To be honest, if you consider how house prices increased is not that hard to become a millionaire. Got an ex-coleague, he had an apartment in Boston and sold it and bought a house in a suburb. Then sold that house, bought another a bit further away and then sold that one and bought another house even further away he has a million easy. Still had to have the apartment to start with and he was smart enough to capitalize on the the house prices boom.
I don't know how anyone can afford to buy new houses now. Even in my area the price of houses is insanely high.
The real trick is buy raw land and building a house on it.
The problem? Banks never, EVER want to lend money for raw land. They just don't. I had to jump through hoops to get the land I bought - going to a bank specifically designed for it, and even then, they have a lower limit on acreage.
That gets into a whole other can of worms, because then, technically the bank is building a house on your land. As in, they can pause/stop construction by the simple method of cancelling the "drops" and not paying the contractors.
I can get onto Zillow right now and find house all across the country for $200k or less. The key? They are in small towns in the mid west. Wyoming, North & South Dakota, Nebraska, all in towns 40k and smaller.
So, if (I fully realize that is a BIG if) you can make that work, there are plenty of places to buy houses that are still affordable.
Where I live the avg price is $400k or so, but there are houses around me selling for $300k and lower. What you get is a smaller house that needs work, either due to disrepair, or is outdated and needs a remodel.
We tell the youth they need to move halfway across the country to live in a small town to have any hope of affording a house, while their tax dollars subsidize housing an endless horde of workers in the cities which became too expensive for them to afford.
No wonder more and more of them want to burn the whole thing to the ground.
Those are almost exclusively rust belt towns, towns that have been largely abandoned by the wider world, where the mean wage is much lower, which is why the housing prices are lower. If you buy a house there, and wish to make the same wage you make in a city or suburb, where house prices are much higher, you'll have to commute several hours to your job. I suppose the only exceptions would be if you can work from home, or you're an independent trucker (which would still require longer travel times to get to where most of the shipping is done).
The key? They are in small towns in the mid west. Wyoming, North & South Dakota, Nebraska, all in towns 40k and smaller.
Shhhhh, don't let them know about those places! Not like they would move there anyways because people don't want to make the sacrifices of living in BFN. They just love the hustle and bustle of the big city!
Somewhere between Rust-belt abandonland and those resort towns is what I need.
I want to live somewhere that is actually desirable to live but without too many people. Kind of a tall order.
Now if you want to talk about what hte boomers had that we don't... that's one thing. You could move to, like, California to get some extra room when the Midwest was too crowded.
I’ve got a couple houses I rent out a smaller town in the South. Both still worth just under $200k. Not fixer uppers. It’s a big enough place that unless you’re in something specialized you could find work. Boring place that’s never going to seem trendy, but it’s fine to raise a family. I’ve got a cousin there in his 20s, wife, young kid, new house. Average non exotic jobs. I’ve seen jobs there a fit for me, probably a bit overqualified, I just really don’t want to live there, already have a job and house, etc. I’m in my 40s and have already been down that road. It worked out too.
Where I live now it’s like yours closer to 400k. Have an upper 20s friend with wife and kid doing okay-ish. Definitely a lot tighter on the budget. He’s also just now getting to the point of “maybe I should learn something useful.” Very much a product of the “follow your passion” culture who’s passion is unmarketable and instead works in a warehouse.
If you can get in at the right market cycle and then flip assets, sure. But where are you living and how are you feeding yourself in between then? How are you hedging against market bubbles? You can't. Flipping assets is a thing, but very risky and not possible for everyone.
To be honest, if you consider how house prices increased is not that hard to become a millionaire. Got an ex-coleague, he had an apartment in Boston and sold it and bought a house in a suburb. Then sold that house, bought another a bit further away and then sold that one and bought another house even further away he has a million easy. Still had to have the apartment to start with and he was smart enough to capitalize on the the house prices boom.
I don't know how anyone can afford to buy new houses now. Even in my area the price of houses is insanely high.
The real trick is buy raw land and building a house on it.
The problem? Banks never, EVER want to lend money for raw land. They just don't. I had to jump through hoops to get the land I bought - going to a bank specifically designed for it, and even then, they have a lower limit on acreage.
Shit is very, very fucked.
Gee, I wonder why bankers don't want White men to own land?
What if you pay cash for land and want a loan to build a house?
That gets into a whole other can of worms, because then, technically the bank is building a house on your land. As in, they can pause/stop construction by the simple method of cancelling the "drops" and not paying the contractors.
So it would be easier to get a loan for land and pay cash for construction?
I think if the "bank" is a credit union in a rural area, the incentives would be aligned.
I can get onto Zillow right now and find house all across the country for $200k or less. The key? They are in small towns in the mid west. Wyoming, North & South Dakota, Nebraska, all in towns 40k and smaller.
So, if (I fully realize that is a BIG if) you can make that work, there are plenty of places to buy houses that are still affordable.
Where I live the avg price is $400k or so, but there are houses around me selling for $300k and lower. What you get is a smaller house that needs work, either due to disrepair, or is outdated and needs a remodel.
We tell the youth they need to move halfway across the country to live in a small town to have any hope of affording a house, while their tax dollars subsidize housing an endless horde of workers in the cities which became too expensive for them to afford.
No wonder more and more of them want to burn the whole thing to the ground.
Those are almost exclusively rust belt towns, towns that have been largely abandoned by the wider world, where the mean wage is much lower, which is why the housing prices are lower. If you buy a house there, and wish to make the same wage you make in a city or suburb, where house prices are much higher, you'll have to commute several hours to your job. I suppose the only exceptions would be if you can work from home, or you're an independent trucker (which would still require longer travel times to get to where most of the shipping is done).
Shhhhh, don't let them know about those places! Not like they would move there anyways because people don't want to make the sacrifices of living in BFN. They just love the hustle and bustle of the big city!
Somewhere between Rust-belt abandonland and those resort towns is what I need.
I want to live somewhere that is actually desirable to live but without too many people. Kind of a tall order.
Now if you want to talk about what hte boomers had that we don't... that's one thing. You could move to, like, California to get some extra room when the Midwest was too crowded.
I’ve got a couple houses I rent out a smaller town in the South. Both still worth just under $200k. Not fixer uppers. It’s a big enough place that unless you’re in something specialized you could find work. Boring place that’s never going to seem trendy, but it’s fine to raise a family. I’ve got a cousin there in his 20s, wife, young kid, new house. Average non exotic jobs. I’ve seen jobs there a fit for me, probably a bit overqualified, I just really don’t want to live there, already have a job and house, etc. I’m in my 40s and have already been down that road. It worked out too.
Where I live now it’s like yours closer to 400k. Have an upper 20s friend with wife and kid doing okay-ish. Definitely a lot tighter on the budget. He’s also just now getting to the point of “maybe I should learn something useful.” Very much a product of the “follow your passion” culture who’s passion is unmarketable and instead works in a warehouse.
If you can get in at the right market cycle and then flip assets, sure. But where are you living and how are you feeding yourself in between then? How are you hedging against market bubbles? You can't. Flipping assets is a thing, but very risky and not possible for everyone.
I'm talking about the work one does for living.