re: Starter homes under 450k in a decent neighborhood

The “help” from undergrad was me living at home, because I chose to go to school near my house in order to avoid student loans. My wife also chose to go to an undergrad school near a relative that she lived with.

The wedding isn’t really help because we could’ve gone to the courthouse and essentially got married for free. It’s not like we had to spend as much as they did.

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The wedding isn’t really help because we could’ve gone to the courthouse and essentially got married for free. It’s not like we had to spend as much as they did.

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GTFO

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We have good families that supported us through undergrad but neither of us have received a penny from our parents since getting real jobs.

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Nothing wrong with this, but you don't get to ignore help you got to put you in that starting position and claim you did it all on your own.

What's that saying about starting life on 3rd base and thinking you hit a triple

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It does suck for them but they might have to commute instead of living in established neighborhoods or cookie cutter subdivisions

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Yeah I certainly wouldn't throw too much pity toward them, although IT IS different than how it was 10 years ago.

Meaning right now, in Atlanta, if you want to live in a decent (meaning safe ad polite, not necessarily strong schools/highish end) for 450k you're probably going to have to opt for an aging brick ranch that needs work in a rougher part of a closer in suburb, or an ugly, cookie cutter build of questionable quality that is probably 3000 sq ft and out in distant Cobb or Gwinnett suburbia.

Either will work just fine, minus the commute, but you'll also be the young couple in a neighborhood of distant suburban families whose kids are probably in middle/high school. That could change as more young people are forced to do that, but right now it's still an awkward fit.

Whereas 10 years ago, you could take 450 and find a smallish old home with good bones in a Buckheadish neighborhood or Brookhaven or East Cobb or Sandy Springs, etc. and be around a bunch of other late 20s types just in time to have your first kid and then all upgrade at roughly the same time moving into the same neighborhoods, etc.

Not the end of the world, but the pretty established paths of urban/close in suburban home ownership for young professionals have changed a lot if you're not prepared to buy a 600k+ house in your mid/late 20s.

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I also paid for 6 years of graduate education out of pocket during those years, okay

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With no family help I'm sure.

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There was no help during the years that I paid for grad school, don't move the goal posts now

ETA: anyway you're missing the point of me mentioning that I paid for the school in cash. The point was that I wasn't just saving massive amounts of money before we purchased our starter home.

I like Lexington. But it’s only affordable because that’s in the nondescript middle part of the country and very few people outside of native born want to live there.

I say this as someone originally from Dayton (#fentanyl)

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I found you a better one to help your argument though LINK /

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This is actually an amazing one because it has an assumable mortgage rate of 2.99. Which is half of the current rates. Not sure the remaining balance but this is a really good option

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Same goes for the Houston area.

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I’ll sell you my house for under $450k in Houston Heights

$450K is not a starter home.

A starter home is a starter home because it has qualities that make it undesirable to those who are buying 2nd and 3rd homes. Such as being in the hood or hood-adjacent. Or having a long commute.

This situation is extremely amplified when you are trying to find a starter home in an area of extreme growth. In your case, Austin is the poster child for extreme growth.

I was in this situation with Houston in 1995. Within 5 minutes we knew we couldn't afford all three of Safe, Conveniently located, and Affordable. Which is why, even with two incomes, we had to settle for Affordable
and buy a home 27 miles from our jobs, in a rent heavy subdivision. We had one car note, made almost weekly repairs to the house, and rent for our first 2 years of marriage to save for a down payment. We lived there for six years before moving out of our "starter" home.

And it took us 3 months of looking really hard until we found this jewel of a starter home.

To that end, here you go:

It took me 5 minutes. It is 3 years old in a great area and its 45 mins from downtown Austin. Yes, its overpriced at $285K, but to work in Austin, you should be over-salaried.

$285K three year old home

For comparison, here is a starter home in the Houston area with the same commute and decent (not great) schools. Another area with very high growth, only not as crazy as Austin.

$230K starter home Houston area