Did you come from money?

[MamaMermaid]

Nope. That said, we definitely had more money as I grew up. I'm more spoiled now by my mom than then. She is/was very good with investing and it's certainly paid off.

My husbands and I are more comfortable than our parents but I don't know if we have the financial sense enough to make it grow. I better learn...thankfully, we have retirements and a few investments.

 

[JLTraveling]

Most of the people who have mentioned ridiculous housing prices here when they give their location, it's pretty easy to see they are only looking in their preferred social status area of about 3 miles. I've looked and it's always an excuse why they can only look at the $800k houses in such a small area than the $200k houses a 20 minute walk away.

Well, in my city it's a matter of safety (though we're looking at $400k houses, not $800k). But where we're looking is roughly where we live now, in a highly mixed area that five years ago was a very dangerous ghetto. If we expanded the search area to the other side of the interstate, we could get a house for $100k...with a side of nightly gunfire. The so-called "good areas" are still well over a million dollars, if you can find anything at all.

 

[tvguy]

Most of the people who have mentioned ridiculous housing prices here when they give their location, it's pretty easy to see they are only looking in their preferred social status area of about 3 miles. I've looked and it's always an excuse why they can only look at the $800k houses in such a small area than the $200k houses a 20 minute walk away.

My daughter's house is actually half a duplex and cost her $250,000, which at the time was really the bottom end of the housing market here.
Condos were running as low as $200,000 however the HOA fees put them out of reach. Her payment would have been $900 with taxes and insurance, and the HOA fee an additional $600 a month in some places.

 

[disneychrista]

Hahahahaha no.

This

 

[FlightlessDuck]

If you go back far enough, maybe, sorta. My parents? No.

 

[design_mom]

Growing up, I never worried about having enough to eat, a roof over my head, or whether Santa would come that year... but there wasn't a lot of money for extras. My husband grew up with more money and it's sometimes frustrating when he's like "Oh yeah, you have to remember __ (toy, snack, cable TV show, etc) from when we were kids." Um, no... that was not part of my experience.

 

[disneychrista]

And it isn't how much money your have, but how you choose to spend it.

So please stop with the "it's about how you choose to spend your money" nonsense. No, it's not. It's about the astronomical price of suitable homes. Full stop.

I think BOTH of these can be true. If you choose to spend your money on the latest tech or new cars you may never be able to afford (save for) a trip to Disneyland. But if someone's income is only X they may never be able to afford or qualify for a mortgage on a home in their area. Or even in some instances even afford the rent on an apartment on their own.

 

[mrodgers]

I think BOTH of these can be true. If you choose to spend your money on the latest tech or new cars you may never be able to afford (save for) a trip to Disneyland. But if someone's income is only X they may never be able to afford or qualify for a mortgage on a home in their area. Or even in some instances even afford the rent on an apartment on their own.

Along with the scenario of life changing drastically. I could afford a home and to feed my family quite easily with a single $12/hour income, far less than what the average/median household income was back then. Now at an enormous median income and single, I can't touch a house.

However, I very much doubt they don't play games with data and reporting. I don't see how the median income raised so much in the past year or 2 just because some fast food and retail places are paying an extra $5/hour today.

 

[kdonnel]

As long as I can remember my dad had multiple jobs. I think the worst was 2 full time and 2 part time jobs. When he was home he was sleeping. He did get his GED but was still limited in his career by a lack of education.

Except for a 9 or so week period where we lived in a tent I always had a roof over my head. That period of time was planned but lasted longer than expected. My dad had retired from the military while in West Germany so we moved back to the US while he had no job. The job search took longer than expected and what was a planned 2-3 week camping vacation turned into 9 weeks of campground/tent living.

As I got older there were periods of time where money was really tight. I have a couple memories that stick with me that I wish didn't. I distinctly remember a planned trip to the arcade with my friends that got cancelled last minute as my mom came to me saying she needed the $20 I had saved to pay bills that month. The budget did however have plenty of money for her cigarettes, it always did.

One of my dad's many jobs was working at a gas station / garage. He patched tires, ran errands, and did grunt work. It was through that job that he was able to get me a car as a teenager, well multiple cars. They never lasted long and were generally in rather bad mechanical shape but the majority of my friends had no car so my crappy cars were appreciated by all.

My parents didn't directly provide any money towards my college education but my dad was a very resourceful man. He used his connections to get me a summer job back in 1990-1993 that paid $40 an hour and gave me 40 hours a week. Each summer I went back to that job as soon as school was out and earned enough to pay for the following year of college. I imagine the arrangement was immoral at best and probably illegal.

I bought a home in my parents home town where my wife and I planned to settle but a few months later I got a job offer 150 miles away that I couldn't pass up. My parents ended up moving into the home I had purchased and cared for it like it was their own. I paid the mortgage, taxes, and insurance but they did any necessary repairs. The house was nicer than any house I lived in growing up and I could tell they were proud to be there. Owning the home for those 15 years turned out to be a decent investment so it worked out for everyone involved. My mom lived in the home until her death and my dad until he moved in with me and my family prior to dying himself.

My kids have had a different experience.

My college education has allowed me to have a career that paid an annual salary multiples more than my father made in a year with his multiple jobs. I have always had jobs that gave generous paid time off and as a result I was much more present when my kids were young.

 

[DVCjj]

Not poor but definitely not from money.
Same with DH.
Both were working class money-careful families.

 

[tvguy]

I think BOTH of these can be true. If you choose to spend your money on the latest tech or new cars you may never be able to afford (save for) a trip to Disneyland. But if someone's income is only X they may never be able to afford or qualify for a mortgage on a home in their area. Or even in some instances even afford the rent on an apartment on their own.

I just got home from the Doctor and the "cleaning ladies" are at three houses on my street. That clearly is an optional expense. My wife and I clean our own house rather than paying $400 a month to have someone do it weekly.

 

[disneychrista]

I just got home from the Doctor and the "cleaning ladies" are at three houses on my street. That clearly is an optional expense. My wife and I clean our own house rather than paying $400 a month to have someone do it weekly.

Okay...This is one of the things that is totally a "what you choose to spend your money on" scenario. But if a persons income is not high enough to qualify for the mortgage it doesn't matter.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

Lol, nope. I come from dirt-poor/drinking from the neighbor's hose pulled through the kitchen window because we didn't have water service/mixing up a box of expired cake mix with water and eating the resulting gloop alone as my sad dinner after school because there was no real food in the house/etc. Often one of the utilities was turned off but at least I usually had a roof over my head. One of my greatest joys now is taking my kids on vacation because that was something we never did when I was growing up--the only time I got to go anywhere as a kid was if someone else paid for me to go with them and then I felt like a charity case the whole time and couldn't actually relax and enjoy myself.

 

[DLgal]

Okay...This is one of the things that is totally a "what you choose to spend your money on" scenario. But if a persons income is not high enough to qualify for the mortgage it doesn't matter.

Exactly. And when you need north of $200,000 for a down payment, not buying that new $1000 cell phone needs to be a decision you make literally 200 times in order to actually make an impact.

At this point, the $500 we are spending on (insert random crap here) every month is not hindering us from the ability to buy a home. We are already putting away several thousands of dollars a month in savings. It is a marathon at this point, not a sprint.

 

[tvguy]

Exactly. And when you need north of $200,000 for a down payment, not buying that new $1000 cell phone needs to be a decision you make literally 200 times in order to actually make an impact.

At this point, the $500 we are spending on (insert random crap here) every month is not hindering us from the ability to buy a home. We are already putting away several thousands of dollars a month in savings. It is a marathon at this point, not a sprint.

I hate to think what rents are in an area where you need a $200,000 down payment to buy.

 

[Mercdesman]

No, not even close. My father was out of work some times due to the unions. I always had a roof over my head and food on the table, but not much more.

 

[Donnainnj]

No but my dad's mother did. She grew up during the depression, one of 10 kids, and she traveled through Europe as a child. On the other hand my mom's mother was raised by her widowed mother in a home without indoor plumbing.

 

[DLgal]

I hate to think what rents are in an area where you need a $200,000 down payment to buy.

I'm seeing an average rental price of $5500 if I stick to homes that would sell for $1M. There aren't many of those homes, though. Most 4 bedroom homes are around $1.5M. So, those rents average around $6000.

If we miraculously had the down payment money, with interest rates, our monthly payment would still be around $7500. So renting is still cheaper than buying. Rents are falling faster than home prices around here.

Our military Basic Allowance for Housing was just raised to $5196, for reference. We pay $3700/month, significantly under market rate. We have been in this home since 2015 and our landlord appreciates the multi year leases we ask to sign.

 

[tvguy]

I'm seeing an average rental price of $5500 if I stick to homes that would sell for $1M. There aren't many of those homes, though. Most 4 bedroom homes are around $1.5M. So, those rents average around $6000.

If we miraculously had the down payment money, with interest rates, our monthly payment would still be around $7500. So renting is still cheaper than buying. Rents are falling faster than home prices around here.

Our military Basic Allowance for Housing was just raised to $5196, for reference. We pay $3700/month, significantly under market rate. We have been in this home since 2015 and our landlord appreciates the multi year leases we ask to sign.

 

[tvguy]

No base housing option? My wife is an Air Force brat and she grew up in base housing. And it allowed her dad to save for 20+ years for a house. He retired and moved to a small town in Texas where the cost of living is low. Even today, the 3 bedroom, 2 bath 1,500 square foot house he bought is only worth $110,000 according to Zillow.
My daughter's payment with insurance and taxes is just under $1,000 a month. She bought half a duplex in a neighborhood with dozens of identical duplexes that rent for $2,000 a month. She qualified for a 5% down mortgage so her down payment was $12,500 so basically after the first year in the house she was money ahead owning instead of renting. But rents are nuts here.