Wall Street Journal - 100k not enough anymore for home ownership

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"Bought" my first house making 38k/year...have never had any difficulty paying for it.
Is that bragging? I sure as hell hope not!

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Nope. Did the same. I was 25 when I bought mine. About 2 years out of college, only making maybe 38-39k at the time. Never missed a payment and continually built up savings and retirement.
I think many people are just bad at managing money, unfortunately.

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People spend too much on housing.

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Yep. People don't want your 1500 sq ft starter home anymore.

I make in the 60s thousand a year, 4 kids, stay at home wife. Owned a house for 10 years now, approximate 185k. My note is less than a 55k trailer I use to own in the country. Granted yearly property taxes and insurance are higher. Vehicles paid off, hunt public land, kids in public school and they all prefer that, we still do one big (well big to us) vacation a year, and several small trips a year. One kid has grown up and moved out so technically 3 kids now albeit she still eats with us many nights a week.

Unfortunately I belive it is true. Too many have crazy student debt, at least 2 car loans, $300/month cell phone bills, $900/month eating out bills, etc.

It takes discipline to own a home on $100k these days compared to what most are doing.

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The median home selling price where I live in Tennessee is ~550k.

So no $100,000/year (for a family) won't do it.

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There's only a handful of neighborhoods in the entire south like this though. Where does your plumber live?

My wife is from Nashville, there's plenty of places for people to live with sub $300k homes in good enough school districts that are within 30 minutes without traffic of downtown.

The issue is that your average new development home is 2400 sq ft with all the fixings. So many people are buying their "dream" home as their first home. Its laughable how many friends I have that bought a super nice home as their first home and then within 2 years are already looking to upgrade.

Meanwhile their savings are shite, still have student loans, and barely making retirement contributions.

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If bet your first house wasn’t 4 beds 3 baths with marble and tile everything and 3000 sq ft.

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Yeah you're right. It's 1,440 sq ft. and I'm still in it over 4 years later

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The issue is that your average new development home is 2400 sq ft with all the fixings. So many people are buying their "dream" home as their first home. Its laughable how many friends I have that bought a super nice home as their first home and then within 2 years are already looking to upgrade.

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Exactly. That's just stupid.

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Meanwhile their savings are shite, still have student loans, and barely making retirement contributions.

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The article mentioned that the average renter who can't afford a house has a net worth of $5,500.

My first home cost $39k. I was making like $7/hour when I bought it.

Article is spot on. $100K income, even if you are single with little debt, doesn't go very far unless you're o.k. with an exurb and 2 hour commute. Or being house poor.

Add in kids, other debts, and wanting a good school district, and you're certainly SOL at $100K.

There is a price bubble though, with cheap money for the last 10 years and cash buyers (many foreign) driving prices up.

Never wanted to be a landlord. House was getting to the point everything needed replacing (roof/ac/appliances/water heater). I got a fat check over and above what I owed, but looking back over the 20 years I owned it I didn’t profit greatly. I’d have sold it in 2008 when I inherited the house I live in, but it was worth half what I owed then.