[quote=poorgradstudent]If living in Temecula is a reasonable option for you, by all means, live in Temecula.
You’re right that tons of people live above their means. In my marriage I’m the one who constantly reminds my wife that we can’t afford things.
There *is* something to be said for having fun and enjoying life in your 20s with a few frivolous vacations. It sounds like you’re not married and don’t have kids yet. Enjooooy it wile you caaaaaaan (he says in a spooky ghost voice).
Prices are high right now. It’s probably a good idea to keep renting.[/quote]
I would assume most of us put 20% down when we bought? We actually put more than that since we were self employed and qualifying was hard back then. I think in this market, as a single person, you may think 250k is a lot, but there is a lot of money out there and some people also have family money so you are competing with those folks too. There is just too little supply and rentals are insanely pricey.
I agree with most of flu posts as well. I don’t even know why you’d want to buy a house, maybe your rent is high, but assuming you are single with no kids, who cares what area you really live in? When I was single, I always lived in the dumpiest places since safety is not as big of a concern for a guy and I suppose I didn’t “care” that much what other people thought about me.
I suppose to impress the ladies, you don’t want to live in a crappy place or live in a “bad area” perhaps or want own a place since that looks good when you are out competing with all the other rich guys out there with just as much money or houses or jobs.
pgs, like you, my wife and I think women in general just need to spend more money overall compared to men.
Like it was posted before, I think men just simply stop caring as much on appearances so in most studies, I think men tend to save a lot more money than women.
If I was in the OP positions, just keep socking away the bucks while you can since saving money is far far easier without kids/single/etc…
Just enjoy a little as well and try not to be too upset about what other people save/housing.
A good thing with a bigger down payment though is your payment is prob a lot lower and with how our loans are set, we’re over 50% equity now I think and our mortgage will drop to like 2k/month soon when rentals are 4k in the area.
Makes cash flow much better for us and stable housing costs too.
Course, we have kids so aren’t moving anytime soon.
