How is anyone enlisted still buying a house ?

[suzannenicole]

@turtledove13 The key is to not be in California. It’s not feasible. I’m selling my second home ( still got my other) both on VA loans. One as an e4 and one as an e5. Im probably going to buy 2 or three in the next year. It’s all location based.

 

[mablekath]

@turtledove13 I'd say your best hope is to find another service member who's selling and do a VA assumption. You could lock in a much lower rate than market and have a reasonable mortgage. Biggest issue is sellers want to realize that enormous gain and may be unwilling to sell

 

[fatpvt]

@mablekath Most people also don't have the cash to offset any equity the sellers have in the house either but assuming loan sadly. Oddly VA loan assumptions have such long times they don't lend themselves to the very people they were designed for.

 

[xyz2412]

@mablekath Unfortunately loan assumptions take a long time, sometimes 2-6 months. Most sellers are not waiting that long.

 

[jim48]

@turtledove13 Retired E7 and agent here… I sincerely think we are in a lot of trouble. This is the outcome of at least 15 years of blank checks to banks and hedge funds. I go back-and-forth between whether or not this slow burn is the future, or if a black swan will crash the market. Or if the singularity just flips the table on everything.

 

[jim48]

Check out the correlation to the M2

https://grokthemarket.com/2023/05/interest-rates-m2-and-median-pricing-in-the-ppar-region/

 

[recycler]

@turtledove13 This is how I’m feeling. I’m a single E7 going to WA and I cannot see how people are buying these days. My BAH is $2,100 for the area and there no way I can swing that. I’m just trying to find a decent affordable place to rent and maximize my savings until I got to a lower COL area or rates comes down. Also once I have a cash reserve I’m comfortable I’ll start looking at foreclosures as an option.

 

[afterthought]

@turtledove13 I know two E-5’s in escrow right now. It’s not a house but a condo and as long as they aren’t paying rent their happy with their 2 bedroom 2 bath at about 440k.

You might not be able to buy the house of your dreams but a sweet condo or townhome can sometimes do the job. I’m from Texas and when I hit the market out here in San Diego I had to lower my expectations. Being from Texas I am use to huge houses at a decent price but I had to stop comparing the two. Lower your expectations and make some cuts and compromises where you can.

For me, I rather live in a smaller home and be closer to the city than to have a cheaper bigger home an hour away from the city. But I don’t have kids so I was ok with compromising space over cost.

 

[afterthought]

Also when buying maybe you can rent a room out if that’s something your willing to compromise on? Maybe a friend from work or a mutual. Gotta make it out here somehow lol

 

[ngole]

@turtledove13 I just bought a house $1200 over BAH. Not ideal, but my wife’s income can help supplement it. I have some Save Pay and can dial back my TSP/IRA away from maxing if worse comes to worse.

 

[leoooyu]

@turtledove13 Very few enlisted folks are buying homes in Cali these days, maybe the mil to mil couples are doing it. The last guy I know that purchased a house in Northern California did it last year. His house was around $600K and I think his mortgage rate was around 5%. He's married, E-5, and his spouse is a civilian but she has a good paying job.

 

[j_johnso9]

@turtledove13 “…SoCal”

I stopped right there. This is the problem, granted it is still a problem in many areas of the country, but Cali has ridiculous housing prices.

 

[mily]

@turtledove13 Same for my fam up in NorCal. We stopped caring about buying a while ago. Just rent and let someone else deal with issue that come with owning the home while we stack all we can until we retire and move somewhere cheaper

 

[hayjay]

@turtledove13 I had a house in San Diego that I had to sell when i PCSed because the carrying costs were a couple thousand more per month (because of HOA and property taxes) than i could rent the house for, even with a low interest rate. Five years later, the house was worth over a million more than what I sold it for. Today, I don’t see how people can afford this market. Military can’t compete when others are playing with Monopoly money.

 

[jacobgeo174]

@turtledove13 How? Well you see to get a townhouse I use my BAH plus about $400 of my base pay. Holding out hope that in a few years rates will come down and prices will rise so maybe our next modest home we can just use BAH.

 

[resjudicata]

@turtledove13 I was only able to because I bought mine five years ago in Northern California. If I had to now I’m sure I would be shit out of luck.

 

[meredithhww]

@turtledove13 Are you using the entirety of both or BAHs or are you trying to live off one income? Alot of folks up by me have to use both members BAHs to get a decent home.

I was running numbers last night and I have to put down at least 20-30% (100K+) to get any where close to my BAH on a 3br 2ba house that's not updated and could use TLC. I'm just going to stay put and build up my down payment for when I'm ready to buy.

I'd rather be FI where I'm at than a house poor home owner

 

[princessj2]

@turtledove13 I’m living off my base pay right now and save 1500 a month. My wife still gets the BAH because she’s on post.

 

[palmtreeclimber]

@turtledove13 Because we don’t all live in SoCal. The housing market is there is insane.

 

[bariki]

@turtledove13 I’m an O3 trying to buy in VA and it’s impossible with the VA loan because so many people are offering $20k over asking… so I can only imagine how hard it is for enlisted guys.