to rent, i happened to knock on the door of the director of the county program that was administering the HUD grants. she persuaded me to apply. they were desperate for applicants who had the resourcefulness to jump through all the very daunting hoops, and that was me.

the year i bought my house, it was an extreme seller's market. houses were being sold the day they hit the market, usually for well above asking price. however, the price of the average home in my neighborhood was then only $30K. if i'd waited another year, i don't think i could have met the HUD requirements--the market went insane.

best investment i ever made.

I loved this.

But I notice a pattern. Ages and couples, two incomes.

And the prices.

When I bought my first house, one of the measurements was the multiple of your income. Twice your income was a measure for a first time home price. Now it is many times your income and huge mortgage payments.

I bought my first home in 1984, myself, at age 24 for $55,000. I was dating a guy who bought an expensive European ultimate driving machine car for about the same price.

I sold it 3 years later for $119,900. It looks like it was sold 4 years later at a big loss, $93,600.

I knew I would buy a house, it was my goal to do so before I turned 25. I saved the down payment myself (about $11K, 20% was required then) by scrimping and only borrowed $5000 from my parents as an emergency fund as I was wiped out of savings at the closing. I repaid the debt with interest when I sold the place. I think my salary was about $30K but I was in sales so that fluctuated wildly from year to year.

But for my kids, the markets and salaries are different. My kids will not be able to buy a home without my help for many years to come.

One option is that I buy a two family or home with an in law and live with one of them there and share the mortgage.

quote:

Originally posted by BeeLady:
I loved this.

But I notice a pattern. Ages and couples, two incomes.

Yes, I noticed that as well: Most purchases were made by 2-income households. The others were all lucky enough to have family help:

Daisy, "My partner and I..."
Elizabeth, "My parents are using money they inherited from my grandparents a few years ago as the down payment."
Ellen, "My husband and I..."
Becca, "We bought..."
Jessica, "My husband and I..."
Dave, "My dad knew how badly we wanted a home so he decided to give us his inheritance from my uncle's estate..."
Jay, "My grandpa and aunt both gifted me money to make a down payment and help with initial move-in costs and more."
Jennifer, "My dad is a real estate agent. He gave us his commission from the home purchase to add to the down payment. We borrowed the money from my in-laws and then paid them back when the commission came through. On top of that, my in-laws gave us a gift to add to the down payment."
Allyson, "I purchased a one-bedroom apartment with the help of my parents..."
Sarah,"My sister and I purchased the home together..."
Emily, "I ended up having to borrow my down payment..."
Anne, "My husband and I bought a house ..."
Juli, "My husband and I ..."


I was listening to NPR on the way home from the grocers just now and they were discussing the affordable housing crisis in NH. They mentioned that the old rule of thumb was 30% or less of income spent on housing. Given how everything else is so much more expensive now, I think 30% is too high.

Two income families have been the norm for house buying here for decades. Often times more.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
Two income families have been the norm for house buying here for decades. Often times more.

When I was growing up it wasn't like that.

quote:

I think my salary was about $30K but I was in sales so that fluctuated wildly from year to year.

Thinking about this now, that was my best year...and at the time I bought my house, I got a 13% rate..a bargain only because I had been turned down by my first bank and when I went to the second local one, I first asked to speak to the manager in person. I was buying a fixer upper in an $65K market. I talked with him and asked that if he was going to dismiss my application, tell me now (I was a single woman after all)
...I got lucky..he had worked for the builder who developed my post WWII neighborhood so I was approved.

And when I think of my salary then, not even including inflation, my kids don't make much more than what I made all those years ago.. And my first little house is now valued at $320K