debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Jun 6, 2019 18:01:57 GMT -5
I saw this on a blog (probably one many of you read too). I thought it was interesting, and well done. The same would apply to my DS1 and DS2, both of whom have bought homes (apartments, NOT houses) in Paris recently. My ex's parents (their paternal grandparents) helped them with down payments. But both DSs + DDIL had saved too.
DS1 and DDIL were not yet married when they found their apartment, they got married the following summer. Since DDIL is not French, and had never worked in France, no French bank would give her a loan. The UK banks were happy to lend her money to buy property in the UK (she's British), but not in France. So, her parents gave her a loan instead.
DS1 and DDIL purchased their 2BR apt three years ago. DS2 purchased his 1BR apt on his own last year. Both apartments are in central Paris, a VHCOLA (but not as crazy expensive as NY/London/SanFran). But yes, with help, like the vast majority of people in the article.
Thoughts?
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Jun 6, 2019 18:53:43 GMT -5
I thought this was a really interesting article, but I guess not!
I'm leaving this post up till tomorrow.
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oped
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Post by oped on Jun 6, 2019 19:03:47 GMT -5
You are going to have to give people more than hour...
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jun 6, 2019 19:27:22 GMT -5
You are going to have to give people more than hour... Especially when the hour is during commute and dinner time.
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plugginaway22
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Post by plugginaway22 on Jun 6, 2019 19:32:06 GMT -5
I'll go. In urban areas I guess it is the norm. We are in mid to LCOL, both DDs did it without parental help. But they were 30 years old, married with 2 good incomes, and had been saving for about 8 years.
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souldoubt
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Post by souldoubt on Jun 6, 2019 19:44:32 GMT -5
Most of the stories involved help of some sort - parents giving money for down payment, dad was buying agent and gave the commission others entered the work force debt free because their parents paid for college. Kudos to them but out of the people I know that type of help wasn't available to most of them. Out of the people I know that have purchased a place most did it by living below their means and saving for a down payment. The people I know that paid the most for a house got help from their parents/grandparents on more than one occasion and benefited from the rebound. We bought almost 7 years ago now and could have sold our place for 60% more than we paid for it last year but the houses we were looking at were old, outdated and not any bigger than our town house so we didn't see the value in almost doubling our mortgage for a SFH. At least where we are which is one of the areas discussed in the article I don't see how the current prices are sustainable but low rates sure help.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Jun 6, 2019 19:46:44 GMT -5
I think my 3 nephews are all millennials . All three have purchased homes and all three have student loan debt. The youngest is in one of the cities mentioned in the article. I read the article the other day. He didn't use the program the couple in the article did.
The older two are still in LCOL areas, but considerably higher than living where I live and where Dnephew3 lives.
None of them had any parental help. The two older ones have very good paying jobs for the area and that's how they bought their homes. Dnephew2's house is actually a townhouse and cost considerable less than Dnephew1's house. While he is married, I can not fathom why two people who do not want children bought a five bedroom house.
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alabamagal
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Post by alabamagal on Jun 6, 2019 20:18:08 GMT -5
DS just recently bought his first house - supposed to be his forever home. He and wife are both 26. DS changed jobs a year ago to move from DC area to Phoenix because of housing costs. Their combined income is $150k, they were able to put down 10% on a very nice $600k house. They had no help from parents for the house, although DDIL had her father cover undergrad costs.
Younger DS (24) is on target for home ownership in 2-3 years with his GF (hoping they make it official soon). He already has some ideas about working toward rental property ownership - he is in real estate field.
Oldest DD is 28 probably last to do home ownership. Her DH is in military now and they are in Germany.
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resolution
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Post by resolution on Jun 6, 2019 21:50:03 GMT -5
The help from family doesn't seem too out of the ordinary to me. I am gen x and my husband is millennial, and we both had help from parents for our down payments. We have paid it forward a little bit by gifting money on a down-payment for his sister (also a millennial), but between the two of us we have still received more than we have contributed.
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phil5185
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Post by phil5185 on Jun 6, 2019 22:15:12 GMT -5
""moved from DC area to Phoenix a very nice $600k house"""
Some of the millennial issues may be 'perspective' and 'expectations'. We live in Phoenix - I've owned several houses ( rentals). A $600k house in PHX is not just 'very nice', it is a mansion in an upscale area. Most 2500 feet, 4 bdrm 3 ba homes with a pool are in $350k range. And many houses are 1300 feet, 3 bdrm, for $200k. For $600k you get a 2-story 4500 foot 5 bdrm 3 or 4 ba, 3-car garage. But as a generality, millennials seem to be short on math skills. They stress about paying too much interest - that's backwards. Get the longest mortgage available - and a near-zero down payment if possible - and pay PMI if needed. The leverage is way more important than the absolute interest. Then invest the held-back cash on something that has a higher return than the mortgage. Plus, remember that the equity in the house grows way faster than value of the house (leverage).
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jelloshots4all
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Post by jelloshots4all on Jun 6, 2019 22:46:11 GMT -5
""moved from DC area to Phoenix a very nice $600k house"""
Some of the millennial issues may be 'perspective' and 'expectations'. We live in Phoenix - I've owned several houses ( rentals). A $600k house in PHX is not just 'very nice', it is a mansion in an upscale area. Most 2500 feet, 4 bdrm 3 ba homes with a pool are in $350k range. And many houses are 1300 feet, 3 bdrm, for $200k. For $600k you get a 2-story 4500 foot 5 bdrm 3 or 4 ba, 3-car garage. But as a generality, millennials seem to be short on math skills. They stress about paying too much interest - that's backwards. Get the longest mortgage available - and a near-zero down payment if possible - and pay PMI if needed. The leverage is way more important than the absolute interest. Then invest the held-back cash on something that has a higher return than the mortgage. Plus, remember that the equity in the house grows way faster than value of the house (leverage).
House poor if only making $150k combined. At 26 you do not need to buy a forever home and spend that kind of money!! They moved from DC to Phoenix and they can't predict if life may take them back to DC. Buy under your means and save!! That house costs 4x their annual income. The value of my house is less than my annual income ( well the value has increased but my total mortgage is about 75% of my annual income), so I can sock away a lot while raising 2 kids. I would rather max out investments, college education funds, etc as opposed to paying a mortgage on a $600k house!!
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justme
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Post by justme on Jun 6, 2019 23:07:16 GMT -5
I bought my condo just shy of my 30th. No help from the parents money wise.
If my parents had helped when I asked when the market crashed we'd be sitting pretty! I would have had 5 years of paying a rent half of what I did and then could have easily upgraded to the one I bought now and kept the other as a rental.
I didn't read the article, whoops, but there's lots of reasons why millennials aren't buying as much or early.
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bobosensei
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Post by bobosensei on Jun 7, 2019 5:01:20 GMT -5
Ex husband and I could have bought but didn't because of living in Germany and moving around frequently while in the States during his army career. After the divorce once I was settled I bought a home with a 290k mortgage with a first time homebuyers program that only required 3% down. Interest rate was 5% which was about .5% higher than a mortgage I was offered that required 10% down. Being newly single I didn't want to part with the extra money required and plan to refinance once interest rates are better. I used a brokerage account that the ex and I saved 75k in over the course of 10 years or so for the down payment.
I have gotten some offers of just over 4% but have not pulled the trigger on a refi because I'd have PMI so payment wouldn't be lower unless I did another 30 year. I'm waiting a bit because housing prices are going crazy in this area so I may just sell in a few years and head back to the area where I used to rent which would cut my commute. I wasn't able to afford nicer places there on my salary when I was ready to buy and at the time was able to work from home 4 days a week so this was not a bad idea, but I don't care for my commute now I need to be back at the office.
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Sharon
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Post by Sharon on Jun 7, 2019 7:17:22 GMT -5
DD and DSIL are incredibly frugal and they have accomplished a great deal all without parental help. 4 years ago (at 22 and 24 years old) they purchased a nice 4 bedroom 2.5 bath home ($230,000) with 20% down. All student loans were paid off within 5 years of graduating college and both vehicles are paid for, 2015 Honda CRV- bought new and a 2014 Ford F-350 Diesel pickup, bought in 2017. They have also added 2 adorable (proud Grandma here) children to the family and DD is considering quitting her job and staying home with the kids.
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finnime
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Post by finnime on Jun 7, 2019 7:20:03 GMT -5
My nephew and his now-wife bought a fixer upper duplex in greater Boston area. They saved the down payment up by living with DSis for a little over a year and paying her much less rent than they would have in a more conventional apartment. Nephew rented out half the duplex while they lived in and fixed up the other half. He would not accept financial help from his father due to strings that would have come with it.
My DD and her DH bought a home in greater DC area by choosing a lower-cost area to live in and stringing together loans. DSIL has a high-paying job that makes a great difference. Now they're divorcing and it's not clear what DD will be able to afford for her own place.
My own first mortgage I obtained with then-DH in 1982 for 17.5% interest mortgage. VA so no down payment needed. A lot of water under the bridge since but I do have a good amount of equity now for future home purchases. We don't plan on staying here indefinitely.
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steph08
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Post by steph08 on Jun 7, 2019 7:31:13 GMT -5
I guess I'm at the high-end of the millenial range (34 in August). DH, who at 40 is not in the millenial range, bought his first house at 24 with 3% down. It was $35k. We lived in that until we were expecting our first child. We sold it for $55k and bought our current house five years ago, which was $160k with a 5% down payment. We quickly refinanced to a 20yr mortgage and dropped the PMI after some home improvements.
Both houses were bought without help, though my parents did pay for my undergrad. DH's didn't and he went back to school at 30, so we were, and still are, paying on his student loans at the same time as the mortgage.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2019 7:53:22 GMT -5
Most of the stories involved help of some sort - parents giving money for down payment, dad was buying agent and gave the commission others entered the work force debt free because their parents paid for college. This struck me as well, although they did have some stories about people who saved up down payments. I don't know how you ever manage that in a place like NNJ where a decent home in a good school district is $500K, other than moving in with your parents after graduation and saving up a down payment. DS is a millennial- born in 1984. His Aunt (my Ex's sister) and I shared the cost of his college- she'd started putting money away as soon as he was born in a UGMA account (Uniform Gifts to Minors). It wasn't demanded or expected, but she's a generous woman and I think my Ex's side of the family really respected me for picking myself up after a messy divorce and taking full responsibility for DS. Anyway... we moved from NNJ to KC for my job after he got out of college and that helped immensely. When he got out of college, there was about $14,000 left in the UGMA account and his Aunt gave it to him. A few years later he put it down on a house, aided by a program set up during the subprime crisis to get first-time homebuyers into homes. He married in 2013 and they bought a bigger house at the end of last year- it was getting crowded with 2 kids and a third on the way. He did ask if I could maybe help with $7 to $10K to reduce the amount of the mortgage they were taking on. I gave them $10K- it was the first time they'd asked for a dime and he seemed to have worked through the numbers very well. They LOVE their new-to-them house! In my own way I benefited from parental help. My Ex inherited money from his mother, his last surviving parent, and we were able to buy a nice house in NNJ with a $100K down payment from the estate. My job kept us afloat and kept the mortgage paid during the last 5 years of the marriage when he was unemployed. When we divorced, my share of the equity was $100K even though he got 60% and I got 40%. I put that down on another house and made a killing on that when I sold 6 years later and moved to KC. So, in a way, I was paying it forward. DS just recently bought his first house - supposed to be his forever home. I REALLY hate that term. It's right up there with the marketers telling people something is a "must-have" or "you deserve...", usually to get them to overspend. I try to be realistic about homes. Nothing is "forever". You change jobs, a condo complex goes up too close to you, the school system deteriorates, you downsize after the kids leave the nest. You buy what you can afford.
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gs11rmb
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Post by gs11rmb on Jun 7, 2019 8:38:12 GMT -5
DS just recently bought his first house - supposed to be his forever home. He and wife are both 26. DS changed jobs a year ago to move from DC area to Phoenix because of housing costs. Their combined income is $150k, they were able to put down 10% on a very nice $600k house. They had no help from parents for the house, although DDIL had her father cover undergrad costs. Younger DS (24) is on target for home ownership in 2-3 years with his GF (hoping they make it official soon). He already has some ideas about working toward rental property ownership - he is in real estate field. Oldest DD is 28 probably last to do home ownership. Her DH is in military now and they are in Germany. Wow! If they have kids the daycare costs on top of that mortgage are going to hurt.
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Cookies Galore
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Post by Cookies Galore on Jun 7, 2019 9:32:25 GMT -5
We bought our house in 2016 when I 34 and hubs was 37. We put down 5% and used all our own money, though my MIL bought us a new couch and chair and my Dad bought our grill. I have no qualms about people who come from families where they have parents who help them with major life events - I wish I was gifted a down payment! Lol. Friends of ours (who are gen x and it doesn't matter, but people like to shit on the latest generation so whatever) recieved a down payment gift from her father. He was going to give her money to help with her pharmacy school loans but they decided the best use of that extremely generous gift was a house.
My stepmom joked about giving us a down payment instead of a wedding when we were looking at venues. I wish I had asked if she was serious because I would have taken the money. But six years ago we would have bought elsewhere and I love the life we created where we are now, just four miles down the road in a different town. We saved the majority money used for the down payment and house incidentals but we also took about $4,000 of the wedding gift money we put in our Vanguard account back in 2013.
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Jun 7, 2019 10:24:08 GMT -5
""moved from DC area to Phoenix a very nice $600k house"""
Some of the millennial issues may be 'perspective' and 'expectations'. We live in Phoenix - I've owned several houses ( rentals). A $600k house in PHX is not just 'very nice', it is a mansion in an upscale area. Most 2500 feet, 4 bdrm 3 ba homes with a pool are in $350k range. And many houses are 1300 feet, 3 bdrm, for $200k. For $600k you get a 2-story 4500 foot 5 bdrm 3 or 4 ba, 3-car garage. But as a generality, millennials seem to be short on math skills. They stress about paying too much interest - that's backwards. Get the longest mortgage available - and a near-zero down payment if possible - and pay PMI if needed. The leverage is way more important than the absolute interest. Then invest the held-back cash on something that has a higher return than the mortgage. Plus, remember that the equity in the house grows way faster than value of the house (leverage).
I tend to agree with you Phil.
I believe EVERY generation has its benefits and challenges. Quite frankly I'm kind of tired of all the whining. Yes, I understand it's hard but it's always been hard. We're sitting pretty now but it wasn't always that way. In 1990 we relocated from the DC area to the SF Bay Area and we doubled our housing costs for only a 20% bump in salary. DH was 31 and I was 28. That move cost me my job for a while. Our first house cost $245k and DH's salary was $50k which was very good back then. Bogleheads would absolutely slam us for buying a house for nearly 5x our income.
The place was a disgusting ; walls yellow from the chain smoking former owners, carpet literally falling apart from rarely being cleaned plus pet stains everywhere. Grease coating everything in the kitchen. It was so gross that I wouldn't move in for the first month while we cleaned, Kilzed every paintable surface, had the carpet removed and the wood floors refinished (over half of the flooring had to be replaced due to the pet stains). This was a 3/2 1,000 sq.ft. house built in 1958. The previous owners raised 6! kids in the house. We bought it 10% down (saved) with an FHA graduated payment plan @ 12%.
Fast forward and my fixer upper house in starter neighborhood in the SF Bay Area would be about $800+k. DH's salary would be about $250k, interest rates are around 4%.
Do the math and you can see that it's all relative.
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Jun 7, 2019 10:39:34 GMT -5
. My stepmom joked about giving us a down payment instead of a wedding when we were looking at venues. I wish I had asked if she was serious because I would have taken the money. But six years ago we would have bought elsewhere and I love the life we created where we are now, just four miles down the road in a different town. We saved the majority money used for the down payment and house incidentals but we also took about $4,000 of the wedding gift money we put in our Vanguard account back in 2013. Lol, we did something similar. When we got married two years before we bought the house we had been living together for about two years. After looking at all the brides' magazines I became increasingly distressed at what I perceived to be a giant money grab. We were living in the D.C. area and chose to get married in San Diego since most of our friends and family were in that area. When people asked where we were registered I would respond that there presence at our wedding was enough of a "present". I recently found a letter from my mom "Strongly urging you to register" Lol! As a practical matter it would have been a logistical challenge to haul a bunch of stuff 3,000 miles back to D.C.
I was surprised at how many people sent us checks. I had no expectation for any money. I don't have a record but I think we got about $3k which was a lot of money for 1988. I joked about how people were buying bricks for our new house. And for the record, the venue for our wedding was $100. We got married on the campus of UCSD where we met and the $100 was the cost of setting up 100 chairs.
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justme
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Post by justme on Jun 7, 2019 10:53:10 GMT -5
A lot of it is timing the market too. I bought my first Condo in 1995, after the Bush Recession of the early '90s. Condos were especially overbuilt up here at that time, and thus heavily discounted in the crash that followed. I paid like 24K for it, and eventually sold it for 80- still small money, but a nice payday. I see one of the people cited was from Orlando FL. She says the market is crazy expensive, and she paid 430K for a house. A few years ago they were almost giving them away there. She is coming into a volatile housing market at the wrong time, imo. And, as Phil says, perhaps her expectations are a little high. On the other hand, in a place like Orlando you don't want to buy on the cheap if it puts you in a "bad" neighborhood. Many of us here are old enough to have seen the housing market go through a few crazy gyrations the last 30 years, and if one buys on the wrong side of that - particularly a first home- it is hard to get ahead of it. Combine that with the crushing rip off that is the college debt market today and many young people don't have a chance if they don't have the financial common sense to avoid both traps- bubble housing and rip off school loans. * The combination is financially crushing. *It is not specifically the debt that is a rip off. That is a financial transaction. It is the whole structure, with crazy expensive college costs that are expected to be financed by debt, combined with often diminished financial return upon graduation. The time to buy in Orlando was at least 4 years ago. My condo has appreciated 25% in that short amount of time. Prices were just starting to do more than creep up after the crash when I bought - it took over 8 months to find a place because several were asking way too much thinking the market was a bit hotter than it was (by the time those idiots sold they made less money than if they had sold to me when I offered). That said, $430k is still a damn nice house in Orlando unless she is in one of the neighborhoods Tiger Woods had a house in or something. Or unless she bought right downtown (highly unlikely from what she's mentioned). My friends just bought a 4/2 less than 10 min drive from downtown for probably $100k less than her and it was a recent flip with a pool. It's just crazy here. All the new apartments being built are luxury. If there are new houses, most are all in the planned neighborhoods that start at $200k for a townhouse, but you're more on the outskirts.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Jun 7, 2019 10:56:37 GMT -5
I have to wonder what is going through the heads of Millennial non-homeowners as they read this. The ones who do not have helpful parents could have benefited from stories that were much more specific about how folks went about accumulating a down payment on their own.
I'm also surprised that there was less agonizing about watching home prices rebound and interest rates slip away.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Jun 7, 2019 10:57:30 GMT -5
All of my millenial neices and nephews had some help from parents with down payments and 'elbow grease' (ie help repainting, replacing toilets or light fixtures, putting in/fixing fences, etc...). One set of "kids" has student loan debt they will probably never pay off (or go the full 20 years or whatever it is). These also got a 'late start' in their career jobs (as in they didn't get a full time job with benefits until they were nearly 30). They got a lot of parental help with home buying. The other two sets of kids only spent a year or two after graduation before getting their foot in the door to their "career" job with benefits. They all worked towards paying off their student loans (all 30K or less) in the years after graduating and before buying a house. One ambitious kid decided to take the work transfers to other big cities as he climbed the corporate ladder... after 10 years (and four different big cities) - he's bought a house (he expects to stay with his current employer in the current city for atleast 3 years maybe more - and if not - the current city has good job prospects he'd like to live here long term). Their parents helped them with school costs - but they all had some small loans they were responsible for. One of the kids has set the goal of having 5 rental properties in 5 years. He just bought his "starter house" and then a month later bought an investment property (a SFH). He's not tied to a M-F 9 to 5 job - so a "second job" (property management) is doable. I think one of the issues for millenials with homebuying might be that they have no idea of how to take care of a house or how to do some maintenance (like replace a light switch, fix a running toilet, or replace a sink trap). I've met 20 somethings that have never painted a room (I grew up helping to paint rooms, screens, storm windows, the front/back porch, the garaged. And doing a zillion other "house" chores. ) I don't think they have friends who do those kinds of things either so they don't have "circle" of help/experience either. They can't "trade favors" - you know, where you might have the tools and knowledge to do DIY electric stuff so you do an "electric" nice for someone with plumbing DIY knowledge and tools who can do you a "plumbing" nice in the future. I also think how much student debt they had AND how their lives played out after graduating effects their ability to afford a house (saving for a downpayment and then being able to maintain the house). My friends kids are either in College or in the 5 years (or less) after graduation - and seem to be either on a career track or working whatever they can to pay down their SLs and living on the cheap while figuring out what they will do long term. One kid just seems to be floundering post college (I'm not sure how that will end. ) I'd have to say that handful of years after graduation really seems to be what determines what course their life will take. If they flounder around for a couple of years working part time (or full time in dead end jobs) and DON"T pay down their SLs and/or take on too much additional debt - they won't be looking to buy a house in their late 20's early 30's - they won't have the $$.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Jun 7, 2019 11:08:47 GMT -5
DS just recently bought his first house - supposed to be his forever home. I REALLY hate that term. It's right up there with the marketers telling people something is a "must-have" or "you deserve...", usually to get them to overspend. I try to be realistic about homes. Nothing is "forever". You change jobs, a condo complex goes up too close to you, the school system deteriorates, you downsize after the kids leave the nest. You buy what you can afford. TBH I think "forever" as used today doesn't mean what we think it means. I think when "forever home" is used today - especially by someone under the age of 35 that they really mean for the next 5 to 10 years. I think younger folks have a skewed idea of time and that 5 to 10 years down the road REALLY does indeed seem like forever. I don't think it's just a millennial thing - I think it's human nature thing - so when we were that age we too had a hard time envisioning 15 or 20 or 50 years into the future... so 5 or 10 years into the future felt like a "forever". \ So, whenever someone says "this is my "forever home" or a "forever" whatever - I filter it to: they really mean some length of time dramatically less than the rest of their lives.
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bean29
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Post by bean29 on Jun 7, 2019 11:09:11 GMT -5
Most of the stories involved help of some sort - parents giving money for down payment, dad was buying agent and gave the commission others entered the work force debt free because their parents paid for college. This struck me as well, although they did have some stories about people who saved up down payments. I don't know how you ever manage that in a place like NNJ where a decent home in a good school district is $500K, other than moving in with your parents after graduation and saving up a down payment. DS is a millennial- born in 1984. His Aunt (my Ex's sister) and I shared the cost of his college- she'd started putting money away as soon as he was born in a UGMA account (Uniform Gifts to Minors). It wasn't demanded or expected, but she's a generous woman and I think my Ex's side of the family really respected me for picking myself up after a messy divorce and taking full responsibility for DS. Anyway... we moved from NNJ to KC for my job after he got out of college and that helped immensely. When he got out of college, there was about $14,000 left in the UGMA account and his Aunt gave it to him. A few years later he put it down on a house, aided by a program set up during the subprime crisis to get first-time homebuyers into homes. He married in 2013 and they bought a bigger house at the end of last year- it was getting crowded with 2 kids and a third on the way. He did ask if I could maybe help with $7 to $10K to reduce the amount of the mortgage they were taking on. I gave them $10K- it was the first time they'd asked for a dime and he seemed to have worked through the numbers very well. They LOVE their new-to-them house! In my own way I benefited from parental help. My Ex inherited money from his mother, his last surviving parent, and we were able to buy a nice house in NNJ with a $100K down payment from the estate. My job kept us afloat and kept the mortgage paid during the last 5 years of the marriage when he was unemployed. When we divorced, my share of the equity was $100K even though he got 60% and I got 40%. I put that down on another house and made a killing on that when I sold 6 years later and moved to KC. So, in a way, I was paying it forward. DS just recently bought his first house - supposed to be his forever home. I REALLY hate that term. It's right up there with the marketers telling people something is a "must-have" or "you deserve...", usually to get them to overspend. I try to be realistic about homes. Nothing is "forever". You change jobs, a condo complex goes up too close to you, the school system deteriorates, you downsize after the kids leave the nest. You buy what you can afford. DH and I are in our third home. We built this one, with the intent that we could retire in it if we wanted to. We are not set on it being our retirement home though. We had thought we would move to a lower tax area, but when I look at houses in areas that have traditionally been lower taxed, the taxes usually are not less than we are paying. DH and I seem to have differing ideas about what our retirement home should look like, so I think more and more the safest thing is to just stay put. DH came home yesterday talking about buying a piece of land (not in a subdivision) from someone he knows. I will only buy a house in a traditional subdivision. Not interested in living off a highway. He said oh, it is not off a highway it is a group off about three houses on a side street off a highway. We live in a very nice subdivision now built in 2004-2006. Our first house was in the city, we paid $50,000 our payment was about $450/month. Every house we have owned we had sweat equity into.
DS's girlfriend is buying a house right now. It is in the city, but not in an area of the city I think they should be buying a house in (Not horrible, but marginal. I wish it were a bit west and south). On top of that it is in poor condition and I estimate they are overpaying by about $20,000-30,000 but they will not listen to me. DH told me this morning that DS asked him to borrow DGF $1500 for closing. DH told him I am giving you the $$ and you can give them to her or borrow them to her. I told DH that it would be a miracle if she manages to close on the house without putting DS on the mortgage, but that if they do put DS on the mortgage he should try to have the appraisal re-done. I would rather my Son's name not be on the mortgage - I said $1500 is way less to lose than $20,000.
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thyme4change
Community Leader
Joined: Dec 26, 2010 13:54:08 GMT -5
Posts: 40,393
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Post by thyme4change on Jun 7, 2019 11:14:00 GMT -5
""moved from DC area to Phoenix a very nice $600k house"""
Some of the millennial issues may be 'perspective' and 'expectations'. We live in Phoenix - I've owned several houses ( rentals). A $600k house in PHX is not just 'very nice', it is a mansion in an upscale area. Most 2500 feet, 4 bdrm 3 ba homes with a pool are in $350k range. And many houses are 1300 feet, 3 bdrm, for $200k. For $600k you get a 2-story 4500 foot 5 bdrm 3 or 4 ba, 3-car
In the suburbs.
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Tiny
Senior Associate
Joined: Dec 29, 2010 21:22:34 GMT -5
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Post by Tiny on Jun 7, 2019 11:25:07 GMT -5
I have to wonder what is going through the heads of Millennial non-homeowners as they read this. The ones who do not have helpful parents could have benefited from stories that were much more specific about how folks went about accumulating a down payment on their own.
I'm also surprised that there was less agonizing about watching home prices rebound and interest rates slip away.
Yeah, I kind of thought that too... but then, there are a myriad of articles, blogs, whatever on line that talk about "how to do financial stuff" like save money or spend less or get the most from your money. I would have liked to see the home buyers income amounts. I can only imagine that someone with a $2300 mortgage payment has a high income (I bet their monthly 'fixed expenses' include atleast another 1K to 1500 - so a total of 3300 to 3800 and they haven't even gone out for dinner or taking in a show) I would have also liked info on any "HOA fees" or other fixed expenses that go with the house that the home buyers will be paying long term (landscaping/pool whatever).
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Deleted
Joined: Apr 26, 2024 2:52:44 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2019 11:25:48 GMT -5
DS's girlfriend is buying a house right now. It is in the city, but not in an area of the city I think they should be buying a house in (Not horrible, but marginal; I wish it were a bit west and south). On top of that it is in poor condition and I estimate they are overpaying by about $20,000-30,000 but they will not listen to me. Has the mortgage company appraised it yet? Hopefully, if you're right, the appraisal will come in too low for her to borrow what she wants, particularly if she's putting up a down payment of less than 20%.
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bean29
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Joined: Dec 19, 2010 22:26:57 GMT -5
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Post by bean29 on Jun 7, 2019 11:41:17 GMT -5
The appraisal came out fine, but I strongly suspect they did not discount for condition. They say it has hardwoods underneath the carpet, but they dud not pull the carpet up, so hopefully it is in good enough shape to refinish. Kitchen needs new floor. Has an exposed gas pipe. DH said he can fix it, but that is something that should be discounted. Bathroom is c. 1970. I have seen similar houses with nicer kitchens, updated bathrooms, hardwoods in good shape and larger garage for about same price. This house is a cape cod with wood on the peaks on the 2nd floor. I figure it may not be insulated. Expecting the kids to have to re-do the 2nd floor. DH says DS was never interested in helping him with any maintenance type work. They don’t have a clue what it will take. I mentioned the electric. A house that age is not set up for todays electrical pull. He had apparently discussed with a friend and had a cost estimate to upgrade. DS told me Dad has the property condition report. DH told me why do you care, DS is not buying it anyways and never forwarded it. I did not bother to ask for appraisal, although I really like analyzing them.
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