I agree with all of the advice above, and I’ll add my two cents.
I’m 27. I always thought I’d own a home by now- I wanted to do it on my own before getting married- striving to be an “independent woman” I suppose. But it just hasn’t worked out that way. By the time I was ready to buy a couple of years ago, prices were already out of control. So I’ve happily remained a renter. There was a point about a year ago when I got a little stir crazy and started to question whether the market would ever cool off. But I came back to my senses and realized I was a lot happier enjoying my life and saving for the future instead of stretching to purchase a home I couldn’t afford.
There’s plenty of hard data supporting that we are indeed experiencing a housing bubble in Southern California, and as a finance junkie, I love analyzing it. But the way I first knew about the bubble was not through this analysis, but by realizing that even with a relatively healthy income and savings account, I could not comfortably afford a 2 bedroom condo (and maybe not even a 1 bedroom, depending on the neighborhood). If someone like me is not able to afford a condo like this, than who is going to buy it? An investor when the rent can’t cover his carrying costs? That may have happened for a while, but it’s just not sustainable.
Housing prices are cyclical. Hang in there, and you’ll be happy you did. Enjoy being 24. You have a lot of time to be a homeowner.
