- Joined
- Jun 6, 2010
- Messages
- 6,873
C'mon down South! Homes are cheap here! I bought my first house at 28 (a 3bd, 2.5ba starter in the mid 300s). Met DH a few months later and sold it two years later for a nice profit when I was pregnant with our first child. Moved into a 4bd, 3.5ba house in a great school district and stayed there for 8 years. Moved to what will be our final house(same school district) til we retire 5 years ago. It's obscenely large (way larger than we need), but we got a good deal on it and it's appreciated about $300k in those 5 years. Everyone we know here buys in their mid/late 20s (condo/townhouse/starter home) because it's so affordable here. I used to travel to Pasadena/LA for work on a regular basis and I'd look at the listings in real estate office windows and my jaw would drop. I'd love to move to the West Coast, but I'm not sure we could afford it (even if we went to a 3bd/2ba)...especially if I wanted it to be newly remodeled. I'm with the group that suggested buying whatever you can afford now, rather than waiting. From what I understand, the market isn't going to get any less expensive and truly, the easiest way to "trade up" is by having something to sell. I feel for you, I really do....