How much was your first house?

Question

Oh how I envy the boomers who bought their houses for $20,000 and a bag of Doritos.

RavVid · Accepted Answer

Doritos cost a lot back then! :) I'm in Australia so my comments may not apply to the US - bear that in mind

It is misleading to take boomers 1970 dollars and compare that to our 2024 dollars. Inflation. The US gold standard was still in place in the early 70's. Fiat currency inherently has more inflation.

A big difference between then and now was it didn't matter what the girl earn't in a boomer couple. Mortgages were solely based on the boomer guy's income. Highly misogynistic yeah yeah etc etc. But including the girl's income just had the effect of giving couples more mortgage money to bid with. Possibly double. So prices went up of course. Singles got priced out.

Real estate as an investment became popular. That has had a major impact because one couple can own 4 houses instead of just one as they would have previously. That has increased competition and... oh surprise... put prices up. Increase in single households has increased demand as well.

Boomers criticize us for for only being willing to live in the inner city. That is very true in my case. But they went to the outer suburbs to buy their first houses and accepted long travel times to work.

Building standards have changed a lot and have made housing more expensive. When I was looking around pre-WW2 housing was shit. Lathe and plaster walls you could punch through.

A lot of boomers say they saved up a house deposit in a year. So it is genuinely a lot harder now. But there are a lot of factors in why boomers had an easier passage. And a lot of bad decisions like letting girls have mortgages :)

Lliam · Accepted Answer

My parents bought their brand new suburban, 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath, 1050 sq ft home in 1954 for $9,075. But the average annual middle class income at the time was only $4,200.

26 years later, I started out making almost 10x that in 1980 as a motor vehicle damage field adjuster/appraiser trainee for an auto insurance company. No college degree.
I bought a one bedroom condo a couple years later for $100k.

20 years after that, I was making $72k, as a senior field adjuster for the same company. My wife and I bought 30 gorgeous acres and built a house for $350k+.

Salaries and prices increase over time.

Rosexøxø · Accepted Answer

Not even there yet… lol

It seems as real as Santa.

Out of my siblings who wanted to rent apartments or put no serious thought on it- I didn’t want to rent. I was planning to save to home own. The job to help me do that didn’t choose me. Things changed and the goal got pushed further. Now I will be renting with my sisters as roommates. My name isn’t on the lease but the rent half- my share is more than I’d like as well as the apartment they decided on without me. I’m still debating whether I just abandon ship and find an alternative. Wouldn’t be the best but it’d mean I can get SOME of what I want. If I have to rent I’d want to rent something reasonable. Because by now I should’ve been a homeowner with my own mustang and saving for an electric one. :]

Maybe in the parallel universe she’s doing that right now..

FOOK YEAH ROSE. REV one for me while I play catch up and take the laughable economy as reality. Red, White, and Blue… wohoo…

* little fire cracker fizzes out with a squeak.* 🧨 🎆 🎇

jennifer_bloom · Accepted Answer

My dad knows someone who bought a house in his 20s for $20,000 using a loan and sold it in his 70’s for over $2,000,000. He used the money from the sale to rent a home and he saved on groceries by volunteering at the restaurant in exchange for free food and gifts and favours. He also did volunteer work at the golf and country club in exchange for free golfing privileges.

petitedollbabee · Answer

The house that I grew up in was bought for $38,000 NZD back in 1970, which is roughly $23,500 USD. As of 2022, it’s now worth $415,000.

WindAtMyBack · Answer

Boomers buying a house for 20K? Sure, if you wanted a tiny flimsy shack in a bad neighborhood. 20K is more like my parents post WW2 era in the late 1940s to mid 1950s. Those houses were not nearly as large as they are now. New houses then were in the 800-1200 sq ft range. By the late 70s, new houses were more like 1500-2500 sq ft range. Now they are even bigger. You are comparing apples to oranges.

When I was looking at houses in my late 20s - early 30s (mid 1980s), I could get a smaller older house in an OK but not great neighborhood for 40-50K. That was in a below average part of the country. Many parts of the country were considerably more than that. Now those same houses sell for 125-150K. That's about the same increase as inflation and wages during that time. In other words, compared to wages and costs of other things, houses weren't any cheaper then than they are now.

There is a very simple rule with housing prices. They will reflect what people can afford. They won't go up in price unless significant numbers of people can afford to pay it. People today are a hell of a lot richer than they were when I was young. The standard of living is a hell of a lot higher. That includes houses, which are not only significantly larger, but have a lot more amenities.

Superreader · Answer

I really wish I could permanently settle down in New Hampshire and be a homeowner there, but I saw this graph recently that suggests NH is one of the places with the highest average down-payment for a house. It’s so sad. I would love to own a home and raise my future kids in that kind of stability and freedom.

Static_In_The_Attic · Answer

As for the house I grew up in my parents had it build from the ground up for $85,000 & that was in 1985. Four bedroom, three levels, two bathrooms, two car garage, living room, recreation room, finished basement & more. My first house was built new in 2016 at a 200k price tag & to be honest I thought that was a steal & now people are paying 400k for less.

Fireguy17 · Answer

well, the original cottage on a lake lot was 80K.
Basically, I bought the lot. It came with the cottage, and a pontoon boat that had a hole in the deck.
Once I got past the house and sat on the swing overlooking the lake I was fine with it. The grass hadn't been cut in at least a year, the trees needed trimming, but it was a nice lot.
I had that for a couple of years and tore it down and had a new house built.

Anonymous · Answer

I'm 21, from Auckland New Zealand, and I'm looking to to pay around 1.3-1.5M for a tiny house on a tiny section in an average area atm. AND the market is currently sitting at a massive low after a 19% drop since 2022, the biggest recorded drop in Auckland's history so it's about to get even harder to buy soon.

Iron_Man · Answer

40,000 my childhood home now it’s worth 1.5 million

Redstang88 · Answer

My parents bought the house I grew up in for like 80,000 I think. Still renting, I could afford a house where I want to live but still getting myself set up at work that I could move, and still paying off some bad financial decisions

steveusna · Answer

In 1992 , I bought a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath home with 2 car garage on 1/4 acre treed lot in suburb of atlanta for 85000. My income was 95000/year. I paid off the mortgage in 7 years.

Nikki1989 · Answer

The first was 75,000, but it was a real dump. The house we are in now has been valued at 745,000.

OddBeMe · Answer

Boomers have a-lot of the wealth today. But back then they did have to out down a solid 20% of a down payment. Today we have more credit options.. just being fair. But 180k was mine. Put down 5%

Ironco · Answer

In 1999, I purchased my 3 bedroom house for $90,000. I paid it off in 11 years, it is now worth $310,000 in today's market.

On a side note, the boomers paid $.29 for that bag of Doritos. Just saying...

JacobJordan · Answer

$356,827 it was 3 bed room 2 bath + kitchen + living room + dining room. And in the middle of almost nowhere

Staximus · Answer

I don't own a house, but my parents bought the first house I lived in for $30,000 in 1970. They sold it in 1988 but today that house is worth about 2 million.

Wiredone · Answer

My parents bought their house in 1973 for 23k. I sold it 10 years ago for 360k. I bought my house for 100k in 1995. Now it's worth 525 k

TonyMetal___86 · Answer

200,000$ dollars but now i guess it's worth like 70K dollars cause the price of estates had dropped a lot...

dolemite58 · Answer

You would love Tim Dillon’s take on boomers

Massageman · Answer

My parents bought for $14,250 in 1952. Ours was $55-56K around 1978.

Dongie · Answer

Heh, $85k in a period of 6 years it's now $197k.

NathanDavis · Answer

Doritos Pizzerola...

Nifrayu · Answer

I don't know yet.

CuriousMufuxka · Answer

House? Shitty investment.

exitseven · Answer

$82,000

Anonymous · Answer

620k

How much was your first house?

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