ARGGHHHHH

PLease how in holy h ell ANYONE frekkin affords houses. I am getting sick and depressed about this and it isnt helping that my mother is constantly HARASSING me about where we are going to live after the wedding cause she 'cant wait till I get out'.

Like.. we have good jobs!!! I dont get it. We spent all our savings on this wedding and now Im gonna have to live in an alley.

ARGGHHH how are people affording this??!??

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Posted by lacey&mark

aww i know its frustrating! we actually plan on moving to NC after the wedding. i am applying to all the UNC grad schools for school counseling (a job thats nearly impossible to get on LI). its just impossible to live the life we want here on LI. we want a nice and decent sized house, good schools, nice neighborhood, all that good stuff. we simply will never be able to afford it here! right now we rents and its no fun :( but, hey, people live here, so it must be possible to do. best of luck! ~lacey

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That was my remedy, we MOVED (to charlotte)

I hear ya!

it is like i look at houses in the paper and then i am like geez this aint going to happen...my mom is saying the same thing!!!

we are going to prob look for an apartment in May or so. I wish we could afford a house i dunno how the hell people do it!!

i hear you guys.......... its sickening to even try and calculate the costs.

I read an article recently that said 30K Long Islandsers about our age move out of the area in the last few years!

Here is some food for thought------ Written by My FH. he jumped on the computer on saturday when i had a post up about buying a home---- fyi we are in the same situation as you. Tell you mom this is why its tough for people are age to buy houses:
He wrote:

I would only buy a place if you can afford to pay the mortgage without stretching too far and if you intend to live in the place for a long time.

Evidence of Bubble Mentality
Historically 63-67% of households have owned homes and this number fluctuates throughout the various business cycles. Currently home ownership is at an all time high of 70%. This excess demand has been brought on by lower interest rates after the stock market crash in 2000. The market was appreciating normally at that time, but the fed lowered interest rates to help the economy out of the recession we were about to get into. At that point all of the smart money went into housing and from 2000 through mid 2005 the housing market kept breaking all new records. At the same time banks started offering riskier mortgages and low/no documentation loans to help people get into these expensive houses, otherwise financial suicide. This is where the bubble mentality had started to take hold. You could do no wrong buying a house, because of its expected appreciation. Banks were irresponsible and willing to give 500,000 to people with combined incomes of about 100,000. Interest Only loans and Option Arms are running rampant in the market. The mentality was that we are all going to become wealthy real estate owners. I have 3 friends that have become contractors and speculators. The expectation was that the owner could just refinance once the house appreciated.

Prices have currently hit a point where just about everyone is priced out of the market. If you don’t have 10-20% down and cannot manage the payments of at least a 30 year term then do not buy. The market has peaked here on LI home inventory has increased by I think 30% and houses are taking much longer to sell. In my fiancés neighborhood you get the impression that the entire neighborhood is up for sale. We have visited a couple of open houses and laughed our way out after we say the price that the crap houses were selling for. People who own homes and looking to move up are not helped by the appreciation because the bigger houses these people are looking for are no longer 100-200K more than their current houses, they are 400-600 more than their current house. The mortgage becomes un-affordable even with the equity built up. A lot of the demand we currently see is not true home owner demand. Like I said earlier every one and their mother have become flippers. There is a large group of investors that was not around in the past. When returns no-longer meet expectations and this is beginning on the west coast these people will all swarm out of the market and prices will be forced down. This may be at work now evidenced by the large inventory in a seasonally low inventory time of year. The best thing to do is to ride down the bubble and buy when housing is no longer in favor, but that isn’t possible I think for most people and not even for me. As we are all getting married soon and want a place of our own. I think that all the people who could afford homes have bought, the “financially irresponsible people” and the flippers using the exotic mortgages have also bought. The ones left are either the very poor, those waiting out the bubble and young people like us starting off. I think that we aren’t going to go much higher than 70% home ownership and that the spring/summer 06 housing performance will be the nail in the coffin. Alan Greenspan will increase the Fed Funds rate at least two more times to 4.5 and then there is expectation that Ben B will also increase rates by 25-50 basis points. The 10 year bond should have risen by this point and 30year mortgages will be on their way to 7%. There are about 1 trillion dollars in ARM loans that will reset by 2007 and mortgage payments will rise 400-500$. People will all of a sudden question if they can really afford the home they bought. Rates are still historically low but prices are historically high. Higher interest rates and lower appreciation expectations will push house prices down. Also don’t let any real estate agent fool you its better to buy a cheaper house at a higher rate than a more expensive house at a lower rate. You can always pay the down principal with savings or refinance in the future if rates decline. Don’t be fooled the fundamentals do not support these prices. Income did not rise from 2000-2005 by much if any, rents did not rise much if any, we experienced really low inflation, the population did not all of a sudden double, so there is really nothing to support such high home prices. Not much changed from the late 90’s through 2005 to explain for such a large rise. That is my 2-3 cents in the argument'

Jen, my answer to your question is, I have no friggin idea!!
We will be renting an apartment, and I don't know when we will ever be able to afford a house around here. The people our age who are buying either make lots and lots of money, or they are doing these mortgages where you pay the interest first, or something like that. From what I have heard about those loans is that after the first 5 years or so when the interest is paid off, then the mortagage payments become huge.

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Posted by lacey&mark

how do you like charlotte? big diff? i just applied to UNCC. we have family friends (fi side) who just relocated there and they love it. they bought a big, beautiful home that would have costs millions had it been on LI. i can't wait to move! ~lacey

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Going to NC or Atlanta. Only way to go.

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Posted by Jen2999


ARGGHHH how are people affording this??!??

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I ask myself this question everyday.

These prices are out of control and I don't see how we're ever going to afford our own home. Thing is that right now there are mortgage companies that will approve you for an insane amount, meantime the deal is the worst ever...no money down, adjustable rate, interest only, etc. We will not buy a home this way because you build no equity since your only paying interest, once the interest rates go up there's an increase in the payment. Not a good idea, this is what leads to so many foreclosures.

Agh, it's so frustrating. It makes me re-think my career path sometimes, the non profit world and these housing prices just don't mix!

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Posted by Jen2999

PLease how in holy h ell ANYONE frekkin affords houses. I am getting sick and depressed about this and it isnt helping that my mother is constantly HARASSING me about where we are going to live after the wedding cause she 'cant wait till I get out'.

Like.. we have good jobs!!! I dont get it. We spent all our savings on this wedding and now Im gonna have to live in an alley.

ARGGHHH how are people affording this??!??

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Sounds so familiar!

My FH is divorced and still paying 1/2 the mortgage for his home with his ex... he also has 2 kids and child support, which takes a significant portion of his slaray. He and I have been living in a rented house for 2 years, and he was laid off, but thankfully just got a new job...

Needless to say, buying a house is SO not within our reality at ALL. People keep asking me where we are going to live after we marry, as if we were a couple of 20 year olds dashing off into the sunset!!! I'm going to be 32 next week, and he's going to be 42 - I tell them - where we have been living for the last 2 years, and they get so surprised, as if our lives are going to miraculously change after we say I Do, and the doors will all open and rushes of gold and jewels will come pouring in!!!!

Who said that marriage = having a house? My grandmother's friend told me she was going to give me this little couch pillow I loved when I was a kid as an engagement gift. At my engagement party, I joked and asked her for it - she said she'll give it to me when I get married because hopefully I'll have a house by then! Granted, she comes from a different era, but still...

Lots of needless pressure gets put on us for this - and people say - where will your kids live if you dont own a home!!! FH's kids sleep over with us and they are happy and warm in our rented home - they have their own room - if we have a baby before we move, we'll make room for the crib somewhere- people do that all the time...

sorry for venting, but I get frustrated that people expect us to produce a home all of a sudden with our limited income!!!

No clue
Its what ABSOLUTELY keeps me up ant night

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Posted by lacey&mark

how do you like charlotte? big diff? i just applied to UNCC. we have family friends (fi side) who just relocated there and they love it. they bought a big, beautiful home that would have costs millions had it been on LI. i can't wait to move! ~lacey

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I LOVE Charlotte. It is beautiful, the weather is awesome and the people are nice. The traffic $ucks though

That's why we're (90% sure) moving to FL after the wedding! There's no way we're paying over $500k for a fixer-upper on LI.

It is ridiculous - I have been working for NINE years, I have a masters degree, I am a CPA and I make a good salary - FI has been working even longer with multiple graduate degrees and we can't even think about buying a house in LI-even though we have savings.

We will be renting. I just moved back up here from NC 3 years ago. If the prices remain so high, it's kind of good for me-more motivation to get FI to move down south!!