Around the kids sporting events we seem to be the youngest parents, as we were 26 and 28 when the kids were born. In many ways this sets you back when comparing to those who worked professional jobs until mid to late 30’s before having kids. Of course I can still throw a fastball at 37 but my son’s friend’s 57 year old dad, cannot. He does however have a nice house, and part of that is that he avoided the expense of kids until he was well into his 40’s.

I was 21 when my first son was born, bought my first house when I was 24 (with mum’s help with 1/2 the down payment, since paid back with interest).

I can still keep up with either of my sons : )

I’m looking to gloat as well only because the Mrs. and I have been hounded for the past few years by family, friends, and realtors about not buying. Now, we can breathe a sigh of relief as that pressure is now off us. It was getting ugly there for awhile because our families could not believe that we didn’t buy earlier and were thus pressuring us to buy or else we would be priced out forever.

I never did understand how anyone could subscribe to such logic. Do they mean to suggest that you only get one shot in a lifetime to buy a house? I digress…

Anyway, the Mrs. and I always wanted kids but we both wanted to enjoy marriage first. We held off on the kids for many years so that we could travel and allow us some time to build our careers. It was a difficult balancing act because we wanted to be young enough to enjoy our kids childhood but also be mature (old) enough to have stable careers that would allow us to live comfortably (live in a nice area, save for retirement, etc.) Now that the market is “softening” it serves as validation of our discipline in not buying into the hype. I am looking forward to buying our first house in North County; we prefer the slower pace of life up here. And no I will not consider SEH because the energy bills will kill us.
“End of line.”

NCN, I see. Well, it makes sense what they did. It is extremely easy to look back at something and say what you would do, having the luxary of seeing how it all plays out. Too bad for them.

Anyone who bought since 2003/2004 deserves whatever they get. It has been obvious for a couple years now that we were on the verge of a bubble bursting. Plus, if they need to use ARM/Interest only loans just to afford the payment, then this is nothing short of gambling in hopes that appreciation will continue.

Bottom line, anyone who gets ruined from this deserves what they get. This is natural selection at work. Those of us who exercised patience and sound judgement by not purchasing real estate in the last few years will be rewarded shortly in the form of cheap houses and less traffic on the freeways.

It is funny, my wife and I were pretty much oblivious of any kind of housing bubble, peaks, valley, whatever. It was really just the last 6-8 months that I became facinated with what was happening with housing. We bought our first house back in 1992 for $89K (small cape, 1 acre, we are on the east coast). Then, in 1997, which I guess was the end of a housing valley, we sold and upgraded to a bigger house. Made a nice profit off the first house for our area, around $25K or so. Put that into the new house, 2600 sqFT walk out basement on five acres. We slammed the mortgage hard and have actually paid off this house. I must admit I listen to Dave Ramsey, rice and beans, beans and rice. It does work and gives you freedom later on. Anyway, it was just dumb luck when we bought our house that I think our area was in a housing slump. I watched the house we ended up buying. It was a new home built by a rather new builder. His first big house and I think he had stretched his finances. The asking price was $180K. My wife and I talked and said what the heck, lets low ball the price. The house had been sitting for a year since the inital building permit (they start selling them ASAP), though it was really completely finished for only about two months. We offered $145k. The realtor told us it was an insult to the seller. I said what do I care. I don’t live with the seller and the seller isn’t paying my mortgage. The realtor submitted the contract and it came back at $155k. We were like, hey, maybe we will buy this home. So we countered with $155K and the seller (builder) pays closing costs. The realtor is like “the seller doesn’t pay closing costs at this level of home”. Again, I tell the realtor, what do I care. If they want to sell this home, they got to dance. The builder, hungry I guess, accepts our contract and we have been here ever since, happy as larks. I work with someone that wants to buy a new home, upgrade from where they live. The realtors have been taking them around, showing things. A year ago the realtors were telling my friend to hurry up, multiple contracts were on the house and he needed to bid up. He was like “no way, that is dumb. I’ll wait a while and see how it all plays out.” He was smart to wait. The people that have bid up homes because they just HAD to have it, I think are really stupid. They brought a lot of these high prices on themselves.