How old were you when you purchased your first home?

[jenm2878]

23. Bought it with DBF (now DH) who was 25.

 

[DisneyPhD]

Both deferring med school for a year maybe even 2. We need to save to money because otherwise we will only have loan income and everyone knows how bad that is! We were actually thinking about getting an affordable town house in Riverview/Brandon Florida (The Tampa area) as purchasing a townhouse is the same as rent and we could always rent out the place later.

Good luck with that. School loans can be very difficult, but good if that means you get the education. (and will make more later.) If (and when) you do go med school do you know were? You both could end up in different places for residency and that can be hard when own a home.

 

[DisneyPhD]

DisneyPhD said "I wonder how much that house would be worth now a days. Where in Southren MI because I can't imagine a house that size for that price, even in 1986."


It was (and still is) a very SMALL town, so small it's called the Village of Galien! It was one of those places where everyone knew your business, mostly a farming community. When we sold it almost 2 years later we sold it for $55,000 to the School Superintendant! I miss Michigan, but whenever we go back it's like going back in time, not much has changed, don't think I could ever live there again.

I have never even heard of the Village of Galien. Is it east or west South MI (I went to school in K-zoo for a few years too.)

I think living in a town like that might drive me insane. The house sounded nice though.

 

[Jen D]

We are in our 30's-- not even early 30s, I'm sorry to say, and still renting. Another sky high housing market here, looking at the same price range and down payment nightmare as you, icebrat.

We can't only blame the market though. We has some debt to pay off which we did and while we paid off debt we were unable to aggressively save for that downpayment. Too busy paying stupid tax.

I would love to stay in my general neighborhood, I adore it. But to get 3 bedrooms (currently 1 yo ds and 8 yo dd are sharing a room, that's a ticking time bomb) we're easily looking at 800K.

I guess I need to look into it more but I was under the impression that around NYC they really do expect 20% down unless you qualify for some kind of low income program. I guess I'll look into it.

We'll keep saving aggressively for now and then in a year or two we'll take stock and see if we can stay, how far away we have to move, or if we should just decamp from the region altogether (tricky proposition with dh's line of work) The suburbs around here aren't much cheaper and then we'd have to get a couple cars. The nice thing now is, we aren't building equity, but we have a rent that has hardly risen in 7 years and no cars or car expenses. So we're sitting tight and trying to save the best we can.

 

[KarenC]

I bought my first home (a 1-bedroom condo) for less than $60K in 1981, when I was 22 years old.

 

[jimmalru80]

I was 25 years old and it was 22 years ago. Price was well under $100K. (About half that).

 

[stinkerbelle]

23...bought it with DBF (now DH) who was 24.
house around $125k
this was 5 years ago...we're on our second house already.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

I was 30, and we bought a 4 bedroom farmhouse for 300,000. That's about midrange here for a decent size house with some land.

Jen

 

[smallblock72]

My DW and I were 21 and purchased our 3 BDR, 1 BA for $87,000! That was in 1997.

 

[punkin]

We bought our first home in Long Island for $317.5 in 1996 at the age of 30 but my DH was working on Wall Street and I was a practicing Attorney.

Now we can't afford that neighborhood anymore.

Punkin

 

[Mishetta]

I was 25 when I bought a condo together with my Mom. We both put in half (paid cash) & that was back in 1985 in Southern California. that condo was $77,000. Then after I married, we sold it & moved to Michigan & then my Mom & I put down a hefty down payment on our new home to be built & my DH makes the payments. This home was $180,000 & we added our own extras after we closed. My Mom has since gone to live in heaven & since I'm her only child, there was no dividing up of the house. So now my DH & I own this house. He was 27 when he officially became a home owner.

You made me laugh when you wrote $800k for a starter shack....boy if that isn't true for living in CA! It's a shame that as much as we loved CA, we felt we had to leave to buy a house. I wanted to stay home to raise my own children instead of paying strangers to raise them so we basically had no choice & had to live elsewhere. No regrets & we've been in MI for 10 years now.

 

[shamrock30]

DH and I were both 29.

 

[icebrat001]

Good luck with that. School loans can be very difficult, but good if that means you get the education. (and will make more later.) If (and when) you do go med school do you know were? You both could end up in different places for residency and that can be hard when own a home.

There is a couples match program for residency, anyone can do it. I have several friends gay and straight that did the couples match and are together for residency, different fields of course and different hours, but same hospital.

 

[DisneyPhD]

There is a couples match program for residency, anyone can do it. I have several friends gay and straight that did the couples match and are together for residency, different fields of course and different hours, but same hospital.

That is a wonderful thing. Good luck with everything (the house hunting, school and the relationships! )

 

[cats7494]

DH and I bought a house in June of 2002 - so I was 29.

Good luck Icebrat!!!

 

[kimisabella]

DH and I bought our first house in 1998 when we were first engaged, we paid $150K and sold it four years later for more than double!! It was the best thing we could of done, now we're in a bigger house, better location, thank god we listened to my parents and didn't rent an apartment!! If we didn't buy when we did, there would be no way we could have afforded anything now.