Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

keptalpaca22 t1_ja9jq88 wrote

My (31m) wife (32f) and I have a combined annual income of about $250k and just bought a 4-bed home in northern Fairfield county for $548k with $75k down. Our mortgage/insurance/taxes comes to about $3500/mo. While it feels like a lot, and it is, we were just throwing money away renting and we are feeling lucky to have gotten the house we did. Once we have kids we'll really have to tighten up the budget. The system feels broken. I'm not an economist but the bigger housing picture feels unsustainable to me.

30

spitlead t1_jaaharf wrote

>broken

Yeah, your intuition is correct. In my town which is NOT a well known big money zip code, there are no houses on the market. 2 years ago every single street had signs, now there are almost none. The one house a block over from me sold for 485k and was listed for like 24 hours before it sold, it was a new construction in 2016 for 275k... Nobody is selling because they are locked into good rates, selling now means you are looking to go bigger in many cases and the bigger means a new mortgage with a shitty interest rate on houses that are insanely priced. The whole market is priced out, i think hartford courant ran article that there are only like 330 houses in the whole state that are less than 300k. It seems like there are more than 330 people/families that are looking for their first house....but there is no new inventory getting built.

8

TreeEleben t1_jaasi4u wrote

New construction is usually 4k sq/ft or larger single family homes on multiple acre lots, or apartments, usually high end apartments. New homes are being built, but they're not starter homes.

7

Jimalo69 t1_ja9tzak wrote

$548k? That sounds reasonable, altho a lot of Money down. What do i know tho

5

Zootallurs t1_ja9zkyw wrote

That’s only ~14% down. They’re probably paying PMI for a few years.

12

keptalpaca22 t1_jaa39ht wrote

Yes we are. We reached a point as renters that we could've paid off nearly half a house already over the last decade. We bit the bullet in order to build ourselves equity

10

thebatfan5194 t1_jaag401 wrote

Good decision! It is obscene when you realize how much money you are throwing away as a renter.

4

Uncle_Tony96 t1_jaafj4r wrote

Just out of curiosity, mind if I ask what you do for a living? You don’t have to be too specific, just general line of work

1

keptalpaca22 t1_jaafsw5 wrote

My wife works in Healthcare tech.

I am the director of a nonprofit and teach classes at the local university. I work a lot but am fortunate to love what I do.

4

Uncle_Tony96 t1_jaagv7w wrote

Ah ok great. I’m in a healthcare field also. Respect to you both

2