regentrude Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 33, married with two kids. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
historically accurate Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 I bought a singlewide mobile home at 22 (single), sold it and purchased a "stick built" house at 26 (married about 6 mos, no kids). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 26, married to ex, one child. It was a foreclosure though so quite a bit below market and in a farther out area that tends to be less expensive. That's the only house I was a part of purchasing. I rented after my divorce, then married dh who had his house for almost 10 years before we got married. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freesia Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 38 married with three kids. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faith-manor Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 I was 21 and Mark was 24. We paid $20,000, tiny little fixer upper. We sold it two years later, and got a nicer home which we paid $56,000 for. It needed cosmetic work, but no substantial work. Loved that house nice long kitchen with lots of beautiful cherry cupboards and tons of countertop. Breakfast nook at the end of the kitchen. Huge screened in porch. Large living room with a fireplace that doubled as my music studio. And unfinished basement which we finished out that also had a fireplace. 3 small but very pracrice bedrooms, one bath though. We converted a space in the basement to a half bath just off the laundry area so we could just bead into that plumbing. Big yard, mature trees, on a cul de sac in a quiet neighborhood. We loved that house, and Dd was born during that time. We would have stayed forever IF his employment situation had not changed. He wad not laid off or fired, but the company downsized IT, and it left him with massive responsibility, unpaid egregious over time, and the the threat of no pay raises in the future. So he found a job across country, we sold (it went very quickly), rented a Budget truck, and moved. Sniff sniff....I loved that house! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriwether Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Almost 22. Dh was 24. We bought it just before our wedding. It was something like 980 sq feet and $72,000. 0% down deal for first time homeowners. I looked at how much we would pay for it if we took 30 years (over $300,000) and decided we were putting most of my salary (which wasn't much 😂) on the house. We paid my tithe and work expenses (mostly gas for the commute) out of my paycheck and put about $1000 extra on the house each month. We were on track to pay it off in 4 years when I got pregnant accidentally (the very best accident). I ended up only working 3 years and had a scholarship turn into loan because of that lost year. So we didn't get the house fully paid off, but those extra payments gave us the down payment for our next house when we were transferred. To make those payments, we lived off Dh's very modest salary. We didn't vacation. We didn't go out to eat. We bought new clothes rarely. Our fun money was 2 Easton Press books for me per month, 2 or 3 golf outings per month when weather allowed for him. Dish network or similar, cheapest plan. Gas to visit family up to once per month. But we felt very fortunate, very, to be living off his salary. His starting salary was more than either of our families had ever made in a year at that point. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 We were 28. We married at age 24, and we had our first child in that house when we were 30. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjzimmer1 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 (edited) I was 24, married and our first child was 2 months old when we signed the paperwork. I was not working at the time. It was a custom build so we had to wait till eldest was 8 months old to move in. It was a split level so we only finished the upper level. Shortly after signing the paperwork, I was able to get work part time from home. I saved everything I made for the next 2 years and we paid cash to finish the lower level. We are still in the same house 25+ years later. Edited January 23 by cjzimmer1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lecka Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 I believe we were 29 and 26. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 When I was 28, I was one of 3 single adult women who jointly bought a house. The other joint owners were 35 and 36, and it was the first purchased home for all of us. Given my large amount of student debt and zero assets, I could not have bought even the junkiest fixer-upper in the worst neighborhood on my own, at least until I'd paid down my student loans for many years and/or got some big raises. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 As I see how many were young AND married when they bought a first house, it reminds me how big the salary/wage differential has historically been between men and women. So many men could afford a house and car on a "single income" ... but it was a single male income. I like to think the sex differential is not as pronounced today, but there still is one, especially between the trades that typically attract males vs. females. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquirrellyMama Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 25, married, no kids We've lived in this house for 23 years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlett Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 4 minutes ago, SKL said: When I was 28, I was one of 3 single adult women who jointly bought a house. The other joint owners were 35 and 36, and it was the first purchased home for all of us. Given my large amount of student debt and zero assets, I could not have bought even the junkiest fixer-upper in the worst neighborhood on my own, at least until I'd paid down my student loans for many years and/or got some big raises. So how does that work when you added your two children to the mix? Do you pay more of the mortgage/expenses because you are 3 instead of one. Feel free to ignore me if this is too personal. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 2 minutes ago, Scarlett said: So how does that work when you added your two children to the mix? Do you pay more of the mortgage/expenses because you are 3 instead of one. Feel free to ignore me if this is too personal. It was paid off long before the kids came along. Presently, we still split maintenance / improvements 1/3 because we're still the owners of the house. The kids aren't owners. As they get old enough to take on more responsibilities, I certainly plan to make the kids contribute to utilities, taxes, etc. Nobody's on my butt about it though. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 7 minutes ago, SKL said: As I see how many were young AND married when they bought a first house, it reminds me how big the salary/wage differential has historically been between men and women. So many men could afford a house and car on a "single income" ... but it was a single male income. I like to think the sex differential is not as pronounced today, but there still is one, especially between the trades that typically attract males vs. females. We were very young and it was just my dh working. He was a teacher in TN so not a high salary. I think it was a function of loose lending at the time as well. And the house was only $75,000. But still I have commented on how much more paperwork there has been to qualify for mortgages later on in life even when we were much more stable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Just now, teachermom2834 said: We were very young and it was just my dh working. He was a teacher in TN so not a high salary. I think it was a function of loose lending at the time as well. And the house was only $75,000. But still I have commented on how much more paperwork there has been to qualify for mortgages later on in life even when we were much more stable. There definitely have been interesting trends in mortgage lending. Banks were blamed, probably rightly (in part at least), for many people taking on too much mortgage. People need to consider that there will be downturns. Nobody is guaranteed good employment for life. I remember a few decades ago, we'd get so many mailers saying "you deserve" a travel vacation, new car, house improvement, etc, and we're here to lend you the money! I thought it was egregious at the time, but finally the law caught up with the lenders to some extent. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam in CT Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 29, married, no kids yet but working on it. We both had well-paying corporate jobs. That was our first house (NJ), and we're still living now in our second house (CT). We briefly rented in between so my eldest could start kindergarten here in the town we'd identified we wanted to be in but where we hadn't yet found a house we wanted. When I put that down I feel like I've had a remarkably boring life! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grace Hopper Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 28 and married 18 months. Had no desire to be a homeowner prior to that, I traveled for work and didn’t want the responsibility. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 25, married. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, baby! Thank you, Regis for that downpayment. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 TBF, I didn't have a lifestyle that promoted home ownership until my mid-30s. DH and I considered buying a home ten years before that, but we knew we'd have to rent it out so didn't bother. We're on our second home (sold the first after debating whether to rent), and then bought this one a year before the pandemic. We most likely won't purchase another home unless it's to cosign with one of our children. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriwether Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 43 minutes ago, SKL said: As I see how many were young AND married when they bought a first house, it reminds me how big the salary/wage differential has historically been between men and women. So many men could afford a house and car on a "single income" ... but it was a single male income. I like to think the sex differential is not as pronounced today, but there still is one, especially between the trades that typically attract males vs. females. I don't remember specifics but my husband's starting salary was within spitting distance of mine. He had been working almost two years before I started and I believe my salary (and I was a teacher with summers off) was over $26,000 and his was under $28,000. There is now a huge, huge, huge difference in our earning potential. I might be able to get hired before getting recertified if the schools are desperate for teachers, but I wouldn't make half of what he makes now. We are in different fields and I have been out of the workforce for almost 21 years. It took years and years for his salary to replace mine once I was no longer working, so it was good we never got used to living off two salaries. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 31 and ex-dh was 37. Ds was not quite a year old. Since then ex and I owned two more houses in different cities. Our last house together we rented from my parents and I have not owned a home since then. SO has never owned a home. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lauraw4321 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 26, married, DINKS, although I found out I was pregnant shortly thereafter. I had been working as lawyer full time for about a year, so our income dramatically increased. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faith-manor Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 I should also state that our first mortgage was exclusively based on Mark's income. Even as a first year IT worker, he made profoundly more than I did as a seasoned professional musician and music teacher. It was a little demoralizing teaching band and choir full time in the PS, AND performing on the weekends, some of those performances being with good, regional orchestras, and still have that total income a lot less than he was making as an unseasoned, freshman IT guy. It has always been that way. I left the workforce with a sick kid just when my income had the potential to take off, and once you leave a performance career for more than a year or two, you are pretty much toast. It never recovered, and when I had my fine arts program director job from 2017-2021, my salary was about the same as it was back in 1988 when we married and I had my first music teacher school job. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 1 hour ago, SKL said: As I see how many were young AND married when they bought a first house, it reminds me how big the salary/wage differential has historically been between men and women. So many men could afford a house and car on a "single income" ... but it was a single male income. I like to think the sex differential is not as pronounced today, but there still is one, especially between the trades that typically attract males vs. females. Dh was (is) in a very male-dominated industry. But he also had a (non-relevant) degree, which I believe made people take him more seriously than his other blue collar coworkers. He and I technically had similarish educational opportunities, but different struggles within those opportunities, and I did not become a CPA as intended, where I would have made higher income faster. But he would have surpassed me. Or maybe he would have been a sahp! We’ve obviously leaned into the more common dynamic though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alysee Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 24ish? I had worked full time for 4 years and been able to bank that money while we used my husbands pay cheque for 2 years(once he finished school) for our expenses. We bought a small place for $200,000ish. We had our first baby on the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 8 hours ago, frogger said: I had forgotten that that is a thing. 😂 But that would definitly make a difference. In my culture, it was common for parents to gift cash for the first marital home and it can be as little as a few thousand dollars. It is like a housewarming gift but in cash. Then there is the wedding cash gifts in my social circle which people use to offset the cost of the wedding banquet. If there is any money left after paying for the banquet, that money typically goes towards the marital home. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aggie96 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 (edited) Single age 28 in 2002 1600sqft ~$160k mid-level engineering salary (~$65-70k), 2nd engineering job with 4-5yrs experience (entry salary was $32500 in 1998), FHA loan with federal grant for down payment (that realtor knew about-not me) When I had split from cohabitating with boyfriend a couple of years earlier (broke and I was supporting him), we had 3 dogs and 2 cats. I took the cats (and rented an apartment in another city). He kept the dogs. Two years later, he went to jail (financial fraud stuff), so I got the dogs back to save them from the pound or worse. Couldn't rent an apartment with that many animals, so I bought a house. It was sheer necessity in order to keep my pets. I had been in the city for 2 years at that point, but was renting in the burbs in a little town on the outskirts that eventually became the fastest growing city in America for more than a decade. When DH and I were first dating (he's 10 years older than me), he bought his first house (age 38) about a mile away from me. We eventually lived in his house and sold mine (because of the combo of our finances/market/bad advice I had to PAY to sell it...grrrr). That experience made me MUCH more savvy about real estate investing. We own a variety of real estate investments now. Still pisses me off, but I learned a lot. Edited January 23 by aggie96 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Condessa Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 I'm amazed at how many were able to purchase homes directly out of school or shortly thereafter. How did you not need time to save up first? This definitely sheds some light for me onto the perspective of the folks on the living paycheck-to paycheck thread who feel that getting started in life is so much harder on today's young people than it was in the past. I just didn't see it. Sure, inflation and housing prices make things tough, but it doesn't seem all that different. But it seems that our experience wasn't typical to this group. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 We were both 28. I was pregnant with our second child. My husband was a first lieutenant in the Air Force, so we had both a pretty generous housing allowance and access to a VA loan. Everyone told us, “You can never lose money in real estate.” Then after he separated and got a job a thousand miles away…just as the housing market crashed in 2007. Literally we were driving across the country and seeing newspaper headlines about the collapse. We did eventually sell the house almost a year later, and we didn’t lose money, but it also involved us living with my in laws for a year and farming out our cats to friends for that year, which was horrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bookbard Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 10 minutes ago, Condessa said: I'm amazed at how many were able to purchase homes directly out of school or shortly thereafter. How did you not need time to save up first? So that's why I said that there's no way my husband would've been able to buy nowadays. He had no deposit, nothing, when he got the loan to buy his parents house, and he was self-employed and not earning very much. There's literally no way that would happen now. He was very lucky they offered the place to him (very cheaply) when they divorced, and very lucky it was at a time banks were throwing loans at everyone. Of course the whole banks throwing loans at people thing has not been a good thing for everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teaching3bears Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 4 hours ago, Farrar said: 25, married. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, baby! Thank you, Regis for that downpayment. Were you a contestant on the show? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 13 minutes ago, Condessa said: I'm amazed at how many were able to purchase homes directly out of school or shortly thereafter. How did you not need time to save up first? I only went to community college, graduated at 20, started my first full time job the Monday after graduation, and lived with my parents for over two years while saving almost every penny I made. No vacations, not even a weekend getaway, very little spent on anything discretionary. So I had two years and a few months of salary saved up. And I'd always been a saver, so even before starting a full time job I had money saved up from birthdays, graduation gifts, etc. I was able to make a roughly 30 percent down payment, and that reduced the mortgage enough that I could afford it. FWIW, the interest rate was (IIRC) somewhere between 7 and 8 percent and at the time it seemed like a very decent rate. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartstrings Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 (edited) 26 minutes ago, Condessa said: I'm amazed at how many were able to purchase homes directly out of school or shortly thereafter. How did you not need time to save up first? This definitely sheds some light for me onto the perspective of the folks on the living paycheck-to paycheck thread who feel that getting started in life is so much harder on today's young people than it was in the past. I just didn't see it. Sure, inflation and housing prices make things tough, but it doesn't seem all that different. But it seems that our experience wasn't typical to this group. My first house was $101k. A 3% down payment is only $3000. We ended up getting a 0% down for a slighter higher interest rate instead. We also asked for the sellers to cover part of the closing costs. I think it was less than $5000 at the closing table, maybe closer to $3000. That wasn’t hard that hard to do. We probably saved a tax refund or a bonus. Say $3000 down and our mortgage was $8 more than our rent at the 8% interest rate we had, easy peasy. Edited January 23 by Heartstrings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teaching3bears Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 32, married with newborn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sassenach Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 I was 24. Then we relocated/housing crash/yada yada and didn't own again until I was 36. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sassenach Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 4 hours ago, Farrar said: 25, married. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, baby! Thank you, Regis for that downpayment. What?! That's so cool. I love Regis, RIP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 22 minutes ago, sassenach said: What?! That's so cool. I love Regis, RIP. Yeah, my dh. Just $32k. But it was at the height of its popularity of it was a fortune for us. There's this excellent shot of me rolling my eyes behind him when dh got the 64 question wrong, lol. 4 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarita Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 1 hour ago, Condessa said: I'm amazed at how many were able to purchase homes directly out of school or shortly thereafter. How did you not need time to save up first? This definitely sheds some light for me onto the perspective of the folks on the living paycheck-to paycheck thread who feel that getting started in life is so much harder on today's young people than it was in the past. I just didn't see it. Sure, inflation and housing prices make things tough, but it doesn't seem all that different. But it seems that our experience wasn't typical to this group. Housing prices is your answer. My parents bought their house for $250k, my mom sold that house a year after I got married (which made it roughly a year after DH and I bought our house). Her house sold for just under $1mil. I made more than what my dad made at the same age but it was not 4 times as much (I worked in the same industry as my dad). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 1 hour ago, Condessa said: I'm amazed at how many were able to purchase homes directly out of school or shortly thereafter. How did you not need time to save up first? I think the main difference is that blue collar wages were much more proportional to the cost of housing, so it wasn't hard to save a small downpayment or afford a mortgage. My father supported a family of 6 on one salary as lineman for the power company and then as a cop, so an 18 year old kid who got a full time blue collar job right out of HS and only had to support themselves could save quite a bit. Small 2BR/1BA starter homes were plentiful and cheap, in part because people had bigger families, so newlyweds would buy them and then once they had more than 2 kids they'd generally trade up. One of my brothers went to work for the Sears auto shop and took on lots of overtime, and my other brother actually did the 4AM shift on garbage trucks for a while, which paid really well, and then he got a job working on fishing boats, so they were easily able to afford small fixer-uppers by 21. Even my sister was able to buy a small home on her salary as an office assistant, although in her case she got a really good deal (with no down payment) through a relative in real estate. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
historically accurate Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 5 hours ago, SKL said: As I see how many were young AND married when they bought a first house, it reminds me how big the salary/wage differential has historically been between men and women. So many men could afford a house and car on a "single income" ... but it was a single male income. I like to think the sex differential is not as pronounced today, but there still is one, especially between the trades that typically attract males vs. females. I made more (actually probably much more but I can't really recall details) than DH when we bought our first house together. He was a perpetual no-idea-of-the-future student, living at home, taking 8 or 9 years to complete an AAS before he met me. I dragged him through his last semester of comm college and then kicking and screaming through a night school "Complete your Bachelors" program after we got married. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 27. But we were in an area where, at the time, you could buy a small starter home (ours was built in 1952) cheaper than renting, and with both DH and I working full time, we were able to qualify for a mortgage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartstrings Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 According to this article house prices are rising twice as fast as income. So it really is harder to buy a house now than it was. This article has this handy little chart. 4 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarita Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 35 minutes ago, Heartstrings said: According to this article house prices are rising twice as fast as income. So it really is harder to buy a house now than it was. This article has this handy little chart. I think this chart speaks to affordable housing issue. To really make housing affordable for younger generations that light blue curve needs to stop going up so quickly and/or even come down. That is not desirable (from a financial standpoint) for everyone in this thread that owns even a single home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 4 minutes ago, Clarita said: That is not desirable (from a financial standpoint) for everyone in this thread that owns even a single home. We benefited from the Great Recession in terms of property tax cuts. Santa Clara County had so many people appealing the property tax value then that the comptroller gave many of us automatic property tax cuts. As the property tax increase in subsequent years were based on the “cut rate”, those of us who bought near the 2003/4 peak end up enjoying lower property tax subsequently. People we know in my neighborhood didn’t need to sell during that time period and none of us were underwater on our mortgages. If someone needed to sell to cover, they would be affected of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denarii Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 31, living together for a year and a half, married two years later, kids started a year after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 1 hour ago, Clarita said: I think this chart speaks to affordable housing issue. To really make housing affordable for younger generations that light blue curve needs to stop going up so quickly and/or even come down. That is not desirable (from a financial standpoint) for everyone in this thread that owns even a single home. I would be happy if my "home value" went down, since it would reduce my property taxes. I have no intentions of selling my house. My current intention is to live out my years here and then pass it down to the next generation. But my house is much bigger than what a young couple / small family would need. Rather than focus on houses like mine being affordable to them, I would rather the focus be on rehabbing more sensibly sized houses for young adults who want or need to set up housekeeping. Where I live, there is availability if there is a will to put in the effort. (The small houses tend to be much older but still able to be rehabbed.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlett Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Neither xh nor I could have afforded our first house on our own. Our total cash out of pocket was either 1700 or 2200. We had been paying rent of $250 and our mortgage was $400. Adjusting for inflation I believe our ds22 could do that with a wife. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Splash1 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 22 and 23 six months out of college and one year married Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarita Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 1 hour ago, SKL said: But my house is much bigger than what a young couple / small family would need. Rather than focus on houses like mine being affordable to them, I would rather the focus be on rehabbing more sensibly sized houses for young adults who want or need to set up housekeeping. Where I live, there is availability if there is a will to put in the effort. (The small houses tend to be much older but still able to be rehabbed.) This is an interesting sentiment to me because when DH and I were deciding on a house we were looking for something for the rest of our lives. The reasoning being that it costs a lot to buy and sell a home, with commissions, fees and potential remodeling. It doesn't seem to make financial sense (especially since we were/are planning on staying in the area), so our first house is sized for the 4-6 person family we planned to have (ended up with 2 kids). We spent the first few years when children didn't happen yet in a house that was a bit big for the two of us. If big homes aren't for normal couples looking to start families. I'm not understanding who big homes are suppose to be for. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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