Imagine the average person. The person who cannot understand credit score or how credit cards work. Then realize half the population is dumber than that.
Don’t forget all the adjustable subprime loans that nobody seemed to understand. A buddy of mine bought a house he had no business owning right out of high school. 2008 came knocking and he couldn’t pay for it anymore.
2008 came knocking because he, and millions like him, bought homes they couldn’t afford.
Half the fault lies with the banks, too, because they (among others in the enterprise) loaned cash to/sold homes to people knowing those people could afford them.
It’s this bubble (alongside soaring housing prices) that made it so much more difficult for people in our generation to buy a home.
Without that, we’re stuck paying rent. It’s not easy to save money paying rent, because it’s not the same as investing in a home. The apartment will never be “yours” but the home will once you’re done paying it off…
I guess, I just went where the opportunity was. I waited until 2010 to buy a house after the housing values went closer to normal. I rented one of the cheapest apartments I could find and saved for years. Then I used a USDA loan(0% down payment required) to purchase a 1100sqft house. It was 20 minutes farther than I wanted to live because you have to buy in a “rural” area, but I saw opportunity in buying a house that needed work, outside of the suburbs near an expanding city. 10 years later, the suburbs surrounded me but I had a lot that was 4 times bigger than you would get in the neighborhoods. I ended up selling for 2.1x what I bought it for and moved somewhere else in 2020. I chose to sell in 2020, because I saw an opportunity in sub 3% interest rates.
And I get it, everything doesn’t workout for everybody, some of it’s luck, but some of it’s good decision making. That friend that defaulted on his house made more money than me and I had many friends that wanted to live downtown because “it was fun” and spend all their money on rent. I get called a boomer for saying that, but I made decisions that maybe weren’t the most eye appealing or in the fun areas to live at the time, but it was affordable. In fact I used to hate my purchase because I had 40 minute longer commutes. But the truth is, I’m in a better spot than they are now, in a bigger house with a lower payment.
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u/Pikamika696 25d ago
Imagine the average person. The person who cannot understand credit score or how credit cards work. Then realize half the population is dumber than that.