March 9, 201511 yr If my math is correct, a 20% down payment on a $138,000 house is $27,600... So basically you'd have to have a years salary as a down payment. Yeah, not happening. At the same time someone making $33,000/year shouldn't be buying a $138,000 house. Start small and work your way up. Buy something small that needs work in a decent neighborhood. Spend a few years fixing it up then sell it. Do that once maybe twice and your there. Our first house cost us $79,000. We put $15,000 into it, lived there for 5 years and sold it for $125,000.
March 9, 201511 yr At the same time someone making $33,000/year shouldn't be buying a $138,000 house. Start small and work your way up. Buy something small that needs work in a decent neighborhood. Spend a few years fixing it up then sell it. Do that once maybe twice and your there. Our first house cost us $79,000. We put $15,000 into it, lived there for 5 years and sold it for $125,000. Agreed, IMO someone making 35K a year shouldn't be buying $140K house. Exceptions to the rule obviously but in most cases.
March 9, 201511 yr At the same time someone making $33,000/year shouldn't be buying a $138,000 house. Start small and work your way up. Buy something small that needs work in a decent neighborhood. Spend a few years fixing it up then sell it. Do that once maybe twice and your there. Our first house cost us $79,000. We put $15,000 into it, lived there for 5 years and sold it for $125,000. You're absolutely right about that, but the cost of living varies, too. I don't know where you live, but I suspect $79,000 will buy much more house in your hometown than in Cincinnati.
March 9, 201511 yr I find nothing wrong with someone needing to save for 5 years before having a down payment on a house.
March 9, 201511 yr I find nothing wrong with someone needing to save for 5 years before having a down payment on a house. Exactly. I'm fairly young (30) and it amazes me how little some of my friends and their wives have in savings. Since the day my wife and I married, we've put every dollar she has made into savings. We were approved for and could have bought a 250,000 dollar home and lived week to week just to pay for it. We bought a reasonable size home at a modest price. We now own a decent size piece of land and plan on building our dream home in the next 3-5 years. We hope to have the home we wanted when we got married but finance the same amount or less than we did on our current home. A lot of hard work and sacrifice went into this and I know it will be worth it. You don't always have to start at the top. Nothing wrong with saving for as long as it takes.
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