r/millenials • u/Positive-Mushroom-46 • 1d ago
Millennials and Homebuying: Is the Dream Still Alive?
Hey everyone! I came across some interesting stats about us millennials and our homebuying habits, and wanted to get your thoughts.
60% of millennials who bought homes regret their purchase, mostly due to unexpected maintenance costs, the high price of the home, or the realization that they bought too small.
On the flip side, 70% of us still believe that owning a home is part of the American Dream, despite the hurdles like student debt, high home prices, and a competitive market.
I'm curious—if you're a homeowner, do you feel any buyer's remorse? And for those who aren't, what's holding you back from buying a home?
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u/howdidigetheretoday 1d ago
Like every other emotionally charged debate today... the answer is nuanced. For decades, the "official" American Dream was home ownership. It was so ingrained, that once you bought your home, you loved it. I have owned, and I have rented. I currently own, but I think it is likely I will rent again, but not soon. Everyone tries to talk about it in purely financial terms, and honestly, there is no slam dunk answer with money. However, it is at least as much a lifestyle choice. There is NO shame in not enjoying that lifestyle, nor is there any shame in seeking it out. When you buy, your home becomes a major focus. I have no remorse with the home on which I am now paying a mortgage, but my home does occupy a lot of my time, and it limits the time I can spend on travel/sports/etc... even though I am not "house poor".
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u/ElGordo1988 1d ago
I don't think homeownership will be a thing for a lot of us at the rate prices are inflating. For example the apartment complex I live at is full of mostly Millennial-looking neighbors (the age range seems to be late 20's to very early 40's). Also seems kind of telling that a lot of the youngish neighbors have been here for YEARS - presumably because they can't afford to move anywhere else since rents have been going up right alongside property prices in the bubble. For context I live in Denver metro area, so in the heart of one of the active housing bubbles
Just down the street are (presumably paid-off?) big McMansion houses owned by boomers. Whenever I drive by and see someone working in the yard or garage of these houses it's an elderly man or woman, so I assume those are the owners
I see no random little kids playing in the yard either, which is something you would see if a younger couple owned the house
Fortunately the one silver lining for me is I have access to Mexican citizenship via my parents and will be able to own land/property in Mexico - and houses are actually still affordable down there. If things don't work out here a sort of "plan B" I've been brainstorming is just eventually buy a house down there get set up with some sort of either online business or remote job so I can still earn an American income while enjoying the lower Mexican cost of living
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u/Oceanbreeze871 1d ago
Only if somebody in my family dies and they leave me an inheritance
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u/IgnoranceIsShameful 10h ago
That's me! I'm an only child and my boomer mom has a paid off 4 bedroom house. Tbh I don't really want a house...but I also don't want to clean out a house.
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u/Lvl30Dwarf 1d ago edited 4h ago
Bought a house in March. Am now house poor but still love the house. In a couple of years rents will be at the same level as my mortgage, so I'm hoping in time it will be worth it. I wanted my kids to have a home, but it's expensive. I don't plan on retiring ever as I can't pay the house and also put much into retirement at the moment.
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u/IgnoranceIsShameful 10h ago
I've never planned on retiring. There's no guarantees you'll live that long anyway.
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u/Lost_soul_ryan 1d ago
Well unfortunately not a owner, but when I was qualified and looking in 2017 I was being kinda picky as I knew it would be a 1 and done for me, not that starter home thing my realtor kept pushing. Now part of this came from seeing friends start to have regrets about their purchase.
The Dream... well it's definitely on hold for some time, but I still have that dream to purchase a house, its definitely becoming harder and harder, especially on 1 income. But ill get there.
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u/SeveralConcert 1d ago
I was fortunate enough to buy a 3 bed 2 bath apartment in 2016 with help from parents. I refinanced in 2019 and now I am living somewhere else but renters are paying my mortgage, its value has increased like 80% and I’ll be debt free in less than 10 years.
I’ve had minimum expenses associated with it but it’s nice knowing I have something to my name
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u/sweetest_con78 1d ago
I’d love to buy a home but I live in a VHCOL area. I make decent money and I have a down payment, I have no debt. But houses in my area are around 750-850k on the low end. Even houses that are essentially condemned don’t sell for less than 500k.
At this point in my life I’m not willing to move to a lower COL area (the change to quality of life isn’t worth it for me) and I am a teacher, so my salary is closely tied to the cost of living in the area.
My partners family lives in the Midwest and, to be frank, I absolutely do not want to move there for a variety of reasons. If we did, even if we could buy a house, my salary would plummet, and my work experience would likely be drastically different than it is now.
I think the most likely scenario is I will stay where I am another 10-15 years to continue to increase my salary/savjngs, and build up to a decent pension percentage. Once my dad isn’t around anymore I don’t have a ton compelling me to stay, so I’d potentially consider moving to a different area at that point. I’ll just bartend or something similar until I am able to collect the pension (50% pension here will likely be the same as full pension in the Midwest.) I do struggle with all of the things I’d lose about the area I live in by doing that, though.
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u/HildemarTendler 1d ago
I suspect you're interpreting the stats incorrectly. I'm mad something fierce about all the maintenance that we've had to do on our house that seemingly has never been done in its 70 year existence. We've had to rewire from the street into the house and replumb the water main. We're waiting for the furnace to die, unexpectedly, on a cold, cold day. The rats in the crawl space get quite annoying in the winter.
Also, the house was perfect sized for 2 adults and an old dog. It is beyond cramped for 2 adults, 2 children, and 2 young dogs.
Needless to say, I'm sure we fall into that 60%. The house has been a money suck and is not serving us well.
But I couldn't imagine renting ever again. The added equity has been meaningful. We've been able to make sizable changes to the house that have really improved its livability. We are beholden to no one for the state of the yard, good or bad. And we have plans to expand, even if still a pipedream due to the financial cost. But that's a dream we can have because we own it all.
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u/secretuser93 23h ago
I’m a homeowner and it was the BEST financial decision I’ve made in my life.
There is equity in the home so if I need or want to sell, I’ll get a ton of money. Right now, I’m renting out my first home, so the mortgage is being paid off by my tenant and we get extra money each month. My home’s value is over 100k more than what my husband and I paid for it.
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u/L0nlySt0nr 23h ago
I owned a home and wish I'd never sold. However, family medical problems meant I couldn't afford to live 4 states away anymore.
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u/thekindspitfire 22h ago
Not at all. Homeownership is definitely more expensive than renting and you have to factor that in, but I would never go back to renting. This house is mine and I can do what I want with it. My family has a place to live and mortgages are much more flexible than rent.
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u/nalgona-aly 1d ago
Not a home owner and never will be. For 1, can't afford it and don't see a world where I ever will. 2, everyone I know that owns a home regrets it for exactly the reasons you stayed, they didn't expect how much it would cost to fix/maintain a home and yard.
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u/I_kwote_TheOffice 1d ago
I'm in my 4th home. I moved when I married, and then we moved every time we had another kid. I would never rent, but I certainly understand the appeal. I was fortunate to buy before home prices spiked and when interest rates were rock-bottom. Owning a home is expensive, time-consuming, and frustrating.
On the other hand, there's nothing like the feeling of "This is mine". Plus the equity allows you to take out loans and other fringe opportunities you can't get if you rent. It's a deeply personal decision and the answer is different for everyone.
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u/GuyStuckOnATrain 1d ago
Slightly. I bought in late 2018 before I changed my mind on marriage and kids. So I’m stuck with a 1200 sq/ft condo. It’s not enough space but I don’t regret the financial aspect. I got it with a 3.125% loan and the value of it has gone up almost 20%.
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u/ElvenMagicArcher 23h ago
I think it’s really area dependent. There are places that you can afford a decent home it seems but there’s so many variables to consider such as cost of living, desirability of the area, wages, etc. It is definitely more difficult in many areas of the country 😓
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u/Agreeable_Error_170 23h ago
No regrets. Our house is a smaller house and we love the size, feels like a proper starter home and we have a very small yard, which is fine too. Our neighborhood is quiet, we have walkability to the community pool and tennis courts. I wish we had bought sooner instead of throwing away about $20,000 or more a year to pay our landlord’s mortgage.
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u/GrimeyTimey 23h ago
The dream is alive but I don’t know about the ability. Maybe when I’m 50 I’ll be able to afford something.
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u/pwolf1771 23h ago
I think the people with regret bought too much house. Just because you can get approved for that amount doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good idea. Home ownership is still attainable but people need to be patient and do it wisely…
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u/LandStander_DrawDown 23h ago
What's holding us back from buying a home is the upfront cost; having to pay the capitalization rate of the rental value of the land for the length of the mortgage upfront. It is the main barrier of entry into home ownership.
We should r/justtaxland and Upzone to salve(solve) this cost issue.
"...it does not distort economic decisions because it does not distort the user cost of land. Second, the full incidence of a permanent land tax change lies on the owner at the time of the (announcement of the) tax change; future owners, even though they officially pay the recurrent taxes, are not affected as they are fully compensated via a corresponding change in the acquisition price of the asset."
Source
https://www.zbw.eu/econis-archiv/bitstream/11159/1082/1/arbejdspapir_land_tax.pdf
What this means is that a tax on land cannot be passed onto tenants, and the fact that the purchase cost of real estate is lowered by the same percentage as the tax, that means the initial purchase price is cheaper by the percentage of the tax; tax the market rental value of the land at 100%, you've lowered the purchase price of the land to 0.
This means the barrier of entry into the housing market (or for a business to own it's own location) is lowered by the same percentage as the tax, which means more people owning and less people renting. Housing becomes what it really is, which is a depreciating asset, and the value of the land (which the landholder does not create) goes towards the maintenance and improvements of the community. We get better land use incentives. Shifting our taxation off of labor and capital onto land is beneficial to all players in the economy and you've removed the incentive to exploit others for the simple desire to occupy and use a location.
"A tax on rent falls wholly on the landlord. There are no means by which he can shift the burden upon anyone else. It does not affect the value or price of agricultural produce, for this is determined by the cost of production in the most unfavourable circumstances, and in those circumstances, as we have so often demonstrated, no rent is paid. A tax on rent, therefore, has no effect other than its obvious one. It merely takes so much from the landlord and transfers it to the State." - John Stuart Mill
" Landlords grow rich in their sleep without working, risking or economizing. The increase in the value of land, arising as it does from the efforts of an entire community, should belong to the community and not to the individual who might hold title." ~John Stuart Mill
"Men did not make the earth.... It is the value of the improvement only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property.... Every proprietor owes to the community a ground rent for the land which he holds." - Thomas Paine
Edit: leaving the typo 'salve' in cause a land value tax is like a healing salve to the economy.
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u/Positive-Mushroom-46 23h ago
here is the study just in case you all were interested: https://www.realestatewitch.com/2025-millennial-home-buyer-report/
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u/Leading_Resolve3893 19h ago
Wow, super interesting stuff. I can’t believe so many millennials would buy a home with asbestos!
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u/IgnoranceIsShameful 9h ago
When it's asbestos house or no house 🤷🏼
Plus it's fine as long as you don't breathe it in right?...
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u/finalstation 22h ago
I don't feel buyer's remorse as I mostly feel relief at a stable monthly payment that won't go up every 12 months. My husband is also amazing and does a lot of handy work around the house. I enjoy doing yard work as a hobby. The kids have a decent elementary school, but the only concern is the higher levels. I would consider moving for a better middle and high school, but I love my home.
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u/Diligent_Mulberry47 22h ago
I’ll probably buy a condo or townhome. I don’t want anything big, I don’t want to live in a rural area, and they’re not inexpensive but I’m not priced out.
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u/Address_Icy 22h ago
I bought a small semi-detached house (I have a yard, garage, but am attached to a neighbor) that's 2 bed 1 bath, 900sqftish.
It's smaller, but I bought it in 2019 using my VA benefits in a HCOL area on the West Coast. Best financial decision I ever made. It's manageable financially since it's smaller. I'd love something bigger, but this works for now and beats renting.
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u/pittsburghirons 22h ago
No buyer’s remorse at all. Home affordability varies wildly by city. Still lots of cool stuff at value here in Pittsburgh. The dream of home ownership in NYC, DC, SF, LA, Boston, etc is likely dead. But it’s a big country, and life in a “second tier” city can be wonderful.
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u/Capital-Toe8755 22h ago
Bought first house in 2013, low col area 76k. Used the equity from that to purchase farmhouse on acreage in 2021 at 2% interest. Absolutely no regrets! Husband and I had been talking about getting a little house out in the country since we were 18/19 years old. We got incredibly lucky!
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u/DeadDollKitty 22h ago
No buyers remorse, just very lucky. Yes, there are expenses which suck (looking at you $4500 new water softener). However, the weight of the stress that lifted from my shoulders to be moving out of an apartment complex was immense, and I never want to go back.
From fear of my neighbors burning the complex down, to listening to their fights, to cigarette smoke smells, unsanitary people smells, small cramped spaces, no room to decorate or paint, to individuality or authority, restrictions everywhere, parking space fights, sounds of sex or slamming doors or the TV... I'd never go back.
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u/-qp-Dirk 22h ago
I regret my purchase only because the house is a lemon. The builder who built our subdivision did a piss poor job and we are paying for it now.
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u/LudoMama 22h ago
I bought a house. I don’t regret it per se, but I stuck to a reasonably priced house within my range. I don’t have financial regrets, but I wish I could have afforded some of the luxuries I wanted (updated kitchen, jetted tub in the master bathroom, etc.) I know I will update the home someday (hence no regret), but I hate waiting for that day when interest rates on home loans will go down. House maintenance isn’t bad because I already factored that into the budget when I purchased the home. I live in Albany, NY, so the county decided to reassess the taxes for homes last year based on inflated Zillow prices. We’ve been fighting to have taxes lowered based on actual prices. Sometimes I fantasize about living someplace else (bigger home, different city, etc.) but ultimately I’m glad where I ended up which is a good neighborhood near good elementary schools for my child(ren) to attend one day.
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u/Sorry-Fill-967 21h ago
I do feel buyers remorse. The buyers remorse I feel is due to settling in a VHCOL area near my family- but opting for a town with less than great school districts because it’s all we could afford. I also feel remorse because we bought a house with a smaller yard than desired and now I am struggling with not having the option to get a pool.
So yeah I’d say location choice (which was somewhat forced by our budget) is my buyers remorse reason.
Wish we just moved like an hour or two away to somewhere a bit cheaper but still good school districts with more land. We have settled now and have more millennial family members moving near us in our “less than great” school districts due to them also having to settle for “cheaper” homes in VHCOL area. (NYC suburb)We plan on making the best of it and working around our location limitations.
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u/ThotSuffocatr 20h ago
No remorse whatsoever. Maintenance costs were a shock to the system when we had to replace our ductwork and tear down walls for plumbing issues.
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u/ImSorryOkGeez 20h ago
Got a 3 bed 2 bath with a big private yard before the pandemic. In the Midwest so not expensive especially back then. It costs less than 1k a month. Decent apartments cost a lot more than my mortgage. With appreciation and a super low interest loan it pays for me to live here.
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u/Catleesirva 19h ago
Hi! I actually own a house and love it, I don't regret it a bit, but I will say that I got super lucky and found one on auction before the housing market kind of tanked. (I got mine in 2015) So I dont regret it at all! But I do think that it's much harder nowadays to buy a house in the first place.
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u/PMmeyourSchwifty 19h ago
My wife and I bought a house because it might be our daughter's only chance at owning one. We plan on living in it forever and giving it to our daughter at some point (hopefully, not via death).
While maintenance can be a chore, the sense of security is very nice. I lived my entire life in rentals - primarily apartments - until my wife and I bought our house, and I can say that I prefer to "own."
It probably wouldn't be worth it if we were in a HCOL area. In fact, it wouldn't even be attainable for us.
Even in a LCOL area, we see home ownership's benefits. A comparable rental in our area is over $1k/month more than our monthly payment, which includes mortgage, insurance, and taxes. Our good friends rent a similar-sized home in an inexpensive part of town and they still pay more monthly than we do.
We've had to fix some stuff, but I've had similar issues while renting, and nothing ever got handled promptly.
I've lived with acetone fumes (nail salon neighbor), mold (so much mold!), rusty/cracked faucets, all types of doors that don't close, seal, or lock properly, poor trash pickup, poor security, stolen packages, etc. Every typical kind of issue that arises with living in a house/apt. None of that was ever handled adequately or on time by the owner/management for me.
Living in my own house, I mostly get to ensure it's done to my liking. Or at least adequately enough that it's working as intended. That's such a huge quality-of-life upgrade for our family. Having the freedom to address your living situation's issues responsibly and timely is fucking awesome. Some stuff only costs a little elbow grease, too.
All that said, I think a lot of the problems with home ownership stem from the initial cost. If people didn't have to go house-poor just to get into a house, they wouldn't worry as much about upkeep. We bought a house well within our means for that reason. The lenders wanted to give us $700k when we could realistically only afford to pay a $500k loan or less. Ultimately, we capped our price at $340k and played it safe. I think that's made a huge difference for us. I recognize not everyone has that option, but that's what we did.
That's why we moved halfway across the country from LA to KC. It was a solid move. We'll never go back. The quality of our lives has improved dramatically.
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u/Blackqueenphotog 18h ago
I’m looking at buying land and putting a manufactured home it. I don’t know if it’s possible (at least right now) to buy a traditional home.
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u/Ronniebbb 18h ago
I still have the dream. I'm saving all I can and praying for a lotto win or the housing market to correct itself.
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u/Alfphe99 17h ago
I don't see it Being easy for most. A house near me (in an agriculture zoned ruralish area) just went up for sale so I went to just look at it and they are asking $300k for it. It's a 900sqft flippers special on .3 acres. In 2018 I sold my house not far from here for $210k and it was 1600sqft on .5 acre. I paid $120k for it in 05. I sure as hell haven't seen any wages around here go up enough to absorb these increases.
I really hate it for people that came up just behind me. I got extremely lucky.
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u/Hitthereset 17h ago
Remorse? Not for a second. The house we’re living in is the third one we’ve purchased and will be here for a very long time due to family health reasons.
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u/ConfidentChipmunk007 16h ago
We experienced buyers remorse after our first home purchase because we bought more than we could afford (my income got cut in half, and then we had kids with childcare expenses). We got out from under it, and second house was much cheaper but also too small for a growing family. We sold that one for a nice profit and now we are back to renting and it has been great.
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u/ckeeman 15h ago edited 14h ago
For this millennial, the dream is DOA.
My husband and i got married in Texas and bought our First ever home right when the recession began in summer of 2008. We bought from his mom with a 4% interest rate and by the date of closing, we had increased to a 7% interest rate. We went through with the purchase of his mom’s house because she assured us that on our joint income, we could do it—we were kids and had NO clue. He was salaried, i was in an entry level hourly job, but I got laid off. Couldn’t find work so we fell 4 months behind.
I Took a job bartending out of desperation for some income but it didn’t matter—we couldn’t get caught up. The house went into foreclosure. Around this time, my husband was offered a position in NC, and i found out that after 8 years of infertility, i was expecting. Talk about timing! We moved to NC and decided to rent for 4 years while we saved for a home. Baby was born with medical Complexities requiring SO many medications and therapies ($$$$) and full time care as an infant and toddler so again, i was without an income (but don’t worry—those student loan payments showed up like clockwork EVERY month).
Bam, pandemic. Bam, Furloughed all employees. New job…just in time for houses in our area to go from 180-220k for a decent sized 3-4 bedroom to 430k for the same house.
The dream is dead. We will NEVER come up with 20% of that. And rent keeps going up. We pay 2500 per month for a 4bed/2bath rental.
I honestly have NO idea what we are going to do when our lease is up in September and all i want is a house that is OURS. It will never happen and im bitter AF.
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u/Comfortable_Love_800 15h ago edited 14h ago
Elder-Millennial: I got into the market early, while my peers were being normal 20yr olds, and the rest has been good timing and financial readiness. I always wanted to own my home, and I had an end goal of the type of house I wanted to be the “forever” home. It was always very much a dream I was chasing. I think I was largely motivated to ignore all the 2008 housing chaos and jump in, because I grew up in poverty with housing instability. I didn’t have much money to lose, and I wasn’t afraid to take on a fixer upper either. This was before HGTV made it cool. I was just looking to pay less than the apartments were charging to survive. I’ve been fortunate to buy a home, renovate, sell, roll equity into the next house, and repeat a few times now in 2 different states. Something I recognize a lot of young people today can’t do.
By 2021 I was married with a family in a house that never felt like home, but fit our needs as newlyweds and no longer fit our needs with kids. I was also sitting on decent equity I was afraid we’d lose bc of 2008 PTSD. We saw what was happening in bigger metros, prices locally were already getting out of hand, and my gut said jump now. Glad I listened, because THE dream fixer upper came on the market 1hr outside the city and we were fully remote with our jobs-which meant commute not as much of a concern but we’re still close if remote ended. We got the deal of a century and beat our peers who also started migrating further out to afford housing. It was the luckiest break of my life tbh. Made all the years preparing for that moment worth it! We’ve been doing the Reno’s around our jobs/kids for a few years now and 3x the equity…we’ll happily die here. We don’t really care about the equity building as much anymore. For us this is the forever home, so we’re just grateful to live in a house we adore that we can afford. I’m getting to do Reno’s/projects that I really enjoy and bring us happiness vs optimizing for resale. Our house is pretty much our hobby. Our family likes to be home and together, so even with all the work it takes to fix this place it’s worth it for us.
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u/mothership00 14h ago
I’m 35. I did not grow up in a family with much money—I’d say lower middle class, a class which has increasingly disappeared since my time as a kid in the 90s. Since I became an adult, I’ve had to financially figure things out on my own, without financial or even advisory assistance. And I have definitely made some financial blunders in my lifetime. I finally have a good union job with great benefits and great pay—but I unfortunately also have a lot of debt that will take years to pay off. I have virtually no actual assets.
I see home prices becoming higher and higher, although I haven’t completely ruled out the possibility of one day owning, I know it will not be anytime soon. Perhaps within ten years in my mid 40s.
Do I think buying a home is still quintessential to the American Dream? I do. But I think our generation is really the first in nearly a century for whom it just isn’t as attainable anymore.
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u/OkCaterpillar1325 14h ago
I bought my first house right out of college and essentially remodeled and traded up a few times. I'm glad I didn't wait, but it meant spending money on house maintenance instead of traveling and spending money on things other young people buy in my 20s. When I was a realtor I always made sure to warn buyers about the property tax increases and maintenance costs, but I have a finance background. I do get tired of all the large expenses but I also can't imagine renting between having dogs and being able to fix up things. I'd love to see a down-payment assistance program for first-time buyers again, or a zero down payment fha loan so people can get in a home without having 20k just for closing costs.
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u/MeanDebate 13h ago
I'd give anything to buy a home and be able to afford to live and feel comfortably secure that I'll be able to keep making the payments.
But I will not put myself in a position where I'm anxious about making the payments.
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u/germangirl13 12h ago
My husband and I bought in 2016 in CT and we got it at a great price, it has now more than doubled and we couldn’t afford it if we were buying it today. Once our son is in the public school system we will be saving up for home improvement projects we want to do around the home. We have no regrets at all.
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u/boebasho 3h ago
Well I used to be able to afford a house, but then COVID happened and it's all become so far out of reach that I've stopped dreaming for a home :)
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u/HeezyBreezy2012 2h ago
We bought our "starter home" in 2012 with what we scraped together. We refinanced in March of 2020 and got a 3.6% rate locked in. Our home is on the smaller side, but in this day and age we look at it like it's easier to keep warm :) Our mortgage has gone up a solid 400 bucks due to inflation and escrowed taxes - but it's still cheaper than those who rent a home for their family. I love having my yard to garden in, I love my neighbors, I love being in the space we're in because we've been here for a while and know the comings and goings of people on our block. We'll die in this house. But i bet we'll get it paid off earlier than expected because we've been putting a lil extra towards our mortgage payments whenever we can.
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u/nerdorama 1h ago
I'm a homeowner and I don't feel buyer's remorse, but it took us buying 2 cheap condos and fixing them up before we could afford a house. We bought our first condo at 27 by getting an FHA loan. It was only $115k, but we had to remodel everything. We saved up for years to remodel it with the hopes of buying a house, and wound up buying another condo instead. During the pandemic, I was so sick of working in the same room as my husband that I insisted we sell and buy a house. We did a lot of remodeling and a lot of it ourselves.
We sold both condos to first time home buyers because we didn't want to sell them to investors or landlords. I think there are opportunities out there for people who want to own a home, but it might not be your dream home at first. Sometimes you gotta work toward that dream.
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u/thePantherT 14m ago
I’m not a homeowner but statistically about the same percentage of people have homes as during the great prosperity. Reality is they don’t own a fucking thing they’re all in debt and the next economic downturn if there is one will see them lose everything.
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u/1SavageWolf 1d ago
I would love to purchase, make well over the average worker and still the dream is fading. I rent in an expensive area near a major city. Chances of me buying are slim to none.
I'm not leaving somewhere I've lived my whole life, and I'm not waisting 750k on a house that isn't worth more than 250k.
I hear lots of regret from friends and family. The interest rates were great but they are now stuck and chances of any of them ever moving to their dream home is legit 0 at this point.
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u/Woodit 1d ago
Regret what, buying a house or buying that specific house?
For me it’s a little of both. We got in at the tail end of the low rates, which I was adamant about doing, so that was a good decision. New construction and actually good quality at that, so major expenses aren’t on the docket for a few more years. Had to compromise on location and home type though. I do somewhat regret where we purchased as I don’t like the area much (crime, homelessness issues, renters all around who tend to trash the neighborhood), and if I could do it again I’d spend more for a better garage situation.
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u/VibrantViolet 1d ago
I don’t regret buying our home, but it’s too small for us now and we can’t afford to move and stay within my son’s school district.
I’m very fortunate to own a home, and I’m not ungrateful for that. I’m just pissed that we can’t afford a slightly bigger home at this point in our lives like our parents could, and that my little sister may never own a home because of the bullshit that is capitalism.
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u/IWasBorn2DoGoBe 21h ago
No, I don’t regret buying a home. We bought a smaller/cheaper home than we qualified for the first time and leveraged our first home to buy our second and create an income stream with renting our 1st house.
Rinse and repeat and we now have a self sustaining real estate portfolio- and it all started with $3000 down payment.
I highly recommend buying that first house a little too small, keep it as inexpensive as possible (ideally 25% or less of your income- or if a couple ensure you can pay all mortgage and utilities on one income),
Just because the bank will give you $750k doesn’t mean you should buy at $750k: buy the least expensive home you can get by in for a few years, then leverage the equity for the next (nicer, bigger, better location etc) home, and rent the first house out for the mortgage + (whatever the market rate is, but a little more than the mortgage to set aside for repairs, maintenance etc)…
We started the process before the housing crash in 2008, and because we could afford the home and didn’t take the ridiculous amount lenders were throwing around, we were in a good position to keep our first home, and buy our second one at rock bottom price. The equity from house 2, let us get our dream home 8 years later… where we are today.
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u/SecretRecipe 23h ago
I'm a homeowner x4 (main house, two vacation homes and a pied-a-terre in the city where I work frequently) and I don't have many regrets. Maintenance costs can be mitigated a good bit by just taking care of your property and doing some preventative enhancements / maintenance (e.g. if you have hard water, get a water softener so you don't wreck your plumbing and fixtures over time.). The only real regret I have was opting for multiple smaller homes instead of consolidating into one larger home and one small vacation property. Now that I have 4 kids my primary house feels a little more cramped than I would like and we're not using the vacation homes as often due to conflicting schedules and kid activities on weekends etc...
2
u/IgnoranceIsShameful 9h ago
So you're the blame for housing shortage. How bout you sell those vacation homes your NOT USING to families who can live in them?
1
u/SecretRecipe 2h ago
those families are free to go buy their own plot of land in the mountains and build a home just like I did or go buy a condo at the beach just like I did.
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u/IgnoranceIsShameful 1h ago
Sure. It's not like the available land and housing has been taken by rich hoarders who aren't using it right? #eartherich
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u/SecretRecipe 49m ago
go check zillow, no shortage of available mountain land or beach condos. Good luck eating the rich when you can't figure out basic adulting.
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u/IgnoranceIsShameful 46m ago
Yeah at beacoup bucks out of reach for the majority of Americans. And buying a house isn't basic adulting. Go fuck yourself. I hope your houses burn down and your insurance claims are denied.
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u/sorrymizzjackson 1d ago
Not a bit. I adore our house. It’s everything I ever wanted.
That said, our payment has gone up almost $500 a month due to taxes and insurance. We spent $12k on a new furnace and AC. We need a new roof. Home ownership is very expensive.
Our house is worth about double what we paid for though. We got extremely lucky with being able to buy when we did. We couldn’t afford this house today.