Anyone else totally frustrated by the housing market?

I make six figures in D.C. (which I know is not like amazing for the area) so I feel your pain but ... you kinda have to think about if you NEED to buy.

I was obsessed w/ buying for a while, but I've come to realize it's not for me. I'd only afford a condo, which I feel like is some kind of money pit with the HOA fees and related nonsense.

I also accept that we live in a capitalist society, which means I can afford some things and not others. I have also accepted that while more people are single now than before, the world is set up for couples. If you want something nicer, get a roommate or partner. That's just life.

alaldksjc wrote:

I'm single, salary of $72k (yeah, yeah...insult me...have fun). I put 25% of my salary into retirement accounts. Using the rule of not letting mortgage payments north of 25% of your take home pay, I'll pretty much never be able to afford a decent house.

The only apartments I can afford under this rule are roach infested dumps like I'm currently in.

And they don't build houses for single people. I do not need 1,500 SF.

Where do you live?

I have a $105k take home pay in DC and was obsessed with getting a 1/1 condo in downtown penn quarter/china town...$450-550k gets you less than 700sqft and most likely no parking spot ($250 a month to rent). When all was said and done, it was going to be ~3.5k a month for mortgage and parking, plus the $15k in closing cost no when I sell it in 4-5 years, I get to pay another $30k in agent fees. Made the smart decision to rent a 2/2 with a random stranger in same location for $1375 a month.

I bought years ago, so I'm not frustrated at all. Yay me!

I feel ya. I live in the Dallas area, where home prices (and rents) have gone loco over the past few years. As a single guy, I've been priced out of buying even a simple starter house. It's nuts.

And condos are a rip off. I looked into that. Bad deal. I'll probably be in an apartment until I retire, at least. Maybe til the day I die.

goober central wrote:

I feel ya. I live in the Dallas area, where home prices (and rents) have gone loco over the past few years. As a single guy, I've been priced out of buying even a simple starter house. It's nuts.

And condos are a rip off. I looked into that. Bad deal. I'll probably be in an apartment until I retire, at least. Maybe til the day I die.

Also in Dallas, and had the same experience. Crazy how house prices have exploded here.

A massive earthquake will destroy property values in the Bay Area, and have a ripple effect elsewhere. Be patient. It won't be long.

I have two remodeled small 3 br houses in the Midwest for $57,000.

Monthly payment would be around $350. One has a 2 car attached garage and the other a 1 car attached.

Have you even considered changing your rules or maybe making some investments? I got myself an interesting opportunity,

as a software engineer I stay in Singapore a lot, so I'm planning to get an apartment in this condominium -

https://www.piermont-grand-ec.com.sg

Check out the architecture and flora there, it's amazing!

There's always tiny houses that you can move on to some relative's land until you annoy them and they evict you or start charging you rent.

It's a totally legitimate thing to do.

Be happy you don't live in Southern California. $72,000 isn't bad, man, for lots of places in the country. Just not SD, LA, OC.

Maybe Riverside. But, yes, it's frustrating as hell here. And not all of us get those lofty inheritances from parents or wives family like all my a$$wipe neighbors and friends.

I'm totally frustrated for different reasons. I bought a house in DC seven years ago and housing prices have been flatter here than anywhere in the country, even as other assets, like stocks, have exploded higher.

If it makes you feel better, I'm married and our combined income is 220k. We have 180k saved for down payment in the Boston area and can't find anything suitable. A new construction mcmansion is at least 1M but still on a busy street. A new construction mcmansion on a quiet street is 1.3M+, but we don't want a mcmansion. A 1,600-2,000SF home is 700-800k, will still need work done down the line, and may not even come with a garage in New England. These 700-800k homes were just 500-600k 2-3 years ago. I wish we bought back then.

This was us too but with a family of 5. I couldn’t stomach living in a rental apt any longer. We gladly took a job change in the south and were able to buy a nice home to fit the whole fam in a nice area. I suppose some would rather live in a specific/state area and live in a dump but I felt otherwise. Plus the job change was more money and cost of living was cheaper so win all around.

I'm still renting, because I'm not eligible for a mortgage. Yeah, that's very frustrating. I spend a lot of money on rent, cause it's very expensive where I live and the apartment is not even that big.

So the free covidbucks they handed out doesnt seem like such a great idea anymore huh?

I make 38k and my fiancée makes 42k. We live in Dublin (near Cbus) and have a 1,300-sq. ft. apartment but save a lot of what we earn. It's good for now but long-term I worry about retirement and simply not earning enough in my mortgage role (outbound calling).

We want to buy a house but will wait for the market to settle down in Central Ohio. Right now I have enough saved to probably by a ghetto house near Linden or Franklinton, but I'd rather wait until my career grows in the mortgage industry. She is trying to get a teaching job (reading intervention) in the suburbs but ALL the districts that have a decent standard of living and no problem kids are incredibly competitive and hard to get into. She has an MA and a decent salary at Catholic schools with the union step scale, but wants to get into the public schools--those are guaranteed 40-year jobs. Those jobs also basically guarantee us an income where we can buy a non-ghetto house.

You have to be patient and ride it out.

It's a shame that houses are no longer treated as a place to live, but as a way to make money these days. The shorter occupancy durations as a result of people moving around more is a prime cause of the problem as each time a place is sold it's for more money including sales fees. My 1st house was a 2 bdrm/1ba, 780 sf. Made a good starter home.