[quote=briansd1]DWCAP, congratulations. I’m impressed. Great advice.
I’m embarrassed to say that I was not that financially responsible in my 20s. I was lucky more than hardworking.
If everyone was as financially responsible as you, housing prices would be cheaper and the industry would be hurting. [/quote]
Thanks, but the point wasnt to toot my own horn. It was to show it can be done. We got low rent cause we were lucky, and cause I agreed to do all the yard work if he supplied all the equipment. It is cheaper, and I get a taste of what homeownership is really like. It has changed our target house some too by forcing us to look at what we really wanted, instead of what we thought we did. I never realized how important the sunset was to me, till we moved into a house that you cant see it from. Weird, but true. I think a rental house is a better stepping stone than a condo is. Learning to ‘talk the talk’ before learning to ‘walk the walk’ as it goes.
And I think industry would be in a much better place if people were alittle more nuts like me. This constant bubble/bust economy isnt doing anyone any favors.
[quote=briansd1]A friend of mine just bought a house for $250,000 just because he could do a no-down VA loan; and where he lives, buying is cheaper than rent.
The broker kept on telling him that he can afford much more. You’d be surprised how people buy the very maximum they qualify for, resorting to exotic loans, piggy back 2nd mortgages and the like. Even people who didn’t have down payments would rig up gift letters and borrow money from relatives to pad their bank accounts.
That was all fine during the bubble years, but no more.[/quote]
I am glad for your friend, but it doesnt suprise me people are dumb. We currently value RE based on what the most agressive buyer can qualify for. That would be fine and dandy if we took what they can REALLY afford into account (including savings, retirment planning, children, etc etc). But we don’t. Hell in the bubble we didnt even take this into account. It was just ‘have a job, have a loan…’
I really think the reason we have not corrected to even lower/more affordable levels is because the GOV stepped in and changed what people could qualify for. New conforming limits, manipulated interest rates, tax rebates for DP, the alphabet soup of HAMP/HARP/TARP etc etc. All designed to get the most aggerssive buyers, also read emotional and/or desperate, back into the game. It is a sick game, designed to reward those who did not earn it at the expense of those who did, or those not in the game yet.
So my advice to the OP is not to pay that game. We have seen where it goes, and it is not happy. There is a reason they call it the old fashioned way, cause it works and people keep doing it. It sucks at times, isnt easy, and takes time but if done right could get him into his starter house by the time his kid is born, instead of by the time his kid is old enough to need the room.
And Brian, Id take lucky over responsible any day. Sadly, I am not a lucky person. (Said as I rub my left knee which is all banged up from soccer last night)
