re: In the market for a house...

Lot of stories like this floating around. Young adults who did everything right - education, career, marriage, saving money, 401k, HSA, etc. and the next step towards the American Dream, a home and children, seem out of reach.

The plutocrats have completely sold out multiple generations. Oh, well - keep renting, keep working 50 hrs, get a vasectomy and vicariously live your life through CGI comic book movies. Otherwise you are a THREAT to democracy!

It's easily a few thousands every year just on bullshite. Forget about new flooring, replacing windows, a new AC unit, whole home generator, etc.

In just the last few months we've bought a new dishwasher, now we need a new garage fridge, spent damn near a grand on removing a couple small trees, grinding a few stumps then re-sodding over them, spring time garden crap (flowers, pine straw), new gable vents and siding repair cause squirrels are worthless pieces of shite. Don't even factor in new front brakes for my wife's SUV, LSU football season tickets, two vet trips for our dog, and down payments on two summer camps for our daughter. Not to mention all the other money on things like travel, dining out, date nights, etc.

No way I would feel comfortable with that much money tied into just my home if we made $160k.

Imagine telling boomers this now, they’d all want to increase welfare

I’ll also tell you a truth that most people don’t realize until it’s way too late.


Buy the most house you can AFFORD because you will get absolutely frickED if you have to move soon after you buy to accommodate a growing family.

Even if your house appreciates substantially, you will likely come out way behind after seller costs.


I know plenty of people who bought the 900 sqft starter home on the advice of their parents, only to lose their arse when they sold 2-3 years later because the house couldn’t support 2 more kids. And that was even with their house appreciating quite a bit.


In this environment, the old advice to buy a small/cheap house and then upgrade in <5 years is really really stupid. Buy something YOU CAN AFFORD that you can also grow into.

Stay in the townhome until rates go back under 5%. Most likely 1-2 years out as inflation is still not going down as anticipated. Keep plugging away at your 401k and HSA as you seem to be in 20-30s. Your money has longer to compound and will be the backbone of your retirement.

When you’re ready to buy, look at FHA loans as well as private. 5% down with PMI might be better than FHA PMI as PMI rules have changed with FHA loans and might be more expensive over the life of the loan.

It’s sad how 30 year old childfree couples with dual hr bullshite email jobs think they’re entitled to 450k dslds

ETA: if your wife won’t live in a fixer up she’s cheating on you baw

I'm guessing you're in Winchester, VA. Great place to live. But it's not that far from NoVa so sure it's more expensive. I live between Richmond and Fredericksburg. You have to get in county south of Fredericksburg (like Caroline) to really see prices not getting the DC / NoVa impact.

I see you are in the construction trade. Are you just looking for new or would you consider something in a decent, older neighborhood that you could get into for a lower pricepoint and upgrade over time? And before the millinneals chime in, there are older, decent neighborhoods in most small towns.

Is buying a townhome an option? Would at least get you started on building equity.

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Most homes within hour of city is around that much. That’s just the median home price these days.

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Fine. Then this poster can't afford to live there or they need to find something below the median. You can't have champagne taste on a beer budget, and then flip about the high cost of living in an area. I would keel over with a house note that big.

And I'm sorry, but a $500k house is really expensive for the vast majority of people.