Whether it’s been the motivation of the first time home buyer tax credit or lower, more affordable prices making it possible for first timers to get into the market, there’s no doubt the first time home buyer has been driving the market for the last several months.
In March of this year I published a post about our first home buying experience. If you or someone you know has recently bought as a first time owner, I’d love to hear your story!
In the meantime, here’s a repost of my story:
(originally published March, 2009)
A young couple, she rents an apartment while finishing college, he still lives at home. The wedding is 6 months away. They want to buy a home; their first together. They don’t see themselves living in someone else’s home. They want to create “their own place”, be able to paint and knock out walls and have a dog without restrictions.
They are young.
She is 21 and he is 24. They don’t know much about the process, only that they want to own their own home.
They meet with their Realtor who tells them they can’t afford much and that their price range is pretty competitve. There isn’t much available unless they are willing to look in a few areas where they absolutely cannot see themselves living.
They share this with their agent.
One week later, their agent calls to say a new property just came on the market. They haven’t looked at one single home prior to this one, but it’s perfect; great area, great lot, hardwood floors and on a cul-de-sac.
His Dad says it’s good quality construction, but she doesn’t care about that because it’s cute as can be and has a guest room for when her parents come to visit…plus she has vision and can see past the brown carpet & orange wallpaper.
They must decide. It won’t last long.
The payment will be much higher than they are comfortable paying….but it’s a good house and rent would not save them that much more.
They move forward with the purchase. She moves in to save on rent and he moves in three months later after the wedding.
They really had no idea what they were getting themselves into…
We are now on our 4th home….our Dream Home.
Maybe it’s because rates are so incredibly low right now, or because my son is getting ready to buy his first home, but I’ve been thinking a great deal about the experience my husband and I went through 25 years ago.
I’m so grateful we were oblivious to all of the “bad news”… that with interest rates in the 14% range we probably “shouldn’t be buying” (according to traditional schools of thought anyway) but should wait for rates to fall…..or that with the economy in recovery mode our house wasn’t going to appreciate by leaps and bounds.
We just knew that we had to live somewhere and if we were going to make a monthly payment, we wanted it to go towards our own place.
I wonder if “could-be” first time homebuyers today really have any concept of the great opportunities this market presents for them. I hope they are taking the steps to find out if owning is a possibility rather than listening to all the reasons why they should be afraid.
In my case, ingorance (of negative media) has been bliss…..
