4 ms·

Hi. Millennial here. I was house shopping this year but had to wait as I moved for a new job. In January I was quoted $>1M of buying power (without my partner)

Hi. Millennial here. I was house shopping this year but had to wait as I moved for a new job. In January I was quoted $>1M of buying power (without my partner). Now I’m quoted <$700k. I’m not buying anything soon. My father is looking at moving to a new condo for retirement but was hesitant about HOA fees. This year he spent $50k to replace all the windows in his current home to prep for sale. That $50k in maintenance would cover $300mo in equivalent hoa fees, and that’s not considering every other maintenance cost he’s spent. The math just doesn’t justify home ownership from a financial perspective - if your home value isn’t skyrocketing. I’ll be a renter for a while it seems. Maybe that’s ok.

bombcar 4y ago
As a side note it's often not worth maintenance in prep for sale, unless it takes it from uninhabitable to habitable (or more precisely unmortgageable to mortgageable). The $50k you spend on windows would often only recoup $45k or even less, people vastly underestimate the costs of many things (but not all, foundation problems people always overestimate). The saddest story I read about was someone who was told that putting $20k of new windows would let them sell for $40k more; and they did, and the buyer bulldozed the house to build a new one.
- nostrademons 4y ago
  People often overestimate the universality of their tastes. Our sellers assumed that one of the first things we'd do would be a kitchen remodel, but we actually love the kitchen the way it is, and are just doing minor appliance replacements. Meanwhile what we actually did was new windows, solar, and a bunch of energy efficiency upgrades, which had been totally off their radar screens. If they'd gotten a different buyer it probably would've been a very different set of upgrades.
secabeen 4y ago
The value in home ownership is in reliability of housing. With a family, I seriously value knowing that I'm not likely to have my home pulled out from under me by the landlord for a higher and better use.

bombcar 4y ago

As a side note it's often not worth maintenance in prep for sale, unless it takes it from uninhabitable to habitable (or more precisely unmortgageable to mortgageable). The $50k you spend on windows would often only recoup $45k or even less, people vastly underestimate the costs of many things (but not all, foundation problems people always overestimate). The saddest story I read about was someone who was told that putting $20k of new windows would let them sell for $40k more; and they did, and the buyer bulldozed the house to build a new one.

nostrademons 4y ago
People often overestimate the universality of their tastes. Our sellers assumed that one of the first things we'd do would be a kitchen remodel, but we actually love the kitchen the way it is, and are just doing minor appliance replacements. Meanwhile what we actually did was new windows, solar, and a bunch of energy efficiency upgrades, which had been totally off their radar screens. If they'd gotten a different buyer it probably would've been a very different set of upgrades.

secabeen 4y ago

The value in home ownership is in reliability of housing. With a family, I seriously value knowing that I'm not likely to have my home pulled out from under me by the landlord for a higher and better use.