richardag said:ktownag08 said:
I wonder if we'll see folks a start to get married sooner and reverse the trend.
Our first house in 2009 was 165k in the suburbs with good schools. We chose not to live in the trendy area of town as much more affordable. We also bought that house with the comfort of two salaries even though we could have done it with one.
I bought a house for $35,000($308.59/mnth) in Oak Cliff, approximately 1800 sq.ft... Interest was 11%, thank you very much President Carter. It cost ~1.5 Xs my annual income.
I personally rewired most of it, added sheetrock over the peeling wallpaper on shiplap lumber walls/ceilig, replaced most of the old plumbing, removed reglazed all double hung sash windows(27).
I contracted to have the window unit air conditioners &
floor furnace replaced with central heat & air, & contracted to have the detached single car garage replaced.
Sold it for a little over our investment for $66,000. Had enough to put a down payment on a house that was in a middle class neighborhood and moved.
I could tell a similar story about my first home purchase, a fixer-upper. Emphasis on "fixer," although I was fortunate with a 7.5% mortgage vs. your 11%.
Back before the internet. I had to go to hardware stores to buy books with very crude instructions to learn how to experiment with fixing things and do-it-yourself. Also had to frequently drive to a major city 1.5 hours away -- one way -- to buy basic parts.
Youtube and Amazon today make it a breeze.