I’m trying to figure some things out (financial planning-wise). I’d really appreciate responses so I can gauge how I’m doing.
My first question is: How long did it take you to save a down payment (plus all the related fees) for a home?
0 voters
Second question is, what was your ballpark household income during this time?
0 voters
Merci!
We haven’t done it yet, so I don’t want to mess up your graph - but I think it’s going to take us about 3-4 years total to save a 20% down payment. We’ll have had a ranging household income there (from about 100k total to over 200k).
This is for looking at (V)HCOLA houses, though - Seattle or the Bay.
Oh that’s fine! Estimates definitely work.
I think this is so dependent on personal situation and I know you are doing great.
We have huge incomes and home prices in the area reflect the fact that only people with our incomes (or family help) can afford to buy at all. I put 2-4 years because we pulled 1/3 of the down payment from stocks when we bought earlier than expected but we would have saved at our current rate within 2.5 years.
Also, we chose to prioritize saving for retirement before housing which is another variable. You could save fast or slower depending on whether you pause on retirement, save only to the match, etc. There’s really no one right answer.
ETA oh yeah, we did 20% because we had to put that down to be competitive in this market with offers but it would have taken less time to save 10% (obviously 
)
Yeah, I’ve also prioritized retirement savings - if we stopped that for a year or two, the down payment would accumulate much faster. That terrifies me though. 
I’m also targeting 20% because I really don’t want to pay PMI on the size of loan we’d have to get…
My first house cost (on my own) cost about five bucks. If you buy the cheapest house in a low cost of living city you can have a nice small down payment. That’s my real estate advice.
(Five bucks but I was making 10k a year, so it took me years to get that down payment and the closing costs together)
I answered the questions but I think it really depends upon what level of down payment you are talking about. I bought my first house at 25 years old but I only put down 5%. I put down $10,000 on a $200,000 house. That 5% was enough to get a conventional mortgage. My second house I also put 5% down on, and I didn’t put 20% down until the third house, because I had a lot of equity.
That’s pretty much what I’ve done as well. I’ve always prioritized retirement but I had to drop our retirement savings to like 3% of husband’s salary to save for the downpayment because I can’t afford do both. But now I’m wondering if I should just extend the timeline for cash savings.
IDK, it’s kind of been stressful trying to save $1k cash a month. And it’s a bit demoralizing because our medical costs are so absurdly high compared to most people our age. It’s kind of helping me to see that people who make way more money than us also planned longer timelines than I did. I was hoping to save it all in 18 months (buying with 4%-5% down, FHA, because it’s the only way we’ll be able to do so). I didn’t want to be too soft on myself though, anyway thank you for sharing!
We didn’t specifically save for a down payment, we just had a bunch of savings. We were also contributing a small amount to our 401ks, up to the company match, so everything else went to one giant savings bucket. We bought shortly after the housing crash but before the new legislation happened, so we initially qualified for $$$$$ and said no, we want our budget to be $$$$ and we knew we had 20% of that in cash in our savings already.
Our journey was weird, so I won’t mess up the survey data! We put ~$70K down, and here’s my best recollection about where it came from:
We were making $100-$150K this whole time, but never had two full-time paying jobs between us.
Edit: We are not intense saving for retirement people, so at this time we’d take advantage of company matching when we had it available, but not doing additional retirement savings. My wife also has other money in the stock market that is [~ amount we should be retirement-wise at our age]. I wish I were enough of an optimist to bet that things will be basically fine and predictable in 2050. I hope I’m wrong!
That’s really kind, thank you. I have to remind myself that I have some challenges and that’s why my progress is so much more…laborious, haha.
That makes sense that it would be stressful. 18 months is a short period of time for saving a down payment, or at least it is in my neck of the woods - even for standard issue DINKs.
I think it’s all a desire and risk tolerance game. How much do you want a house? How much does your IBL protest at lowered retirement savings?
We went the young hardcore route for our first house. DINKS, lived with my brother in a super cheap super shitty place, hardcore frugal. Took us 1.5 years to pay of my nursing loans and save for 10% down and enough for repairs etc.
At this age, with or without a kid, I would not do that again probably
ETA we also moved to a cheaper market to buy (although cheaper isn’t why we moved) and this was back in 2017. We didn’t have insane income though, I think it was $70k for total first year and $85 for second or something.
I have some questions because I’ve thought about this. My fear is that if we buy a really cheap place it will need so much work it won’t really save much. Also, how do you get around the crime issue? My tolerance level is decently high but most of the really low cost places here are either: too far away from work, in dangerous areas, super super super old/falling apart. I want all of your wisdom! I was thinking max of $300k and buying in the nicest neighborhood we can. Thoughts?
Also @Smacky - can I ask if this was a bit ago? I know where I live, a 2022 cheap house is very different from a 3-5 years ago cheap house. My sense is that Canada and the US are on similar housing cost trajectories, but obviously let me know if that’s wrong.
This is a good question. TBH I’m not really afraid of being poor when I’m old because it seems very unlikely. I am more concerned about being priced out of another city and having to move somewhere I really don’t like. If I could guarantee we could always afford rent here I wouldn’t buy at all. I have no innate desire to own other than securing a lower monthly payment.
We all have to have hobbies, and one of mine is closely following housing policy? If a concern is being priced out, I would recommend prioritizing buying sooner, when you’re thinking about all of your variables. There is a huge gap between the number of houses built and the demand for them. Here’s an article I read recently that does a nice job of summarizing it: Why Home Prices Keep Rising - The New York Times
There’s a saying that “California is America, but sooner” and I do think that more of the country is headed in the unaffordable-housing direction. There are lots of factors behind the “why,” but I don’t see things getting better for a long time, if they do ever get better.
I absolutely agree. One of my hobbies is following the housing market (nationally) and I see this too. We got priced out of NYC and it was rough, although obviously the market I’m in now is way less competitive. I also strongly believe there will be a housing crash around 1.5 years from now, which is part of why I’ve put a lot of pressure on this short timeline. I think it could be an opportunity for us to get something nicer than we might otherwise be able to get. I suspect a lot of people panic purchased homes that aren’t actually right for them (to deal with their anxiety around COVID) and I think that’s still happening and that a lot of stuff will be coming back on the market. Hm, lots to think about!
ETA: Also if this needs to be moved to another thread please do that whoever, I’m always messing up thread categories here, lol.
Totally possible! I’ve literally been wrong about so many things that I have a PowerPoint deck about it, lol.
Haha, I know it’s not true but in my mind this happened due to some kind of passive aggressive personal argument 
Also, wasn’t there an influencer years ago who made a powerpoint to convince her boyfriend to propose? I vaguely remember that.