What's a good age to be a homeowner? How old were you when you bought your first house?

[alocurto]

Anyone from Long Island here? Good luck finding a house, its like 400,000 for a small house in a regular neighborhood. I can't get anything soon, thats for sure.

 

[CrazyDe1]

As soon as you feel ready to buy a house buy one. I have a friend who can afford one but can't find something he likes so he still lives at home and has saved 20 or 30k in 5 or 6 months.

I bought my first one at 21 and here are the problems I'm having.

1. No one takes you seriously when you're young.
2. Yard work absolutely blows....it makes me want to die thinking about spending 3 weekends in a row doing my backyard or paying 8k to have it done.
3. If you don't own anything yet make sure you budget enough for furniture, lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners, washing machines- that sort of crap.
4. Did I tell you that yard work sucks?
5. All my friends are still in school and/or living at home and I live about 15 minutes away from any of them in a new area where there's no grocery store, gas station, or pizza delivery yet. So normally when you get wasted and walk home or drive down the street back home or hitch a ride you now realize you live 15 minutes away and there's a chance of getting a DUI or no one is going to drive you home so you spend lots of nights on people's couches.
6. I have nothing in common with my neighbors. They all have kids and go to bed at 11 and ask if I'm looking to settle down. They talk about yards and carpet, and home improvement, I don't.


It's awesome ownin a place and being able to do what you want with it though. 2 of my rooms are empty, 1 bathroom is never used, and the living room is empty as well but whatever. Absolutely do not buy just to buy...make sure you're absolutely comfortable with the price, the area, and your decision.

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: Jzero

Originally posted by: loki8481
Also think about how absurd your statement sounds....so in that condo of $250k units you are living with the poor? What usually is the case is it's an older building on the outskirts of 'civilization' a run down neighborhood perhaps, but bad not so likely.

Å

I suspect that he was being superfluous, but at least the first five pages of those results are in the ghetto.

Either way, let's bear in mind that NJ is about 150 miles from Cape May to it's norternmost tip and only half that at its widest from east to west.

Some spots are overinflated, but halfway across the state (just 40 miles away), there is nice, affordable housing.[/quote]

mileage isn't really reflective of commuting time, though... at my pervious job, I lived 10 miles away from the office. it was about an hour commute in each direction (assuming I drove... it was almost two hours if I went by mass transit).

right now, I work 3 miles away, and my commute it only 10 minutes, but that's only because I'm commuting in the middle of the night -- if I had to drive the same route during normal commuting hours, it would be about 30 minutes each way.

 

[DJFuji]

Originally posted by: BD2003

Originally posted by: DJFuji

Originally posted by: BD2003

It really pisses me off when people say "only 75k". How out of touch do you have to be to not be able to live on 75k? You could afford a house on that even in NYC, as long as you aren't foolish with your money.

BD2003, you've obviously never lived in an area like NYC or OC. Take a look at this:

Text

First off, you'd need an annual salary of somewhere around 150,000+ just to qualify for a modest place like that. As you can see, it's nothing breathtaking. I'd even go so far as to say it's kind of crappy looking to me. Second, you can see that it takes about $3000 a month in mortgage. Remember, that this figure is likely to be MUCH higher since they're probably banking on you putting down 25%. And since most people don't have 160 GRAND just laying around, theyre probably financing more. So you have over 3000 in mortgage alone, not to mention possible HOA, insurance, taxes, upkeep, etc.

Now, let's say you make 75k and SOMEHOW manage to qualify for an average house like this. After taxes and everything else you're bringing home less than 4,000 a month. Now factor in living costs, automobiles, etc., and you're running on a pretty tight budget. You probably won't even be able to afford to fund an IRA at $350 a month with what you have left over.

Now tell me how "easy" it is to live on 75k in places like orange county.

I've lived my entire life in NYC.

You are not going to get a dream house on 75k a year here. I know that.

But more than half this city is living on less than half of that. I know most of it is in the ghetto, but I know a ton of people who make under 75k that managed to afford a condo or house in queens. If youre trying to get a upper east side brownstone, forget it, but a house in queens is not an impossibility. Houses in manhattan dont really exist anyway.

Your problem isnt that you dont make enough money. Its that you just expect more than you can have here. You can survive just fine, but your not going to get 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a pool.

If you're in orange county, and you want to buy on 75k, youre moving to riverside and commuting 2 hours to work. Either that or you're living in the ghetto (south central/watts) and are dodging bullets on the way to work. If you get SUPER lucky you might be able to buy a condo in a bad are of Santa Ana or westminster.

But when interest rates go up people are going to be defaulting like crazy out here...

 

[DJFuji]

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: Jzero

Originally posted by: loki8481
Also think about how absurd your statement sounds....so in that condo of $250k units you are living with the poor? What usually is the case is it's an older building on the outskirts of 'civilization' a run down neighborhood perhaps, but bad not so likely.

Å

I suspect that he was being superfluous, but at least the first five pages of those results are in the ghetto.

Either way, let's bear in mind that NJ is about 150 miles from Cape May to it's norternmost tip and only half that at its widest from east to west.

Some spots are overinflated, but halfway across the state (just 40 miles away), there is nice, affordable housing.

mileage isn't really reflective of commuting time, though... at my pervious job, I lived 10 miles away from the office. it was about an hour commute in each direction (assuming I drove... it was almost two hours if I went by mass transit).

right now, I work 3 miles away, and my commute it only 10 minutes, but that's only because I'm commuting in the middle of the night -- if I had to drive the same route during normal commuting hours, it would be about 30 minutes each way.[/quote]

Loki, where are you from? I could run to work @ 3 miles, take a shower, and be dressed for work in under 30 minutes...

Actually i should get a job like that and run to work. It would save gas, time, and i'd be getting my cardio in for the day...

 

[SuperMachoMan]

Supermachoman, i'm from orange county as well (born and raised in city of orange), and i don't really think some people understand what it's like to live here.

I don't think they realize that the median housing price in OC is $640,000+. That's the MEDIAN.

You need somewhere around 150k+ income and a sizable down to buy in the lower end of this market without worrying about overextending. I know why the other guy said he "only" makes 75k. Because 75k doesn't mean anything here.

I agree with him too. He is a wise man.

I'd like to purchase a house as soon as possible, but with this market, i'm hoping it will crash and burn so that those of us who aren't CEOs and corporate executives can afford to buy again. A lot of my friends are fresh out of college and are beginning to realize that their 35k annual salary will barely pay the $1600 rent.

The majority of home buyers are not CEO's or corporate executives or even six digit earners. They are middle class citizens who are overextending themselves through use of zero down payment mortgages or interest only ARM's. I know several people who have bought in the past year and most of them do not make more than I do. The bubble is for the most part being fueled by easy credit and price speculation. Wages are not going up, only peoples' ability to borrow money. And yet even with interest rates at 40 year lows, there are already record numbers of forclosures and bankruptcies. When interest rates rise, lots of people are going to get burned.

On top of that, there is the fact that so much of the local economy is tied to real estate. Tech jobs are moving offshore, working class jobs are going to illegal immigrants, and our state government is broke. The vast majority of new jobs being "created" in Orange County are buying and selling mortgages to each other. As the real estate market cools off, the local economy will go right down the toilet along with it. The effect will not be unlike the early 90's when the local aerospace industry melted down and we had our last major real estate correction.

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: DJFuji

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: Jzero

Originally posted by: loki8481
Also think about how absurd your statement sounds....so in that condo of $250k units you are living with the poor? What usually is the case is it's an older building on the outskirts of 'civilization' a run down neighborhood perhaps, but bad not so likely.

Å

I suspect that he was being superfluous, but at least the first five pages of those results are in the ghetto.

Either way, let's bear in mind that NJ is about 150 miles from Cape May to it's norternmost tip and only half that at its widest from east to west.

Some spots are overinflated, but halfway across the state (just 40 miles away), there is nice, affordable housing.

mileage isn't really reflective of commuting time, though... at my pervious job, I lived 10 miles away from the office. it was about an hour commute in each direction (assuming I drove... it was almost two hours if I went by mass transit).

right now, I work 3 miles away, and my commute it only 10 minutes, but that's only because I'm commuting in the middle of the night -- if I had to drive the same route during normal commuting hours, it would be about 30 minutes each way.

Loki, where are you from? I could run to work @ 3 miles, take a shower, and be dressed for work in under 30 minutes...

Actually i should get a job like that and run to work. It would save gas, time, and i'd be getting my cardio in for the day...[/quote]

I live in North Jersey, and work in Newark.

the 3 mile/30 minute commuting time is so bad because of traffic lights and traffic. it's been awhile since I counted the traffic lights, but I think it was somewhere around 15. on a good day, I can make all but a handful of the lights, but if there's even the slightest bit of traffic (and during rush hour, traffic is pretty crazy), I'm going to get stuck at most of them.

I've never considered jogging to work, but I have considered riding a bike the big problem is that a) I'd need to cross a highway, and b) while I don't work in the ghetto perse, I do have to drive pretty close to it on my way in.

 

[SuperMachoMan]

If you're in orange county, and you want to buy on 75k, youre moving to riverside and commuting 2 hours to work. Either that or you're living in the ghetto (south central/watts) and are dodging bullets on the way to work. If you get SUPER lucky you might be able to buy a condo in a bad are of Santa Ana or westminster.

But when interest rates go up people are going to be defaulting like crazy out here...

I love all these people saying "why not get married?" or "why not move out to the Mojave desert or some gang infested warzone?" just so you can afford to buy some vastly overvalued POS.

Is it really that implausible, that in this one instance, renting just might be a superior alternative to buying?

 

[tec699]

The majority of home buyers are not CEO's or corporate executives or even six digit earners. They are middle class citizens who are overextending themselves through use of zero down payment mortgages or interest only ARM's. I know several people who have bought in the past year and most of them do not make more than I do. The bubble is for the most part being fueled by easy credit and price speculation. Wages are not going up, only peoples' ability to borrow money. And yet even with interest rates at 40 year lows, there are already record numbers of forclosures and bankruptcies. When interest rates rise, lots of people are going to get burned.

BINGO!

This is exactly the same issue we are having in NJ. These condos are being built for $250,000 and higher and they are mostly being bought my middle class citizens who are clearly overextending themselves. In fact, my dad told me that we had 6 foreclosures within the last 2 weeks.

What I'm amazed at though is when the same property was $80,000 5 years ago no one wanted it, but now that it's selling for $300,000 people are outbidding each other.

 

[melly]

I was 25, just turned 27 and it's still in the process of construction. Condo delays are the devil. Hopefully I will be in by the end of the year. I could have easily moved out at 23 or 24 but I didn't want to throw my money down the toilet paying rent.

 

[DJFuji]

The majority of home buyers are not CEO's or corporate executives or even six digit earners. They are middle class citizens who are overextending themselves through use of zero down payment mortgages or interest only ARM's.

Agreed. Actually, my original point was that homebuyers SHOULD be CEOs or corporate executives because those people are the only ones who make enough to realistically afford houses like that.

Is it really that implausible, that in this one instance, renting just might be a superior alternative to buying?

I'm not sure how i stand on this. Buying is a better decision in nearly every circumstance, but if you really can't afford to buy, i suppose renting is a better decision than buying by overextending yourself...not because renting is great, but because its the lesser of two evils. On the other hand, it's probably a better idea to rent while you save for a large down and do your research so that when the market comes in your favor, you're ready to buy.

Of course, if you have the capital and the means to buy now, it is then foolish to continue to rent.

 

[T2T III]

My wife and I bought our first place when I was 23. We owned it for less than 4 years, sold it and made $27K profit. That then served as the down payment for our 2nd (and current) place.

 

[alkemyst]

Most people think only the rich can afford houses, no offense to those people but I have found time and time again the uneducated poor are thorns in societies side....they love to vote and have no idea WTF they are doing.

My wife manages retail now, your 'worker' is going to be young and uneducated usually....some are older and since she is new to America looks for advice. She now knows to avoid these peoples advice.

We have been trying to find a house, in the beginning people had told my wife that a house payment is thousands of dollars and only rich people can afford one. That property taxes are outrageous and more than the house (average here is about 1700 annually with exemption on a $150000 house). They also don't understand how alot of these additional costs over rent are able to be written off.

My apartment is insanely cheap at $500, makes it hard to justify giving that up (it's a nice area and nice place, the owner is a private individual and just wants his mortgage covered until he owns it and only wants 'safe' renters)....average here is $850 - 1200 for the same unit type.

Anyway going to a $150k to 175k starter home here, my 'net' increase will be $300 per month. If I was renting at the average rate I'd save about $400 a month. On top of this property goes up yearly almost anywhere and in a 10year span it's doubt you ever would lose money (yet I am sure someone from S. CA will bring up something).

Most people sadly that are young have no financial stand to purchase a home...you need to pass some rules such as 2 years at least in the same line of work, good credit with a history of credit (almost all young people have good credit *starting out*....), etc.

If you make only $15k a year you are not going to gain much of a tax shelter from anything though.

 

[alkemyst]

Another thing these so called $250k and 350k properties are really closer to the average purchase price in america that to expensive.

however if you aren't making real income then it's an impossible endevour.