re: Can someone help me explain how people are affording a house in today's market?

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When I was a kid my single mom couldn’t afford anything close to her work so she bought a hundred year old house and 20 acres out in the country about 45 min from the city for $22k (in 1985). We worked for 5 years fixing it up and sold it for $160k. We did the same thing a little closer and she sold t for $400k. She’s now worth over 2 million.

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Impressive.

Dad dies and leaves behind a shitload of money his kids immediately spend

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3BR/2BA 1,100SF for $1.8MM

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How the frick do you fit 3 bedrooms and two baths into an 1,100sf house? And who the frick would pay $1.8 million for it?

I grew up in a 1,100 sf house with 4 bedrooms and 1 1/2 bath. Living room, kitchen, laundry room and a carport. Parents bought the house in 1970 when I was 4 months old.

Mom and dad had the master with the 1/2 bath. My older brother had a room, my sister had a room, and me and my younger brother shared a room. Bunk bed brothers.

Buy a small house that is in a decent neighborhood. Spend a little money on it to fix up. Not a fortune and not everything at once

Take out a 15 year note rather than a 30. You pay almost nothing in interest in that situation. Hold onto the house for five years and then trade up

My first house 20 years ago was $225k. 6.25% interest. I did that plan. Each year my note was paid down $10k. Throw in another $5-10 a year in appreciation and in five years I had added $100K of equity. Second house was $425K. Now in a $750k house and it is paid in two years.

You need to pick the right neighborhood but that plan works. You save money while living in a house.

I was actually looking this up today.

Most people are NOT putting 20% down.

Zillow were the people snatching up every house in my neighborhood and driving up the prices paying cash over list 24 hours after listing. And a month later they are all rentals. And the renters are multi-generational families with many adults living in one house, so they all split the rent and it's affordable for them. One family had the whole driveway repoured to take up half the yard so all eight, yes eight vehicles could park there.

And as the other poster said, there's tons of Northeast people coming to Georgia who sold their house for a million+ in Jersey or NY and get instant upgrades at half the price around here, further driving up the prices.

"Regular" people aren't paying these housing prices. They are corporations or windfall buyers. Becky and Kevin TwoJob aren't affording this.

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Buy a small house that is in a decent neighborhood. Spend a little money on it to fix up.

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These places don't really exist at prices that you'd normally think of for a first house anymore unless it's in the middle of the ghetto.

America doesn't have a housing shortage. America has a liveable area shortage.

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Weirdly enough, the higher rates haven’t seem to cut down prices very much yet. There is just no inventory.

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Prices have dropped a ton in DFW I would say for a bit. I closed 10 days ago on a place and the price had dropped 25% from this time last year. Interest rate is higher, but principal is lower so when rates go down I'll refinance.

There is no one right answer, but I thought it was time to buy

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They are not available in the middle of town next to the hip bars and restaurants

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Hip bars and restaurants aren't the issue. Proximity to work is. For someone out of college making $50-$60K at their first job, they'd have to live an hour from work. With gas prices over $3/gallon and not dropping anytime soon, it puts people in a bind. There are not a ton of jobs in rural and suburban America for brand new college grads.