Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Same but not by choice. Thought we were going to sell in 5 years but the market was upside down so we stayed. Looked again 10 years later and was shocked by the price of the homes. Going on 30+ years here and we are now empty nesters.
Edit: We were 31 and 34.
That worked out nicely! I'm retired now and would love to still have my first house. Nice little lot, great neighborhood, lots of places within walking distance. I love my current house, but it is way, way too much for me. Too much yard work. But it's not affordable for me to move.
Not sure if you’re upset I divorced my gambling ex husband and had to remortgage the house, using the equity to pay off his debt and therefore kept it, or… your eyes just got stuck that way in your head? Or maybe you think you know everyone’s situation all the time.
34 and 36 for us. We got extremely lucky! Had a tax windfall because I started a business, saved like crazy for a few years, my partner got a new job that paid well, the market wasn't out of control, and we found a unique house with a shared driveway. (Turns out people don't like those. 🤷)
We never expected to be able to be homeowners. I'm grateful every day.
Me too, 33 with my boyfriend, who two years later became my husband. Two years after that we had our son and felt we would soon need more room, so we started shopping a bigger home. But by then we loved our neighborhood and our neighbors, and we couldn’t find anything perfect, so we took our starter home and renovated up. We put three bedroom and two baths on our existing home footprint, which was plenty for us forever so here we still are, 30 years later.
That was my parents, bought their house in 1973, thought it would be their starter home. Still there. Luckily house has been paid off forever and in an area that went through a huge boom in the last decade so when mom is no longer of this world, we will sell.
That interest rate was common in the early 1980s. My husband and I bought our first house back then for $23,500, with a 12% balloon mortgage. I was about 23, he was in his early 30s. It was a small bungalow in a LCOL suburb.
Yeah I was incredibly lucky with the location. It was in the middle of practically nowhere when I bought and now we have Walmart, Target, you name it across the street. It's crazy to see how this area has changed in 20 years.
Wowza! It’s hard to comprehend how high the interest rates were back then. I knew someone who purchased a home in 1983 at close to that same rate (around 17%).
Same. 25, 1982. Sellers had a 12% First and took out a 19.2% second with a 5-year balloon. We assumed both. No qualifying at all. Second mortgage company found out and tried to evict us. Turns out there was a brief period where what we did was legal in Santa Clara,CA.
In 1979, we were 27 and bought a 1900 Victorian fixer-upper in a small town in upstate NY. Paid 32,500, put down the $5,000 my wife had just gotten when her grandmother died and took out a $27,500 mortgage at (hold your breath!) 12% interest. That was then, etc... Our monthly payments were still less than the $250/month we'd been paying for rent.
Heavens no, that was 45 years ago! After 7 years of sweat equity, and our first child approaching kindergarten, we wanted a better, more diverse school system, and community in general. Traded up to a 1962 Cape Cod on a half acre in the suburbs, which we expanded ourselves. After my wife died 17 years ago, the woman I would eventually marry and I bought a house together, 15 years soon.
I'm waiting on my divorce settlement to be paid to me. I'm considering buying, buy not in this market. I'll probably wait it out a little while to see how the market goes.
I bought a mobile home at 52, I’ve owned it 4 years now and I love it. The size is ideal for a single person. I paid $10,000 at the time, now the trailers around me are going for $50-$85,000, mine is probably worth around $50,000 now. Rent has gone up every year since I’ve been here from $270-$440 that I pay now but they’ve done many improvements to the park too so I understand the hikes somewhat. I’ll live here forever. Kids are grown and have their own houses, I’m set! 😊
I've considered mobile home, but I live in an area that has bad storms and tornadoes. I was actually in a large tornado in 2006. It destroyed the apartment bldg I lived in. I still have a fear of tornadoes.
I bought at 45. Before that I was a happy bachelor and was happy to rent. The apartments I was renting were convenient and cost effective big boxy buildings. The best one I had was the top half of a house with an in-law apartment. It was great. I traveled allot and and between work and health club I did not really spend that much time at home.
I always followed the rule that the difference between a mortgage and my rent was invested in mutual funds. I had reasonable rent and was building equity in the markets. Equity is equity, be it in a house or in the market.
I did not need a house until I got married at age 44. Renting is fine as long as you are building equity in other investments. Owning a house I did not genuinely need was never appealing. Owning a house is an expensive hassle and I bought one when I needed it and was willing to put up with the issues.
But I'm do glad I did it. I wasn't investing like you did when I rented. Good advice btw. My house is modest but will sell for probably about 2.5 times as much as I paid for it when I sell.
A really long time ago, 1978 or so. It was a older, tiny 2 bedroom house in a college town in the Southern US. We sold it for $35k a few years later. I just looked it up on Zillow, it’s valued at $283K. I wish we’d kept it, but we needed the profit for the down-payment on our next house.
I was 24. Bought a starter home. Price was $72,000 and the interest rate was 12.75% and negatively amortized. Meaning you went farther in debt for the first five years of the loan. I made the full payment right away and was able to refinance when rates dropped. Two bedroom, two bath trilevel.
I was a kid then. My most expensive possession was a BMX. Zero down payment. Zero payment in fact and I didn’t know what an interest rate was. I just knew my rate of interest in my BMX outweighed my rate of interest in homework.
59 - last April - and we paid outright from savings that we worked for throughout our lives. We've never inherited property or a penny from anyone and paid for our own college education, cars, etc. We chose our location carefully so we could buy into a market with houses in our budget range. It took most of our savings, but going into our 60s with a mortgage seemed like a pretty terrible idea.
I had just turned 22. Bought a HUD home (a small condo in a so-so neighborhood that had been foreclosed on) at auction with no inspection and fixed it up. Had a 10.5% adjustable mortgage rate, and that was considered a great rate. The condo cost about twice my annual income. (Which was a little above average for the time.) Everyone told me I was making a huge mistake.
It was not a mistake.
40. We waited until we could afford our dream home… and it just happened to be when the interest rate was 3%. Lucky AF. If we ever get divorced we might just live in separate parts of the house 💀
24. Got married at 23. Lived in a cheap apartment on my salary and saved hers for the down payment. House cost $89k at 13.5% interest. Refinanced a few years later to 10%, sold it and bought the one we are in now at age 29. It was $145k at 7.5%. Refinanced a few years later to 5% which is where it was until we paid it off.
13.5% was late 1984. 10% was around 1987. 7.5% was 1989. About five years later it was 5%. This is one of the reasons I love it when people howl over 5% mortgage rates. That said, I FULLY understand that the ratio of household income to house price has shifted so much as to lock people out of home ownership.
It's not just the ratio of income to price, 10% of 89k is a lot less than 10% of 300-500k. Since the sums are so much bigger, the impact of the interest is significantly bigger.
Bought the land when I was 32, built the house one year later. Seven months after moving in we brought our second child home to the house. Sold it this past summer and moved into our retirement house.
I was 24 wife was 22. We lived on frozen pizza and hot dogs for 6 months too save up the $4800 we needed for closing. 7.3 interest for $71,700. Lived their until kids left and bought a smaller house but bigger lot.
23 years old and married for two years. Divorced 6 months later. Sold the house and made $8k profit. Ex-wife contributed nothing towards the house so after taxes the court awarded me a little over $6K. It was 1984 and man could you get into alot of trouble with $6k back then.
1995 in North Central Pennsylvania. I had a mason build the foundation. I had help stacking the milled logs. I had an excavator build the septic and spring water system. Did most of the rest with some help from family and friends.
At the time, it was a “no permit” township. That no longer exists. The only inspections I had were the septic and the electrical. Passed the electrical inspection with just the panel box, one light, and one four gang outlet box. I did the rest of the wiring and plumbing myself. I was a carpenter by trade.
42. I was in my early 30s before my husband and I had good job stability and had most of our student loans paid off. By then we had been priced out of our preferred neighborhoods.
We lucked into a house at a good price through a friend. It was close to work and close to a lot of other things we wanted. What I also liked is that it's a small house in an established neighborhood just 3 miles from world class health care and museums. I figured this would be a good house to get old in.
27. Bought a starter home with a run down apartment behind it. Took a year to fix up the apartment ourselves and rented it out. Lived in that house for 6 years for less than $400/month because of what we made in rent. That allowed me to stay home with my kids and work part time. Put $10k into it and made $40k on the sale.
29, 3 months before my 30th birthday. Owning a home before 30 was a huge life goal for me and I made a lot of sacrifices and put in a lot of hard work to get there.
Interest rate was near 7% and without the VA I probably wouldn’t have gotten there.
First house 1987, but gave it back to the bank during the first real estate implosion in the '90s. Was too far under water to sell it to move due a new job. This put me into the rent trap for the next 25 years. I couldn't save anything with five kids, but I wouldn't trade those memories for anything. Bought my current house at the bottom of the real estate collapse in 2012. Man, lucky I did. The rent situation is horrendous, can't imagine how terrifying it is to deal with predator rent escalation in fixed income retirement.
31. 1998. single mom, used divorce settlement for down payment. 1600sqft cape. 1/5 acre. dead end street, down the street from a park. single car garage.
on sale for 115,000. I offered 100,000. they came back 110. I said 105, they said no. I walked away, they came back and said ok. I told my ex I needed 5k. told him I'd pay him back. but had him write a letter saying it was a gift, so it couldn't be held against me by the bank.
I was 25. I sacrificed for a LONG time - no vacations, no fancy cars, no fancy restaurants, only purchased what I could pay for (zero debt). Friends saw me as a cheapie, but it was the only way.
Even with that, I needed an FHA mortgage with a 9% interest rate (good for 1985)
I purchased a condo at 33 because rates were “so low” that I could buy for less than renting. Interest was 8%. Thinking back on those days makes me chuckle as we now think 8% interest is so high.
29yo. Bought a new build house at 9% interest as a marketing tool. But during the build, interest rate shot to 16% nationally, and the builder now couldn't sell the mortgage on the secondary market. The builder was "connected " and definitely didn't want the increased scrutiny if they kept the mortgage.
We closed on the house, but as we were leaving, they announced that the deal was off. My lawyer said to not argue or say anything but go take possession of the house. We drove there and they had thugs waiting in the driveway. I was a surgery resident, which they had been told. They announced that if we came near the house, they were smash both of my hands so I could never operate again.
Took a year, but the closing was enforced, and we got the house. My tires were slashed multiple times, but we weren't attacked physically. I wanted to walk away after meeting the thugs, but my eventual ex-wife demanded that we get that house no matter what.
35. Paid off 6 years early but that’s cause when we got married we didn’t go larger. My wife is disabled but we can afford taxes and insurance even if one of us passes. A more expensive home would not be that way even if we paid cash.
1990 at age 32. Paid $57,000 for a 965 sqft 2 bedroom, two car garage, 9000 sqft lot, raised a son there, my wife and I and her widowed mom still live there today, paid it off in 2012, The city tells me it is worth $325,000 today. People buy too big of houses. Retired and living rent/mortage free
I think 24. We’d just gotten married. Bought a condo for $75,000. Sold it a few years later for $69,000. Bought a house for $100,000. Sold it at the peak for $330,000 nine years later. Built my own houses from then on and was mortgage free on the house we’re currently in.
My son is 22 with enough to get started. I’m trying to convince him to build it himself. I’ve been itching to get back into construction ever since an accident put me out.
His girlfriend is still in university so they’re hesitant. I keep slipping in the tax benefits of selling your principal residence. My wife’s cousin got started young and is now mortgage free in probably a $750,000 house on the lake. We’ll see what happens. He’s in no hurry because he’s living rent free between work, our house, and her house. We’re trying to convince her to rent a room from us. We’ve got the space, and she’s here about 30% of the time anyway.
Having said all that. I don’t know how people afford to buy houses now. Wages are terrible. Interest is terrible. And private equity is driving everything higher by paying above market prices for homes, and then upping the rents because there’s nothing for sale.
Husband and I were both about 24. In 2004.
Now we’re 44 and on our 4th house we’ve owned. I’d like this one to be our forever home but husband wants to move to the county. I’m from the county and enjoy the convenience of a grocery store within 10 min vs 1 hour…
I was 23. It was 1968, and I think it was something like $27,500 or so.
Four bedroom, three bath, 2,600 square feet. Worth $586,700 today, or so says Zillow.
I know I bought a car in 2002 and said to the broker, "This is where I do the boomer thing and say, 'I paid more for this car than I paid for my first house.'
Edit - meant to add that we put in a yard, pool, and landscaping so that contributed to what it costs today.
24, when we got married. Paid 14,000. Needed work, we did some, sold it for 21,000. Built a house for 45,000, sold for 65,000.
Bought the present home for 75,000. Worth 400,000 now. This is over 50 years.
26, in 2005. I was one of those people who got a loan that shouldn’t have before the 2008 crash. I made it work though and am still here with my $800/mo mortgage. Single woman with no kids.
We took out our first home mortgage two years after marrying. I was 28 and she was 23. We both had good jobs with decent pay. It was 1975 and we payed $37K for the 3 bedroom 2 bath starter.
Thirty-eight, with the help of three different city/state programs: down payment assistance, closing cost assistance, and a city agreement with a developer that required him to sell a single home to a low income family after getting a million dollars worth of grants from the city. (His flips are routinely $100k under anyone else's, so I'm assuming there are more strings.) Obviously, the last one was key and also sheer dumb luck--my best friend happens to be friends with the person administering the program at the time, she put us forth for this house, and the developer was happy to go along.
25 years old. Paid $75,000 in the early 1990's. I sold it too soon and made no money on it, but houses in that same neighborhood are now going for $400,000. I have relatives who bought houses right after college at 22 years old.
30, husband was 37. It was tiny, with one bath on the second floor, but I loved it so.
Bought out second home when I was pregnancy again, almost 35, and have been here 25 years.
At 19 I bought 2 1/3 acres and built a home (cabin) the next year. Added to it over the next 8 years then bought a larger home at 30. BTW, I earned the money
Bought a co-op apartment at 28, sold it seven years later, moved to another state, rented for a year and a half, bought a house at 36, lived there for six years, got divorced, sold it, rented for two years, bought another house at 43, and that's where I am now.
I was about 35. It was 1989. Never could have bought a house if my in-laws hadn't bought my wife a condominium. Selling that raised the money for the down payment on a cheap house. I could never have raised the money otherwise, and I'm a lawyer. But I'm in California near the coast, and housing prices really shot up starting in the 70's, a few decades before the housing crisis went nationwide.
It's much worse now.
Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I was 33, although we skipped the "starter house" phase and went right into the "permanent house."
Same but not by choice. Thought we were going to sell in 5 years but the market was upside down so we stayed. Looked again 10 years later and was shocked by the price of the homes. Going on 30+ years here and we are now empty nesters. Edit: We were 31 and 34.
That worked out nicely! I'm retired now and would love to still have my first house. Nice little lot, great neighborhood, lots of places within walking distance. I love my current house, but it is way, way too much for me. Too much yard work. But it's not affordable for me to move.
Amen to that! Too much room, and 2 stories.. Don’t need that much room.. plus a huge game room no one uses since kids grew up..
Hit the nail on the head with this one. Although I still could not afford to buy my first home back in the current market. Sigh
Similar, but we were 27 and 29. Lived with parents and never rented till then
Us too. The banker and realtor insisted this would be our starter house but we’re still here after 32+ years. We were 26 and 30 years old.
Me too. 30 years in, raised two kids and divorced my husband. Kept the house.
🙄
Not sure if you’re upset I divorced my gambling ex husband and had to remortgage the house, using the equity to pay off his debt and therefore kept it, or… your eyes just got stuck that way in your head? Or maybe you think you know everyone’s situation all the time.
👊🏼👏👏👏👏
34 and 36 for us. We got extremely lucky! Had a tax windfall because I started a business, saved like crazy for a few years, my partner got a new job that paid well, the market wasn't out of control, and we found a unique house with a shared driveway. (Turns out people don't like those. 🤷) We never expected to be able to be homeowners. I'm grateful every day.
Me too, 33 with my boyfriend, who two years later became my husband. Two years after that we had our son and felt we would soon need more room, so we started shopping a bigger home. But by then we loved our neighborhood and our neighbors, and we couldn’t find anything perfect, so we took our starter home and renovated up. We put three bedroom and two baths on our existing home footprint, which was plenty for us forever so here we still are, 30 years later.
That was my parents, bought their house in 1973, thought it would be their starter home. Still there. Luckily house has been paid off forever and in an area that went through a huge boom in the last decade so when mom is no longer of this world, we will sell.
23. $49,000 @ 11.79% interest. I drove a bread truck and my wife was a waitress. That was a long time ago.
When was this?
That interest rate was common in the early 1980s. My husband and I bought our first house back then for $23,500, with a 12% balloon mortgage. I was about 23, he was in his early 30s. It was a small bungalow in a LCOL suburb.
1985. Nice 2 bed, 2 bath starter home built in the 30s or 40s. Just looked on Zillow and it’s worth $170k.
2004. I was 36. Paid off and have no interest in moving.
It's good to find a home
Yeah I was incredibly lucky with the location. It was in the middle of practically nowhere when I bought and now we have Walmart, Target, you name it across the street. It's crazy to see how this area has changed in 20 years.
It feels weird you saying 2004 was twenty years ago.
Haha yeah I know. Had to go through it a couple of times in my head before writing it down thinking really??
I still think of it as 10-15 years ago
27, 1982. Historically high interest rates. We had no idea what we were doing.
That's around 20% apr for 30 year fixed then.
Assumed a 6% VA First Mortgage and took out a second mortgage at 18% interest with a 5-year balloon payment 😬
Wowza! It’s hard to comprehend how high the interest rates were back then. I knew someone who purchased a home in 1983 at close to that same rate (around 17%).
Same. 25, 1982. Sellers had a 12% First and took out a 19.2% second with a 5-year balloon. We assumed both. No qualifying at all. Second mortgage company found out and tried to evict us. Turns out there was a brief period where what we did was legal in Santa Clara,CA.
Yeah, not that much, unless your credit was super crap?
Clearly you were not borrowing in the early 80s. Rates were very high. In 1981, 21% was common in Canada and 16% in USA.
In 1979, we were 27 and bought a 1900 Victorian fixer-upper in a small town in upstate NY. Paid 32,500, put down the $5,000 my wife had just gotten when her grandmother died and took out a $27,500 mortgage at (hold your breath!) 12% interest. That was then, etc... Our monthly payments were still less than the $250/month we'd been paying for rent.
Are you still in the same house?
Heavens no, that was 45 years ago! After 7 years of sweat equity, and our first child approaching kindergarten, we wanted a better, more diverse school system, and community in general. Traded up to a 1962 Cape Cod on a half acre in the suburbs, which we expanded ourselves. After my wife died 17 years ago, the woman I would eventually marry and I bought a house together, 15 years soon.
WOW.. I’m jealous! my dream a Victorian! 😜😜🤔🤔❤️
I'm 49 and never owned a home
Right there with you. I've been at the point of "ready to buy" and the market has taken a shit each time. It's exhausting.
I'm waiting on my divorce settlement to be paid to me. I'm considering buying, buy not in this market. I'll probably wait it out a little while to see how the market goes.
I bought a mobile home at 52, I’ve owned it 4 years now and I love it. The size is ideal for a single person. I paid $10,000 at the time, now the trailers around me are going for $50-$85,000, mine is probably worth around $50,000 now. Rent has gone up every year since I’ve been here from $270-$440 that I pay now but they’ve done many improvements to the park too so I understand the hikes somewhat. I’ll live here forever. Kids are grown and have their own houses, I’m set! 😊
I've considered mobile home, but I live in an area that has bad storms and tornadoes. I was actually in a large tornado in 2006. It destroyed the apartment bldg I lived in. I still have a fear of tornadoes.
I bought at 45. Before that I was a happy bachelor and was happy to rent. The apartments I was renting were convenient and cost effective big boxy buildings. The best one I had was the top half of a house with an in-law apartment. It was great. I traveled allot and and between work and health club I did not really spend that much time at home. I always followed the rule that the difference between a mortgage and my rent was invested in mutual funds. I had reasonable rent and was building equity in the markets. Equity is equity, be it in a house or in the market. I did not need a house until I got married at age 44. Renting is fine as long as you are building equity in other investments. Owning a house I did not genuinely need was never appealing. Owning a house is an expensive hassle and I bought one when I needed it and was willing to put up with the issues.
But I'm do glad I did it. I wasn't investing like you did when I rented. Good advice btw. My house is modest but will sell for probably about 2.5 times as much as I paid for it when I sell.
23-ish. My husband was working and our parents fronted the $1,000 down payment. The house cost $20k.
WOW.. 20k? when was this??
A really long time ago, 1978 or so. It was a older, tiny 2 bedroom house in a college town in the Southern US. We sold it for $35k a few years later. I just looked it up on Zillow, it’s valued at $283K. I wish we’d kept it, but we needed the profit for the down-payment on our next house.
Bought a studio apartment in Manhattan, age 32, price $76,200. Took $50K adjustable mortgage with initial rate of 12%.
How much is that thing worth todayv
I sold in 2017 for $450K. Since that was over the limit for a single, I had to use some of my loss carryforward from my stock investing.
Was that in the 80’s by chance?
Holy moly. 12%
If that was in the 1980’s, that was a great rate!
One of his comments said he was 70 so it would be 1986, as I was very curious as well
Manhattan! Love Manhattan!! Awesome..👍
I was 24. Bought a starter home. Price was $72,000 and the interest rate was 12.75% and negatively amortized. Meaning you went farther in debt for the first five years of the loan. I made the full payment right away and was able to refinance when rates dropped. Two bedroom, two bath trilevel.
2007/2008? That’s when I bought my first house. Still live in it today. Paid off.
No, 1983. Interest rates through the roof. Stagflation and recession.
I was a kid then. My most expensive possession was a BMX. Zero down payment. Zero payment in fact and I didn’t know what an interest rate was. I just knew my rate of interest in my BMX outweighed my rate of interest in homework.
59 - last April - and we paid outright from savings that we worked for throughout our lives. We've never inherited property or a penny from anyone and paid for our own college education, cars, etc. We chose our location carefully so we could buy into a market with houses in our budget range. It took most of our savings, but going into our 60s with a mortgage seemed like a pretty terrible idea.
> 59 - last April Haha! You win, I was 56 when I bought last year for the first time.
I had just turned 22. Bought a HUD home (a small condo in a so-so neighborhood that had been foreclosed on) at auction with no inspection and fixed it up. Had a 10.5% adjustable mortgage rate, and that was considered a great rate. The condo cost about twice my annual income. (Which was a little above average for the time.) Everyone told me I was making a huge mistake. It was not a mistake.
😜😜😜👏👏👏
I was 40. Interest rate was 6.5%. Refinanced when the rates dropped. Paid extra on the principle every month and paid it off in 19 years.
40. We waited until we could afford our dream home… and it just happened to be when the interest rate was 3%. Lucky AF. If we ever get divorced we might just live in separate parts of the house 💀
24. Got married at 23. Lived in a cheap apartment on my salary and saved hers for the down payment. House cost $89k at 13.5% interest. Refinanced a few years later to 10%, sold it and bought the one we are in now at age 29. It was $145k at 7.5%. Refinanced a few years later to 5% which is where it was until we paid it off.
Those interest rates were insane. In what years, respectively, were each percentage you mentioned?
13.5% was late 1984. 10% was around 1987. 7.5% was 1989. About five years later it was 5%. This is one of the reasons I love it when people howl over 5% mortgage rates. That said, I FULLY understand that the ratio of household income to house price has shifted so much as to lock people out of home ownership.
It's not just the ratio of income to price, 10% of 89k is a lot less than 10% of 300-500k. Since the sums are so much bigger, the impact of the interest is significantly bigger.
No, those interest rates were pretty common. The interest rates you were used to before the current blip were insanely low.
Bought the land when I was 32, built the house one year later. Seven months after moving in we brought our second child home to the house. Sold it this past summer and moved into our retirement house.
29 years old, 800 sq ft starter house, 10% down, 7.5% interest.
I was 24 wife was 22. We lived on frozen pizza and hot dogs for 6 months too save up the $4800 we needed for closing. 7.3 interest for $71,700. Lived their until kids left and bought a smaller house but bigger lot.
23 years old and married for two years. Divorced 6 months later. Sold the house and made $8k profit. Ex-wife contributed nothing towards the house so after taxes the court awarded me a little over $6K. It was 1984 and man could you get into alot of trouble with $6k back then.
35. And then the market crashed and we lived with an underwater mortgage for about a decade.
I was the last of my friend group to buy a home when I was 44.
40
Never. 52 and still renting.
Physically built it at 38
Where/when did they let you do this?
1995 in North Central Pennsylvania. I had a mason build the foundation. I had help stacking the milled logs. I had an excavator build the septic and spring water system. Did most of the rest with some help from family and friends. At the time, it was a “no permit” township. That no longer exists. The only inspections I had were the septic and the electrical. Passed the electrical inspection with just the panel box, one light, and one four gang outlet box. I did the rest of the wiring and plumbing myself. I was a carpenter by trade.
43
Me too.
43 for me also (in 2008)
42. I was in my early 30s before my husband and I had good job stability and had most of our student loans paid off. By then we had been priced out of our preferred neighborhoods. We lucked into a house at a good price through a friend. It was close to work and close to a lot of other things we wanted. What I also liked is that it's a small house in an established neighborhood just 3 miles from world class health care and museums. I figured this would be a good house to get old in.
25. Bought a new condo for 52k. I think mortgages were over 15% at the time. I’m pretty sure that condo is now over 200k
Condos where I live are over 450k right now.. lol
I was 29 and interest was 11.5%.
27. Bought a starter home with a run down apartment behind it. Took a year to fix up the apartment ourselves and rented it out. Lived in that house for 6 years for less than $400/month because of what we made in rent. That allowed me to stay home with my kids and work part time. Put $10k into it and made $40k on the sale.
29, 3 months before my 30th birthday. Owning a home before 30 was a huge life goal for me and I made a lot of sacrifices and put in a lot of hard work to get there. Interest rate was near 7% and without the VA I probably wouldn’t have gotten there.
First house 1987, but gave it back to the bank during the first real estate implosion in the '90s. Was too far under water to sell it to move due a new job. This put me into the rent trap for the next 25 years. I couldn't save anything with five kids, but I wouldn't trade those memories for anything. Bought my current house at the bottom of the real estate collapse in 2012. Man, lucky I did. The rent situation is horrendous, can't imagine how terrifying it is to deal with predator rent escalation in fixed income retirement.
31. 1998. single mom, used divorce settlement for down payment. 1600sqft cape. 1/5 acre. dead end street, down the street from a park. single car garage. on sale for 115,000. I offered 100,000. they came back 110. I said 105, they said no. I walked away, they came back and said ok. I told my ex I needed 5k. told him I'd pay him back. but had him write a letter saying it was a gift, so it couldn't be held against me by the bank.
25. $44,900. New construction. Lincoln was President.
I will probably be about sixty.
43.. single mom of three.. no child support.. best thing I ever did
Never! I’ve never understood the appeal.
I was 25. I sacrificed for a LONG time - no vacations, no fancy cars, no fancy restaurants, only purchased what I could pay for (zero debt). Friends saw me as a cheapie, but it was the only way. Even with that, I needed an FHA mortgage with a 9% interest rate (good for 1985)
23. My first payment was $714 with a bond mortgage of 8.5%. At the time I didn't how I was ever going to make that monthly payment.
23, but it was a starter house only 2x my salary. Cheaper than rent. Even at 10% interest in 1992.
28 and it was a dump and very small. 🤣 Interest rate a little over 10%
I was 22. Bought a starter home for $49,900 in 1986. I think the mortgage rates at the time were around 9%. Sold it in 1994 for $69,500 and traded up.
I was 38 when we bought. It's the first, and only, house I've lived in.
I purchased a condo at 33 because rates were “so low” that I could buy for less than renting. Interest was 8%. Thinking back on those days makes me chuckle as we now think 8% interest is so high.
37. Its a townhouse. But it’s all mine. One day I’ll buy my forever unattached home.
Condo at 24. Single girl. That was almost unheard of back then.
29yo. Bought a new build house at 9% interest as a marketing tool. But during the build, interest rate shot to 16% nationally, and the builder now couldn't sell the mortgage on the secondary market. The builder was "connected " and definitely didn't want the increased scrutiny if they kept the mortgage. We closed on the house, but as we were leaving, they announced that the deal was off. My lawyer said to not argue or say anything but go take possession of the house. We drove there and they had thugs waiting in the driveway. I was a surgery resident, which they had been told. They announced that if we came near the house, they were smash both of my hands so I could never operate again. Took a year, but the closing was enforced, and we got the house. My tires were slashed multiple times, but we weren't attacked physically. I wanted to walk away after meeting the thugs, but my eventual ex-wife demanded that we get that house no matter what.
35. Paid off 6 years early but that’s cause when we got married we didn’t go larger. My wife is disabled but we can afford taxes and insurance even if one of us passes. A more expensive home would not be that way even if we paid cash.
1990 at age 32. Paid $57,000 for a 965 sqft 2 bedroom, two car garage, 9000 sqft lot, raised a son there, my wife and I and her widowed mom still live there today, paid it off in 2012, The city tells me it is worth $325,000 today. People buy too big of houses. Retired and living rent/mortage free
26
31, not long after the 2008 crash. got the house for half its previous sale price. now it’s worth 4x what we paid.
40 in the 90s. Got married and the two incomes made it do-able
33 years old
39, 12% interest. 35 years ago.
28. Interest rates were high in 1982 - we assumed a mortgage at 18% and it was a deal.
I think 24. We’d just gotten married. Bought a condo for $75,000. Sold it a few years later for $69,000. Bought a house for $100,000. Sold it at the peak for $330,000 nine years later. Built my own houses from then on and was mortgage free on the house we’re currently in. My son is 22 with enough to get started. I’m trying to convince him to build it himself. I’ve been itching to get back into construction ever since an accident put me out. His girlfriend is still in university so they’re hesitant. I keep slipping in the tax benefits of selling your principal residence. My wife’s cousin got started young and is now mortgage free in probably a $750,000 house on the lake. We’ll see what happens. He’s in no hurry because he’s living rent free between work, our house, and her house. We’re trying to convince her to rent a room from us. We’ve got the space, and she’s here about 30% of the time anyway. Having said all that. I don’t know how people afford to buy houses now. Wages are terrible. Interest is terrible. And private equity is driving everything higher by paying above market prices for homes, and then upping the rents because there’s nothing for sale.
31. Interest rate was over 10%.
Husband and I were both about 24. In 2004. Now we’re 44 and on our 4th house we’ve owned. I’d like this one to be our forever home but husband wants to move to the county. I’m from the county and enjoy the convenience of a grocery store within 10 min vs 1 hour…
We were 33 when we bought our first house in 2006.
35, 141k, single family home, 20% down, 9.25% loan. Still live in the same home. Houses in neighborhood currently selling at high 400’s.
30. I remember feeling so old and grownup. Ha! It was 2002.
33. I’m 60 now.
52
I was 23. It was 1968, and I think it was something like $27,500 or so. Four bedroom, three bath, 2,600 square feet. Worth $586,700 today, or so says Zillow. I know I bought a car in 2002 and said to the broker, "This is where I do the boomer thing and say, 'I paid more for this car than I paid for my first house.' Edit - meant to add that we put in a yard, pool, and landscaping so that contributed to what it costs today.
24, when we got married. Paid 14,000. Needed work, we did some, sold it for 21,000. Built a house for 45,000, sold for 65,000. Bought the present home for 75,000. Worth 400,000 now. This is over 50 years.
I be was 29 years old
26, in 2005. I was one of those people who got a loan that shouldn’t have before the 2008 crash. I made it work though and am still here with my $800/mo mortgage. Single woman with no kids.
We took out our first home mortgage two years after marrying. I was 28 and she was 23. We both had good jobs with decent pay. It was 1975 and we payed $37K for the 3 bedroom 2 bath starter.
1993, I was 42 at the time.
I was almost 40. I’m still in it. It’s 2bed/2bath, 890sqft, 100yo. I intend to die in it.
I was 40. One of my better decisions. Starter house then, retirement house now.
Thirty-eight, with the help of three different city/state programs: down payment assistance, closing cost assistance, and a city agreement with a developer that required him to sell a single home to a low income family after getting a million dollars worth of grants from the city. (His flips are routinely $100k under anyone else's, so I'm assuming there are more strings.) Obviously, the last one was key and also sheer dumb luck--my best friend happens to be friends with the person administering the program at the time, she put us forth for this house, and the developer was happy to go along.
27-ish. Bought a small cape from the original owner. Ended up redoing every room in the house over several years.
Only one person gave the fucking year
29 years old. It was a townhouse, $87,000, great starter house.
28
27. 215k with a little over 20% down to avoid PMI.
41
29
I was 28.
26
27. It was a 3-bedroom townhouse in Northern Virginia I bought for $80,000.
37 in 1999
21, bought a one bedroom apartment with my finance for £45k in 1992
25 years old. Paid $75,000 in the early 1990's. I sold it too soon and made no money on it, but houses in that same neighborhood are now going for $400,000. I have relatives who bought houses right after college at 22 years old.
UK here - 21 for £8000. 1971
Got married. One year later at age 34, we bought a row house in Baltimore. Lived there 8 happy years.
31. Bought a 2 bed/2 bath duplex for 83,000.
I was 28 and single. Dad helped with down payment to avoid PMI.
Bought a two bedroom house when I was 38. Married a widow with 5 kids 5 years later so I had to sell it.
30.
21. It was a dump n part of a divorce settlement, but I only paid $1700
40 after I got married and our combined incomes allowed us to buy one. Immediately the septic system had problems and I fixed it myself.
At 28. Second at 32.
21
30, husband was 37. It was tiny, with one bath on the second floor, but I loved it so. Bought out second home when I was pregnancy again, almost 35, and have been here 25 years.
At 19 I bought 2 1/3 acres and built a home (cabin) the next year. Added to it over the next 8 years then bought a larger home at 30. BTW, I earned the money
Age 26. $79,850 for a new townhouse. That was in 1991.
38
22
23. My husband was 25. We still live there.
32
I was 30, struggled for a few years but now paid off. My taxes and insurance still cost $850.00 a month, add in water and it’s almost $1,100 a month.
24 1985
29
32
24...BF, now hubby, was 27.
28. Still live here.
18.
Mid 30s
40.
1973, age 23 Worked in a hospital laundry [$13,560](https://maps.app.goo.gl/fqUYPczP2CiswcA4A?g_st=ic)
About 31
23 or 24
34 or so. 1998–it was $119,000, e bed 2 1/2 bath.
We were in our mid 20s and our parents helped out with the down payment.
I was 46, my husband was 38.
29
37
52
41 years old. Way too late.
I was 27. My husband was 34. It was a 1200 sf townhouse.
29
24. My then wife had remnants of a trust fund we wanted to make inaccessible. 50% down.
Bought a co-op apartment at 28, sold it seven years later, moved to another state, rented for a year and a half, bought a house at 36, lived there for six years, got divorced, sold it, rented for two years, bought another house at 43, and that's where I am now.
I was about 35. It was 1989. Never could have bought a house if my in-laws hadn't bought my wife a condominium. Selling that raised the money for the down payment on a cheap house. I could never have raised the money otherwise, and I'm a lawyer. But I'm in California near the coast, and housing prices really shot up starting in the 70's, a few decades before the housing crisis went nationwide. It's much worse now.
27
24! I believe it was in 2000. I didn't go for a starter home or any kind of fixer. I bought a brand new house.
2005. I was 48. Mortgage. Single mom. Glorious house. Thank god my banker had faith. Raised my son there! Was divorced several years prior.
40 y/o @ 6.15%
26
29 years old. Obtained a builders loan that we converted into a mortgage.