Yea I was just talking to an engineering colleague yesterday who bought a house in 2002 about the same time I did, he paid 400K I paid about 300K, we both agreed that (even though we could not even buy a condo for that now) it seemed so expensive at the time (Maybe it was).
Actually I find the following pretty amusing about two ex-coworkers. 1) I had this single coworker in his 40ies. Everyday, he would bitch about how expensive real estate is. He would bitch about how it's so unfair. Bitch about it's so stupid to ever own. And apparently he has been bitching for the past 11 years. He's been in San Diego for about about 6 years and 5 years before that in Bay Area. He never bought, because every year he said it was just "too expensive". He could never "justify" the expense, too expensive etc. Now the guy was a tech worker paid fairly well, so I couldn't understand why he would be complaining about this for the past 11 years. As the story unwound, he basically had the criteria that he "needed " a 4 bedroom place, and rented over the past 11 years for about $2000 /month. Hence, we wasn't going to settle for anything less on his first home purchase.
Now, I couldn't understand this (1) why did he rent that long (2) why the hell, being single, did he "need" such a big place. I asked why he couldn't have just purchased something like a 1-2 bedroom condo initially that's somewhat more affordable, and gradually move up. It's not ideal, but at least you're not throwing away $200k to a landlord with nothing to show for in the end. He basically "couldn't" live in a smaller place, because he "needed" one room just to house his CD/DVD collection. I kid you not. This guy bragged he spent over $50,000 on CD/DVDs etc. And judging by his other purchases he made, he had a lot of other crap he needed to cram into that 4 bedroom house…Of course, he also complains about he hasn't been able to "save" enough for a downpayment because he isn't paid enough.
2) This other coworker (young guy) mentioned about how he's going to wait to buy a house because it's too expensive. He and his wife is going to "save" and wait for house prices to fall in 3-4 years to purchase their first home. Honorable. since I can see home prices falling..But the next week, he came into the office and talked to me about getting things for his expecting baby. Over the weekend, the guy and his wife ended up spending close to $3000 on baby furniture, because they felt the must have "the best quality". His wife decided to spend hundreds more buying supplimented breast milk (yuck) because formula isn't good enough. Now for you single people that don't know, there absolutely isn't any reason why a crib,dresser,and craddle should run over $800 for the budget minded folks. And why the hell would someone buy supplimented breast milk (besides it being gross) when there's no medical need for it.
In either case, both ended up pissing away their money on other things and probably won’t have the means to ever purchase.
I’m not saying all renters are like this, because obviously so many of you piggingtons were previously owners and are probably sitting on the sideline from an opportunity perspective.
But I have to say, I’ve seen plenty of #1 and #2’s above who mask their own poor planning and money management in the past in the sheep skin of believing they were “smart” for have rented so long. And I would fathom type #1 and type #2 won’t have the means to afford a place even when things become cheap(er). Because even if they had taken a risk and dumped money into what they thought was a depreciating asset ( I would argue your primary home is a liability, not an asset), it probably would have been better than them leaving the money around and dumping it into other intangible things that have nothing to show for. Folks in my office that are lower rank than me and paid less than me, for example, drive more expensive cars than me. And the common thing I hear is , “well I can’t afford real estate anyway, I might as well buy a nice car”…..I’ve noticed that often, when people have money on the table, they end up spending it on crap they don’t need. They won’t be ready even when houses are affordable again.
…..I just hope none of you piggingtons fall into either of these categories.
