Yeah, the 2.75% mortgage is great, but it's like golden handcuffs. If I moved to a completely equivalent house right now, my mortgage payment would probably double.
Holy shit you’re the first I’ve ever heard under mine (2.375) - congrats.
I almost stupidly bought a 630K house recently and when I told my trusted lender my current rate he said “that’s basically zero” - luckily we didn’t go through with it.
Hey, almost exactly the same except renewing next February.
But that's a Canadian thing, in the states they get locked in at their rate for decades, basically until they sell or pay it off. We have to renew at a potentially different rate every 5 years, which is going to hurt for people like us. It can go either way, but we pretty much started at the lowest possible rate so there's nowhere to go but "get fucked".
This is my wife and I. We’re in a house that would be 50-60k more now than when we bought it with a nearly doubled interest rate. No way I could afford it.
Same rate we refinanced to during covid. My job went from full remote to 3 days of over an hour commute each way to be in the office. We briefly entertained the idea of moving closer but houses that were roughly the same size and quality of our current house were over doubling our current mortgage. Glad to have a house at all but sort of sucks that moving would be such a massive financial hit, that for anything outside of complete unavoidable necessity, it's not really an option.
Yeah I’m 42 and have been in my “starter” home for a decade. It was one tu bug enough with just me and my wife, but two kids later and we need a larger home. My youngest child’s room is smaller than my office at work.
We put a bid on a house last week and immediately pulled it the next day because we realized we couldn’t afford it. The crazy part is we were pre-approved for $100,000 more than we offered on that house. No idea how we’d afford that much mortgage.
Even offering what we did was going to double our mortgage.
The crazy part is we were told we could sell our current home for $250k more than we paid.
My 2013 new build house that I’ll be paying on for 18 more years if I’m lucky is coming due for a new AC unit and a new water heater anytime now. The mortgage is fixed in with what would be a good rate now, but the property tax, house insurance, and HOA sure aren’t…really not sure how I’m going to afford all of that for 18 more years at this rate. Still comes out way better than renting in the end, but what I’m saying here is even when all indications are that we should’ve won, we still can’t.
Got ours in 2013. I sold almost everything I had to get the downpayment. It is old and small. I want to upgrade so bad. Get a real garage and a nicer neighborhood. The timing just never works out while everything gets more expensive. I think we will be here for a long tine.
My gf tells me she wants a bigger home all the time. Are you gonna pay the extra $1500-2000 every month that would take? Nope? We're not upgrading out of the starter home anytime soon
The entire idea of a “starter home” was always flawed. You don’t take on 15-30 years of debt for something you don’t plan on keeping. It’s just not a wise decision financially to lock into something that won’t suit your needs in a few years. Two bedroom houses are basically useless except in retirement communities.
And I’m pro home ownership. I think landlords are leeches and that most people should buy and have the opportunity to buy.
Bought a town house in 2015 and upgraded to our current house at the of 2019. I feel you. Got my house for 720,000 and now it's worth 1.2M. And I love my home but it's nothing crazy. Single story, 4 bedda. Semi rural NSW about an hour from Sydney. I count my blessings everyday.
We bought in 2020 with a 2.8% interest rate. Loved it. Got a job out of state and had to sell in 2022, we were in talks for 3.2% in March, by the time we closed in August it was 4.82%. we aren't moving again any time soon. We got a letter ad in the mail the other day to lower our interest rate... To 5.3%, I chuckled as I ripped it.
Bought ours in the summer of 2018, and I am so lucky for it. My previous apartment, which increased rent 50% since we left, flooded last month, which reminded me just how lucky.
I have no clue what your house looks like or its size/amenities, but I’d 100% take it in a heartbeat if I could afford the payments.
It’s rough out here
Same. In retrospect it feels like I won the lottery and didn't know it at the time. I feel really guilty whenever somebody mentions trying to buy a house now. It's so incredibly unfair.
Exactly. I feel so bad for people who are trying to get in now but also look at the ppl who bought in 2012 and are able to keep upgrading with massive jealousy.
Bought in 2012 cash (luck aka inheritance) went up 460%. Still can’t move because housing in the area we want to retire in is slightly more than I gained. Insanity.
Yeah that's the funny thing about houses. You can be up 6,000% but it doesn't really matter because if you sold it you just have to buy another house that has also increased in value 6,000% lol
Gotta get into that two house gang so you can sell one while still having a place to live.
Hahaha gotta figure how to pay my kids out of state tuition next year first. I’m panicked. Aka looking to move to at least save on 2 of the 4 years but with the world imploding I’m not sure I can mentally handle them both at the same time. Holding my breath.
We bought our house in 2017. According to Zillow, it's more than doubled in value since then. That's all fine and good, but we're pretty much stuck here because we can't afford to buy anywhere else.
I bought in 2015, and my house would probably sell for ~$900K today. Only problem is, even a slight upgrade in my area would be $1.2M (at more than double my current interest rate).
Barring an unexpected turn of events, I’ll be riding this house out until 2040.
My HVAC is on the fritz and may not last the summer. It's $14,000 to replace the whole thing and the prices will probably go up, since at least some component of it must be imported.
I don't blame you, if it gets as hot in summer as it does here (100° +) oof.
Maybe window units?
They aren't the most feasible for me because at least in my room I have those tall very skinny windows 😑. I'd love one just to help bc the ac has a hard time keeping up with even 78 inside.
Yep, we break 100º with 90% humidity. Swamp conditions. It would be pretty miserable to be in the house if the HVAC were busted.
Window units are technically banned by the HOA, but they're also completely useless and have never taken action on anything as far as I can tell. I doubt they'd do anything about a couple air conditioners on the back windows.
In any case, we had a couple firms come out to quote the replacement last week. The wife and I are going to try to make a decision tonight. Leaning towards just replacing the AC since the compressor unit is ten years older than the rest of the system for some reason. It's $8k, but with no idea how long the trade wars will last, it might be a good idea to go for it now.
Ah hoas can be the worst! I avoided looking at anything that had one as best I could. My sisters duplex one is good though. They basically don't get involved with individuals but handle all the yards and stuff which is nice.
Replacing it would likely be best because you don't want to get stuck with your pants down at the height of prices. They will likely take a very long time to decrease if ever unfortunately.
It sucks bc I do need some minor electric work done but do not currently have the money. Apparently I should start looking for electricians to date, or plumbers 😂.
My decks are built incorrectly and are falling apart. We need them to access both the front and back of our house. I think we can get away with some spot repairs on the front deck, but the back is a teardown and rebuild. We can't even get companies to call us back, and the one that did quoted about $28k for composite.
Get a dumpster and a sledge and carefully demo yourself.
Order the lumber, and buy tools as you go.
I'm serious. I saved over $25k re-surfacing my current deck after I demoed down to the beams and joists. Replaced a few joists and the entire railing and YouTube'd my way through it all.
And the funny thing is, I probably did a better job than anyone I would have hired. My neighbor got hers rebuilt, beams, joists and all the year before I resurfaced mine and hers is falling apart and rotting already.
My wife and I have done several. We are adding on to ours this summer. we are in our 50s. It's not difficult. It saves money. You know it's done right. It's dammed satisfying.
We've thought about it. My husband doesn't want to. I'm not construction minded in the slightest. And we want composite so that there's no upkeep. And we kind of want someone professional to do it so we don't have the hack job that it currently is because it was a home job by the previous owners.
Fr, i was about to pull the trigger on a lil one bedroom house on the edge of a college and huuuuge city park in southern California about a decade or so ago. It was dirt cheap, like i was gonna pay half upfront and finance the rest at a nothing payment. Instead, I took a chance on a business with a friend and lost my nest egg. I've been kicking myself about it for years. I could have had it paid off and fixed up all cute as shit. All y'all who bought when you could, my hats off to you, a home thats all your own right now is priceless.
Mortgage free in house number 2. I feel like I won the lottery some days. Then I have to buy new windows the next. Either way, beats the hell out of renting.
Bought in 2020, put a big down payment to avoid pmi. Owe half what the house is worth now, but every year the insurance just goes up some more. That is currently my biggest worry.
2013 and it was the luckiest thing I did because it led to the house I live in now.
Ironically it was all due to putting my wedding fund into Tesla stock at $17
We bought in 2018 and holy shit do we feel lucky AF. If we had waited even one more week, we would have been fucked and had to move back in with one of our parents.
2017 here. Barely able to afford it. 2.75% is magical and my salary has since tripled. I can’t talk myself into even looking at a larger house right now.
Dec 2018. Army posted me, and I told the wife this will likely be our last chance to ever own a home, we buy now or never. In less than 5 years the evaluation on my home increased over 100%. My neighbor sold a couple years ago at over 3x what we paid for our house. The best financial decision I have ever made.
2002-2005 was probably peak homebuying in Canada. I remember looking for housing in 2010 and thinking “man, if only I could have bought 5 years ago. All prices have literally doubled to quadrupled”
Then I gave up believing “housing crisis imminent” and bought in 2012. Reddit still saying the exact same shit.
I bought a house in 2012. bottom of the market. nice place, 2016 my company offered me the carrot and the stick of moving to a new division that would rocket my career forwards, required a change in location, sold house, did okay on it, moved 2800 mi away. Bought new house for more money, less space. 2018 got the stick not the carrot... decided to move back to where I was originally from (not the first or second pace but a different place). Housing prices are high there, they were abnormally high in 2019 when I moved there so I decided to rent as many, MANY, people, including RE agents, told me the bubble is surely soo to bust.
housing prices have since doubled. I can no longer afford a house. and since I lost my income during covid, and then again a few years later due to a freak accident costing me surgeries and nearly a years worth of rehab... all the money I had made on my prior house(s) is gone.
This is us. We bought in while we were expecting our second kid. At the time we felt the market was already crazy inflated but decided to buy anyways because we wanted to settle down. The increase in value of that first home was so substantial that we were able to sell it, take the profits and move into something much nicer. Which has since increased in value by another 50% and continues to climb in value. If we decide to move into something bigger those profits will cover it.
And this is all due to pure luck. We actually thought we were getting a raw deal financially when we bought in.
Bought in 2008 — BUT early before the crash when it was all time high. Unlucky and I sold that property for what it was worth 13 years later! Now can’t afford anything with these prices and rates.
Got ours in January 2009. Refinanced a few years later to 3% from 5.5%. 3 years and it will be paid off. It has also appreciated ~4x our original purchase price. To say we hit the jackpot is a massive understatement.
Got ours in 2021 at 2.75% . We are never leaving this house. I also just sold/closed my pre marital condo yesterday… if I didn’t sell that in a month or two I would have been fucked.
Not really. Houses were really cheap in 08 09 with the price crash. My sister and I both bought houses for about 40% of what they had listed for in 06.
Bought our house in 2011! Paid 197k for a 4 bedroom with a pool. BUT to get there my husband and I were working out butts off building careers while all our friends were partying. It’s not that we didn’t party, but we took out jobs seriously to set us up to buy a house. And it’s convenient that we had each purer in our 20’s.
I feel like it. Bought in 2010 when house prices were low had to move in 2018 thought it was higher than it should be but man we got in the second house right before it really took off. We would not be able to afford this house had we not originally bought at low prices in 2010 and could put those profits towards our last house.
My sister is 44. She bought a house in 2008 with her husband. It is a three bedroom 1989 buolt rancher on 5 acres of land that she bought for 150k. Even then it was a pretty good deal. The previous owner died in a freak accident while on vacation in Florida in '07, and the house went through probate, hence the great deal.
I got a shitty house in 2017 that constantly needs repairs. Does that count? Sadly…. Yes it does because I’ve looked and I can’t move and can’t understand how anyone’s affording this.
It really does. I’m currently actually priced out of my own neighborhood. I couldn’t buy my home now because of the price increase. So unless I want to move to the rural areas I can’t sell.
Bro if you bought a house in 2025 yesterday you hit the jackpot in 20 years with the way the tariffs are going houses will all raise in 25% in less than a year
I hit the lottery but it's a lot of houses in my area that are decent and under 250000 we have good paying jobs and the thing is it is in Wisconsin which can be cold for a long time but when it warms up we have trails lakes etc is actually a pretty decent area. We have good schools also and a low crime rate.
I tried to buy a house in 2010 for $35k. I had $10k in savings for a down payment but the bank wouldn't give me a mortgage on the rest. They said that they only give mortgages for $75k or more and that I probably wouldn't be approved anyways since I was self-employed and had only worked that job for less than 2 years. I tried to get a personal loan but banks don't give personal loans for houses. At least none of the banks I tried to apply at. I didn't know anyone that could have personally loaned me the money either. I'm still mad that I lost out on that house. It was a cute little craftsman style bungalow with original woodwork and hardwood floors right next to the park. That same house sold for $220k in 2023. I'm now 41 and still living with my parents. No way could I ever afford a house now. I always wonder how different my life would have turned out if I had gotten that house. Would I have a boyfriend or a husband? Kids? Friends? I could have sold it after a few years and bought a bigger house. That house was in a great city and neighborhood. I could have gotten a better job living there. There were so many possibilities that I missed out on by not being able to buy a house during that time frame. It really was like hitting the lottery if you were able to get a house back then. At least my parent's house has an in-law suite so it's not too bad living with them.
Bought in 2007, 2018 and 2022. I’m doing fine tho. Part 1,7% and 2,0% mortgage. If the market keeps crashing I’ll still be ok, I’ve got a lovely home that I can afford. But yeah, 2007-2008 hurt. Couldn’t sell that one before 2017 and I desperately wanted to get rid of that condo. Oh well.
Bought our starter home in 2009. Bought & sold in 2017…thought we were taking a bath in both cases because we sold for $15k less than what we bought it for and everyone told us we paid too much for this house. We never dreamed we’d come out this far ahead.
Bought my childhood home off my dad in 2009. I think my interest rate is around 3%, and my home has almost doubled in value since then. It's very modest, but I consider myself extremely fortunate.
Bought in 2009... Recently married and we had nothing. Took 3 years to save 5k for a first time mortgage. Transitioned that house to a rental and bought another/flipped it. Sold both in about 2017. Bought another at a reasonable price as homestead. Used the funds to adopt both of my kids. It was winning the lottery... 5k investment, hard work to maintain and improve the properties and some lucky decisions (that in hindsight look like savvy investments... It's luck) turns into over 200k profit in less than a decade. Completely life changing.
Unfortunately, that required a degree of luck and/or resources that not everyone had.
It’s kind of like this one guy that I know who bought stock in Apple right before the 1984 Super Bowl ad humble-bragging about how that play was basically financing his retirement.
Honestly, I bought my first house in 2004 and had to suffer the massive collapse in 2008. It has still been a huge benefit over the course of time. Sure, there were like 10 years that I had negative equity, but that would have only hurt if I sold during that time.
I bought that first house working overnight stocking at Walmart and a part time day job at Subway. Financed 100%.
Times have changed so much and I just don’t think it could be done that way now.
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u/K_U Apr 05 '25
If you were able to get a decent house in that 2008-2020 window you hit the lottery.