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Recently moved into a four-bedroom home in a moderately desirable suburb of Los Angeles. I myself work in tech field and my spouse is university faculty. Our su
by ChainOfFools 3y ago
Recently moved into a four-bedroom home in a moderately desirable suburb of Los Angeles. I myself work in tech field and my spouse is university faculty. Our subdiv is a large tract of homes built 15-25 years ago, all in the mid six figures to just a hair over seven.
At least three of the neighbors within sight of my own house are some sort of residential construction or property trade contractor. Two are public school teachers. At least one paints houses for a living. It is apparently totally possible to work a trade and live a recently comfortable lifestyle. I'm not saying it's easy, and I'm not saying that there is a straightforward path to break in to that lifestyle but it is evidently more than abundantly possible.
- reactordev 3y agoMost tradespeople I know can’t afford “hair over seven” figures for a home. Everyone in your neighborhood is house poor. They are banking on equity. They had a sizable upfront down payment. Like I said, all the tradespeople I know are struggling with lower 6, much less hair over 7.
- kjkjadksj 3y agoBut do you work in the trades in places where the median home is $800k? Trade wages are probably better in socal.
- reactordev 3y agoThey do. Median home value here is $950k. All of my trades friends are house poor and asking family for assistance.
- kjkjadksj 3y agoHouse poor and asking for family assistance is something thats common even where homes are $200k. More than half of american home buyers use family assistance. The fact they are in the market at all at nearly $1m median prices on trade wages is incredible, family assistance or being house poor while you pay down to get rid of pmi or not.
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- thfuran 3y agoI suspect the key to that success is having bought in before the house prices significantly increased.
- dukeyukey 3y agoI know tradies with massive houses and smallholdings within 50 miles of London. I've also lived with tradies in a 4-person semi-legal HMO. The error bars here are huge.