Housing Market of Horrors: A 20-Something’s Guide to Buying a Home

Since the housing market began its dramatic landslide last year, I’ve been pushing my fiancé to buy a house under the impression that this may be the most affordable time for first-time buyers. There’s a lot of real estate out there for sale, most of which has been sitting stagnant for several months. The lenders and agents continue to harp that this is a buyer’s market. And they’re right—it’s the best time to be a buyer if you’re not trying to sell a house first and have 20 percent to put down.

Being 20-Something Today

I’ve learned a lot since I started looking at homes, and one of those lessons is that unless you can put 20 percent down on a house, you’re monthly mortgage is going to be painful. There isn’t a lot of incentive for young people just getting started to do anything other than rent, because renting is still much cheaper here in Maryland. Everyone tells me that I’m throwing my money away on the apartment I live in, and I know in the long run it’s true. What those people don’t realize is how hard it is for a young couple to afford a mortgage these days.

More and more kids are attending college, and not all of those kids have rich parents to pay off the debt that builds while in school. I’m pretty lucky, but not lucky enough. I had a $10,000 scholarship, and the rest of my debt was split between my parents and me. I worked part-time between classes, and after I got a decent job with my B.A., I started making payments on the other half of my debt. Five years later and I’m still hurting enough that when I looked at the mortgage estimate the broker gave me, I cringed. Continue reading Housing Market of Horrors: A 20-Something’s Guide to Buying a Home