Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for July 25, 2024

Compared to Arlo I stole my house. I don’t remember missing any sleep even with our $150 a month mortgage looming over me.

In California we were paying $295 in rent. Didn’t know how we were going to afford $350 when we bought our condo

Yep. I’ve felt for a while that we’re in another housing bubble …. anybody else remember 2006-2008? That bubble sure burst!!! I feel it coming again …

You Americans are so well off… in Oz housing is sooo much higher. Check Sydney prices and see how well off you are.

My wife and I bought the house we live in, in 1989 for 40K. It’s fair market price is around 175K now. We live in a small town (36K population) in the midwest. Cost of living is low compared to much of the country.

I’m another one whose first house was $45K for a 3 bedroom, 1100 sq. ft. brick ranch with a basement and a nice yard. The Interest rate was around 12%, though, and payments were $450.00. Household income was maybe $25K. I also remember having brand new car payments with the interest rate at 18%….and that was with excellent credit.

My house has tripled in value since I bought it in 2002. Housing in the area I’d like to retire to has gone up 10 times in the same period.

Yew wuz ripped off.

Even in my hometown 40 miles away, the houses are getting ridiculous. My late Dad used to say “Man they sure are proud of these houses by what they are asking!”.

House prices be loco, for sure. Bought our house in 2004 and according to some web sites it has appreciated about 55%. If we were looking today we wouldn’t be able to afford our own home!

We got ours at a steal. We were doing the rent-with-money-going-towards-down-payment & finish the work, thing & the rehab company went belly up. So, they told us to hotfoot to the bank & see if we could get a loan for mortgage & get the house off their papers, or else we’d lose our down payments, maybe the house & if not, we’d need a vastly larger mortgage to get it. They asked forwhat was left of the money they owed on it. So we got our first house for $45,000, which included money for us to finish the work. WHEW!!!

I live in northernmost Maine. New, fancy big homes, are of course expensive. However, older homes that need some work are very reasonable. Why? It’’s hundreds of miles away from anywhere. Who in their right mind would live here?

Our first in ‘84 was 56k and we agonized over whether we could afford it. We could and did.

My hands were shaking when I wrote a check for 20% (required by a conventional mortgage) of the house I bought in ’95. First house, bought years before, just a 1% down payment under the type of mortgage I wasable to obtain.

I’m thankful that we’ve been blessed enough to have paid off our home many years ago.

When I lived in Sunnyvale, one of my neighbors had purchased her house when it was built – in 1947. $50 down, $50/month. I sold mine in 2004 for $415,000.

Built our house in 1984 for around 60k, but it was the 14% interest on a 30 yr. fixed that was tough.

First house in 1970 was about $8k (870 sq ft) and $69 house payment, sold 7 years later for $15K. Turned around and paid $27.5K with $200 payment (thought we might not make it). Sold it 18 years later for $72K and built our 3rd house for around $157K that’s now worth about $600K. Not interested in selling though because the current houses being built are pieces of junk compared to ours.

May this plotline never end

I can’t buy a used car for the price I paid for my first house.

With interest on the mortgage, he probably paid more like 90 grand for it…or even more.

our new car is gonna cost more than our first house…

My parents paid $60K for their last house – in 1973. 17 years later, after they died, we sold it for $300K.

I bought a fixer-upper in Florida for $180k. New roof, windows, floors, a/c, kitchen and appliances cost about $75k. 5 years later I retired and got enough to let me pay cash for this house which sits on over 3 acres with its own pond. With no mortgage I’m not rich but I am living comfortably

The 60 grand would make the down payment! My house has more than doubled in 17 years.

We bought the current house in a small town (30K people) in 2009 for 240,000 dollars CDN. that was a good price. 1125 sq. ft. raised bungalow. 4 beds 2 baths. Big property. Last year we were offered 780,000 dollars CDN. We turned it down as there was no place to move to better where we could buy without a mortgage. retirees in Ontario do NOT get mortgages.

My parents three family house in a suburb of Boston, which was build around 1918, cost them $24k in 1964. My 89yr old father gets offers from realtor corporations from all of the country to convert it to condo’s. His latest offer is $1.6 million.

I started my first job for $4 an hour in 1981. Most skilled workers were making $10 an hour. Try to buy a $250,000 house with those wages.

We just sold our 7th house in 46 years. Life in the Airforce will do that. Paid 45K for the first one then sell, move, buy, sell, move, buy again and again always at the going market value. Kind’a envied folks with a more stable life. Now just sold this place and moving into a new, smaller house mortgage free for the first time. My plan is to live to 100 so it was all worthwhile.

And Arlo will be able to sell at $120K to $150K.

Da’Dad – Same here…paid it off in less than 18 years. And been here for over 35 years!

In 1988 I purchased my place for $63,000. According to several web sites I might be able to sell my home now for $325,000.

So the Boomer whose house is now worth ten times what he paid for it, is complaining that houses are expensive? Yeah, that tracks.

Bought our first home cash for $4,500. Sold it for $15,000. Purchased an oceanfront condo for $56,000 in 1995. Will enjoy it until I leave earth if the taxes and insurance don’t get it first.

After I graduated from law school, but before I had taken the Barr exam, in 1984, we purchased a house for under $100,000. I was incredibly nervous studying for the bar exam, knowing that I was $100,000 in debt And not yet able to practice my profession. The last time I looked that house was valued at about $300,000 on Zillow!

Paid cash for my house, but it took 50 years to get there.

While he’s checking things, he should look into insurance rates in coastal areas… that could be even more eye-opening!

To me these numbers in the comments are …strange. In Germany to build a new home is between 2000 and 7000 €/m² (or close to precisely 1/10th in USD/sqft, 200 to 700) without regard of the building space.

2007 I bought mine for 300k and used 100k to bring it to the level of comfort I wanted. If I wanted to sell it today it’d be about 1 million. But I don’t like to. Since I shelled out another 50k I don’t have to pay for electricity and heating. No mortgage either, so except water/wastewater and phone/data we’re good. (We don’t even have a car, everything I need is within 5 to 20 minutes bicycle ride – with an IKEA 10 mins walk away.)

$14,600 in 1966. Still living in it with a few additions. Three bedroom tri-level on 80 by 190 foot lot in the city. You got a lot more for your money way back then.

Corporations are buying up houses and renting them for really unaffordable prices. Watch out who you sell your home to…

My first house in 1970 cost $12K. My first new car in 1984 cost the same.

We bought our first house in 1975, in Columbus, Ohio, for $24,700.