Your First Home Together as Newlyweds?

[Haven]

The Home vs. Baubles thread has me thinking . . .

What was your first home together as newlyweds, and how old were you when you married? How long did you stay in your first home? Would you have made a different decision if you knew then what you know now?

 

[Skippy123]

My hubby already had his first home over by the local University and I liked the area where I grew up so he sold that house before we married. He was 31 and I was 24 when we married and when I turned 25 we moved into the home we currently live in now. I wouldn't change a thing; I love where I live now and we have the best neighbors anyone could ask for! Our neighborhood keeps appreciating so we are happy and everyone takes care of their houses/yards and we have block party's and 4th of July Parades.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

My husband and I were renting a small bland 2 bd house for $1,000 a month when we married. He was 26 and I was 25 and my husband was just about finishing up school, so that was a hefty amount out of budget (my husband was paying for school each quarter rather than getting loans and as a result we were SO broke back then, it was painful! We sometimes bought food on credit cards.

). We were okay with renting at that point and the owner of the house did offer to sell us the house, but we decided to pass because the house had a TINY yard and I was hoping to become pregnant soon and wanted a place for my baby to play outside.

I''m glad we didn''t buy that home because soon after my husband graduated and got a job we found an adorable bungalow about 5 min. from the rental we were in that we loved and we bought that instead! We lived there for a couple years - two or three - I''d have to check paperwork to see for sure.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I bought a starter house when I was 23, he was 25. We got married when I was 26, he was 28. We moved into our dream home 6 months after the wedding. I don''t regret either home purchases.

 

[KimberlyH]

We were 29 and 38 when we got married. We love our home and will probably live her for many years to come (we debated moving to Chicago but decided not to). I wish our neighborhood was more close-knit, but overall am very happy with where we live.

 

[asscherisme]

Married at 26, he was 30. First home was a really nice 2 bedroom garden apartment with laundry in the unit and 2 huge walk in closets, 2 full baths. really really nice place. Clubhouse full workout facilities, pool etc.

We moved around a lot and rented the first 5 years of our marriage while we saved for a house. First house was a cute 4 bedroom 1,800 SF home with no basement. We had 2 kids when we moved in and 4 kids and were busting out by the time we moved.

Our current and second home is 3,600 SF, finished basement and a great home. Love the home and we have lots of space for our big family. Geographicaly its not where I want to live but the home itself is really nice.

 

[Steel]

Date: 9/29/2007 12:46:10 PM
Author:Haven
The Home vs. Baubles thread has me thinking . . .

What was your first home together as newlyweds,

We bought our home before we married at 21 and 26 and moved in that year. We bought a 3 bed semi-detatched house. We got engaged the next year. (I think. I can't remember when we got engaged! See we had to make stage payments on the house so we bought it in one year and made payments from then, but didn't move in till the next year...Im getting old, the memory fails me!

)

and how old were you when you married?

We married at 23 and 28.

How long did you stay in your first home?

This breaks my heart. We sold this summer. Just before the market crashed here. So we were there over 4 years.

Would you have made a different decision if you knew then what you know now?

Gosh yes. If I could turn back time. I NEVER would have bought there. I HATED living in an estate. People were horrible. Neighbours were mean and nasty. No privacy. Broke my heart to live there. We put our hearts into that home, decor and garden. My beautiful garden - all gone

.

I'm a logical girl. I knew we had to sell. We hated it there. The market was about to crash. But it was so very hard, DH never really understood why I was sad to sell. It was our home, you know. The house we expected to live in forever. When we bought we were single and hoped to be married in that house and live happily ever after. Sob. Selling put the nail in that dream. Although it never existed in reality, moving ended the dream of the perfect life we wanted then.

If I knew then what I know now....no question, I would build my own house away from people.

How does that saying go, Great fences make great neighbours?

 

[Haven]

Thank you for sharing, ladies.

I will be 27 when we marry, he''ll be 38, and we''ll have two condos on our hands. We don''t want to live in either because they are both too small, but we do want to stay in the city (Chicago) so we have some big decisions to make. I think we''ll end up buying a home in the north suburbs when we decide to have children, but until then we''ll remain city people. I''m just so curious about what everyone did, and if they would do it again.

I''ve seen a trend amongst our friends: our suburban-raised friends tend to buy the most house they can afford right away, even if it''s in a suburb far from the city or their own hometown (more affordable). Our city-raised friends seem to rent or buy small in the city, and plan on waiting a while to buy their ideal home in their ideal location once they start a family.

Reading about your choices is helping me feel a bit less overwhelmed with the whole prospect of moving and selling and buying and renting! Thank you!

 

[Steel]

Before the uncertainty in the market, I would have advised anybody to buy ''something''. Even just as a buy to let, but now I would hold off.

That you are taking a second to observe is an excellent idea.

Best of luck.

 

[Lynn B]

Haha, great thread! Wow, you guys were so... *mature* when you got married!!!

Most of you know we were HS sweethearts, and we got married right after graduation

(And YES, we would've just KILLED either of our kids if they'd have even remotely considered such a thing!

)

So we rented for two years, and saved up our pennies, and bought a FIXER-UPPER at age 20. But it was big (4 bedrooms), had great potential, a huge, lovely yard, and was in a good neighborhood (and most of all -- we could afford it!)

So we worked on it, room by room as we got the money saved up, just us (and the baby

) doing ALL of the work ourselves... and gradually turned it into a wonderful and beautiful home where we raised both of our children. We were so proud of that house! And we lived there until two years ago, when we found a new home (smaller and in a better location for my job and my husband's business). Our old house sold to the first people who looked at it, and at full asking price (almost 10x what we paid for it!)

We LOVE where we are now, but we never miss an opportunity to drive by the old house, and we always look at each other and smile.

 

[Kaleigh]

We bought our first home when I was 24 and he was 25. Stayed there 10 years. It was a cute house but we outgrew it. Today I feel badly for young people starting out. It''s such an unstable market.

 

[lyra]

Wow, we moved so much in the first couple of years--4 times. We got married at 21(me) and 23(him). We bought our first house a little less than 5 years later. It was a single level 1250 sq. feet 3 bedroom home on a small lot, about 5 years old. Windows on the sides basically looking right into our neighbour's houses. On a terribly busy street too. It was a lot smaller than the last t/house we had rented before buying! It had 1.5 baths and we had 2 kids there. I remember being excited that we finally owned our own appliances, woo! I learned to garden, and we learned to landscape from that house. We only stayed 4 years then upgraded. No, I don't think there was a better option than that at the time, so it was right for us. It got us into the market, and that was the main thing because from there on out the prices just went up and up.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 9/29/2007 1:53:21 PM
Author: Haven
Thank you for sharing, ladies.

I will be 27 when we marry, he''ll be 38, and we''ll have two condos on our hands. We don''t want to live in either because they are both too small, but we do want to stay in the city (Chicago) so we have some big decisions to make. I think we''ll end up buying a home in the north suburbs when we decide to have children, but until then we''ll remain city people. I''m just so curious about what everyone did, and if they would do it again.

I''ve seen a trend amongst our friends: our suburban-raised friends tend to buy the most house they can afford right away, even if it''s in a suburb far from the city or their own hometown (more affordable). Our city-raised friends seem to rent or buy small in the city, and plan on waiting a while to buy their ideal home in their ideal location once they start a family.

Reading about your choices is helping me feel a bit less overwhelmed with the whole prospect of moving and selling and buying and renting! Thank you!

Haven,

Have you considered renting the two condos out? Could you charge enough to cover the mortgages and monthly fees? If you''re able to keep at least one of them, you mostly likely will profit in the long run!

 

[pearcrazy]

DH and I were 27 when we got married. We purchased our first home around our 1 year anniversary. It was a 1425 sq. foot ranch. We lived there for 4 years and then sold it, as I was pregnant with our first child and we wanted more room. We were also not happy wth the school district that we were in. We made a large profit on that home and were able to put a substantial downpayment on our second home. We lived in that home for 9.5 years, sold it last year, made another good profit, and have now moved into the house that I anticipate we will live in until our twins go off to college in about 10 years. I wouldn''t change a thing about the way we did any of it.

 

[Independent Gal]

We''ll stay in my condo for two years after we marry while we save for a bigger place. Hopefully, that won''t be far from here.

Unlike some, the idea of moving out to the suburbs makes me choke. I grew up near the center of a city, and loved the freedom and adventure of it. I could happily live in a small town or the countryside for the other benefits it would bring, but (no offence to suburbanites!) I''ve always said I could NEVER stand to live in a suburb... to have to drive for hours every day, or just to get some milk or a lightbulb, instead of being able to walk or ride the bus... to have my kids mostly meet and interact with others who are very similar to them socio-economically ... and maybe in terms of race too. The neighbourhood where I live now is very central, and very diverse: rich and poor, young and old, black and white (and green and yellow and blue and everything in between).

Suburbs scare me! It looks as though people kind of build a fortress inside their homes. I love the feeling of melting into the city. At teh same time, I''m well aware that since I''ve never lived in one, I may just be missing something about it!

That said, I have noooo idea where we''d send our kids to school here, and there are plenty of parks, but not many playgrounds. I guess that''s part of what I''m missing and why people move to suburbs!

 

[Stardust]

Married at 22 (him) and 24 (me).

First home is a one-bedroom apartment. We''re still there after 1.5 years.

Yes, I''d still live here. London is too expensive for another else - I do charity work (which pays very crappy) and he works in the family business (which pays even less). London is too expensive to do anything else AND my visas and the cost of moving plus me being out of a paying job for 8 months just means this is how it is.

The one thing I wish I could change was the timing of the wedding. We had to have it when we were in the same country which meant that one of us was out of a job (me, I get paid more). I wanted to secretly get married and live together for a couple of years and then have a wedding. DH thought it was "now or not at all" for a wedding and my mother thought that we needed something for my US family before I moved. So we had two very small weddings, one on each side of the ocean. I wish we could have waiting for bigger and better...although with the price of living that could have been decades!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 9/29/2007 6:45:29 PM
Author: Independent Gal
Unlike some, the idea of moving out to the suburbs makes me choke. I grew up near the center of a city, and loved the freedom and adventure of it. I could happily live in a small town or the countryside for the other benefits it would bring, but (no offence to suburbanites!) I''ve always said I could NEVER stand to live in a suburb... to have to drive for hours every day, or just to get some milk or a lightbulb, instead of being able to walk or ride the bus... to have my kids mostly meet and interact with others who are very similar to them socio-economically ... and maybe in terms of race too. The neighbourhood where I live now is very central, and very diverse: rich and poor, young and old, black and white (and green and yellow and blue and everything in between).

Suburbs scare me! It looks as though people kind of build a fortress inside their homes. I love the feeling of melting into the city. At teh same time, I''m well aware that since I''ve never lived in one, I may just be missing something about it!

That said, I have noooo idea where we''d send our kids to school here, and there are plenty of parks, but not many playgrounds. I guess that''s part of what I''m missing and why people move to suburbs!

Suburbs scare me too. We live on an acre, but my son''s school is located in the center of a suburban cluster of houses and I swear, ALL of the children live in suburban housing! I feel like a freak b/c at the end of the school day all the parents waiting outside the school cluster into little groups replicating their squeezed in housing organization and all I can see are flashbacks of high school! lol It would be hard living like that all the time. I love my space and privacy.

 

[Fly Girl]

We were college sweethearts, and married 3 weeks after graduation at age 22. Lived in apartments until he finished graduate school then bought our home in the suburbs at age 29. We are still in that house. It is close to work and family and too small to do much entertaining.

We skipped the upgrade to a larger house that a lot of of friends did when they were in their early 40s. Instead we saved up and a couple of years ago bought ourselves a weekend home on a nearby lake.

We are doing just fine.

 

[somethingshiny]

We married pretty young. I was 19, he was 21. We have been together since I was 17. Our first home was a teeny apartment in the upper level of a house. It had the tiniest kitchen! There was barely room for a two seater breakfast table. We bought a fixer upper after one year. It didn''t fix up so well! Then, we went back to renting. We would love to buy our current home, but our landlady doesn''t want to sell.

BTW-we were married in ''99. We paid $325/month with all utilities included. We may have stayed longer if we didn''t have such horrible neighbors.

 

[Elmorton]

We''re 24 and 25, been married for 3 months. Last spring, we found a house to rent together - an adorable 2 bedroom with a big backyard. We''d both been living in 1-bedroom apts, so moving to a house was pretty exciting for us.

...but two weeks ago, DH accepted a new job about three hours away - so we''re moving at the end of October! Unfortunately, I''ll be staying here with a friend during the week until the end of the semester (I teach at a local community college). Just today we signed a new lease on a fabulous duplex from the 1930''s and, fingers crossed, we hope to stay in our new community for five years + and purchase a house in the next year or so.

In a few years, I hope we''ll think the sacrifices we''re making now were worth it...but right now, I just think November is going to be one very, very long month!

 

[wolftress]

DH and I are still technically ''newlyweds'' because we got married in May. I''m 27, he''s 29. We''re renting a three-storey townhouse in a middle-class suburb in Melbourne and paying an arm and a leg for rent, but still a lot less than we would be paying for a mortgage. We love where we live because the lifestyle suits us - we''re walking distance to shops and some of the best restaurants in Melbourne and I love the skylights in our house and the fact that it has more than enough room for us, our two cats, and DH''s many, many possessions.

We are looking to downsize and move into somewhere a bit more affordable to start putting more $$ aside for a downpayment. Hopefully by the time we have enough money saved, the market will be more stable. At the moment, it''s just a nightmare for young couples starting out. The most our friends could afford is a two-bedroom flat or a really old fixer-upper way out in the middle of nowhere. We''d really prefer to keep saving until the market''s better and we can safely make a wise decision about buying a house.

 

[neatfreak]

We'll be 24 (me) and 30 (him) when we marry in a few weeks and our first "home" is our recently acquired 1300 q. ft apartment. We live right downtown, but still in a residential neighborhood, and we really love it so far. We can walk to all the great restaurants and bars, the dog park, and school. Perfect location for us and enough room in the apartment to let our dogs run around like crazy (we have two big ones).

The downside is that we're renting, but that is by choice because we can't stay here after we graduate with our PhD's in a few years (we live in a small city with only one good university and no school will hire their own PhD's unfortunately). So since we were only really ready to buy this year, it doesn't make sense since we'll be leaving this city in 2-3 years. But we'll buy hopefully as soon as we move.

 

[basil]

We''ll be 29 and 30 when we get married.

I own a condo that I bought 1.5 years ago. He rents (in a different city). He''ll move in with me. This mortgage is reasonable for me to afford on my salary, so we''re hoping to put most of his salary away for a bigger downpayment on a more permanent place.

 

[anchor31]

We''ll be 23/26 when we''ll be married, and we''ll stay in the apartment we moved into last May for about two more years after that... We''re hoping that we''ll be able to buy a house then, and we''d be 25/28.

 

[onedrop]

We are "newlyweds" as well, married for almost 6 months. I am 36 and hubby is 32. He relocated to be with me and I already own my home (a townhouse) in surburbia, so he moved in with me. We''d both love to get a new home purchased together with more space, but we are on a five-year plan for buying a new home unless an unbelieveable deal comes along. We want to be able to manage the mortgage and not be house poor when we do buy together so that is the main reason for not moving now. So in the meantime, we are going to sock money away until the time comes to make the big move. By that time we should be in a great position financially.

 

[ursulawrite]

We married when I was 25, DH 29. Our first home (aside from rentals) is our current--a 1350sq. ft. loft in Soho, NYC. We have been here two years, and are fortunate that the market around here continues to skyrocket. Next year, we plan to move out to Park Slope/Fort Greene in Brooklyn and buy a 4000 sq. ft brownstone (fixer upper) or a 3000 sq/ feet brownstone+1000 rental apartment in pristine condition.

 

[Cind11]

I was 22 and my DH 24 when we got married. We bought a condo and lived there for 14 yrs. before we built the home in which we are now living. It''s hard to belive we lasted in that condo for so long, but it worked well for our needs at the time.

 

[jcrow]

married at 25 him (a month from his 26th b-day) and 26 me. when we got married we lived in an apartment that i had rented. we got married in nov. started house hunting in dec. and bought a spec home in jan. moved in in april once it was built. it's definitely a small starter home and i doubt it'll be our forever home.

eta: we did buy a bit out of the hub bub of the city, but it's not by any means far and out of the way. we also bought smaller, but new with nice features like crown moulding, custom cabinets, stainless appliances and hard wood floors, etc. and since it was a spec home, we got to have some say the building decisions.

 

[argh&stuff]

Our "first home" is the apartment we rented in January and Jen moved into ten or so days before our wedding, and then I followed. We''re looking at homes now (but not quickly or often enough to suit Jen!), and will buy by January, when our lease is complete. A friend of ours is saying that now is the time for first time buyers to "jump" because the market has "fell out" and we have no home to worry about selling first, but I don''t want to break the lease. I guess if the right house pops up, we''ll talk about things a little more seriously then.

We live on the second level at our apartment complex, and Jen keeps saying she wants to put off buying much more of the "nicer" furniture she has her heart set on (and by the way, what''s wrong with the dining room table I have where all the are unsteady and sometimes a screw will fall out?) until we have a home to put them in.

One thing that has me annoyed with the process is how mortgage brokers try to talk people into owing a lot more than is feasible to pay off. I know people make more income as they age (typically), but it''s just asking for trouble when you tell a couple making less than $100,000 a year, with not much debt but some (thanks college loans!) that they can afford to get a home upwards of 400-500,000. That''s insane.

Luckily, we''re much smarter than the game the man tried to play, but I wonder about who''s not out there.

We live in the outer area of the Atlanta Metro, and you can get a nice 3-4 bedroom home in a nice community for between 170-215,000. I know every area has a different market, but it doesn''t seem to make much sense to tell a couple they can afford a home that would have them paying a considerable amount more than 1/3 of their income on each month.

To each his own, I suppose. I just think the market is not playing fair right now, because they want so desperately to sell homes, whatever the "cost" to the buyers.

 

[robbie3982]

Date: 9/29/2007 12:46:10 PM
Author:Haven
The Home vs. Baubles thread has me thinking . . .

What was your first home together as newlyweds, and how old were you when you married? How long did you stay in your first home? Would you have made a different decision if you knew then what you know now?

We''re newlyweds (just married a bit over 3 weeks ago!) and our first home together as newlyweds is a 2 bedroom townhouse that we''ve been renting for almost a year. We''re going to be here for hopefully less than another year, so a bit over a year total. Our lease is up at the end of October, but we want to move back to our hometown (which is in another state), so we need to find new jobs before we''re ready to buy.

I don''t think we really have any other decision we could''ve made. Before the townhouse, I moved into DH''s 1 bedroom apartment which was way too small for the 2 of us and all of our stuff. Luckily he only had a few months left on the lease. We''re already outgrowing the townhouse (which has a full semi-finished basement) so we''ll be looking for a 3-4 bedroom house when the time comes.