How to Buy Your First Affordable Home or Condo in Your 30s

Welp, I’m 30 plus. The plus part doesn’t matter because the next milestone is either crippling depression, also known as a midlife crisis or 50 years old. Yep, it doesn’t get any prettier. After searching the internet for information (Google), reading 1 article, and skimming through 5 other headlines; I am now a faux expert.

“Self-Made Millionaire: Not buying a home is the single biggest millennial mistake”, in which David Bach is quoted saying that the biggest single mistake millennials are making is not prioritizing homeownership. “If millennials don’t buy a home, their chances of actually having any wealth in this country are little to none”.

In all seriousness, I always recommend that you do your own leg work. The goal is to push everyone to think critically and face life as an adult (insert sad emoji).

After talking to several (4) people, I realized that there are 3.5 types of home purchasers in my network. I’m going to give you the categories and then I’ll breakdown how much home you can afford in 2019 and beyond.

Table of Contents

The HGTV – Open Concept

After watching years of Fixer Upper and the Property brothers; these people thing to be young, indebted but super Optimistic.

In my opinion, they are riding on 75% optimism, 15% sex, and 10% credit card debt. Basically, the couple on Instagram that you have been secretly following for years.

They are busy knocking down walls (pun intended). He was a star quarterback and she was voted most popular. She is also a hippie.

The Go-getter Flippers

*Damn, she looks good too. Freaking, Instagram filters!*

These are the property junkies aka real estate entrepreneurs.

They never took one business course. They barely graduated from college. And after being bartenders for a while, they are now “the Flippers”. Buys a crummy home and does the renovations off of youtube and Pinterest. You will get the invite to the housewarming. You will be thirsty in the end.

Don’t ask where they got the money; they don’t know. That’s part of the charm. They are living on the edge like my best friend. There is a maddening push to increase cash flow and wealth by any means necessary.

*But in truth, they likely get crummy homes and get stuck with no money for renovations. But the first story is nice for dreamers though.

30% of Lesser People

There are these suckers (that’s likely going to be me with the shirt from Macy’s).

Welp nothing to say here about them. They are mad basic. Their social media is 80% made up of their kids and likely both ran by mom. The guy is emotionally castrated but happily married. She shops at Kohls and JCPenney for all of them. They eat out at Applebee’s and will be debt-free in 20yrs. #Goals though. They take at least 1 vacation a year.

*They have savings and are pretty comfortable, maybe too comfortable.

The Delusional (Renter 4 Life)

Sorry but these are facts.

They want to live near the action like the HGTV folks. Secondly, it’s always open concept to entertain random friends. Not sure the obsession of wanting to see friends and family like a drone camera but most millennials want enjoy time in a loft with a terrace, with a view worthy of an Instagram post.

It’s too Much for Too Little Money

Big windows and zero price range with a debt to income ratio of 87.5%. Which is really bad. They also wonder why they didn’t get the loan.

“Buying a house is harder for millennials than it was for their parents’ generation, but that doesn’t mean all hope is lost. Depending on where you want to live, how much debt you have, and how much you have saved, buying a house might not be out of the question—if you’re willing to compromise.”

Check out to this calculator to see where you fall.

How much home can I afford? Basically, not much. The worse the location, the better? O_o

So for a 1 bedroom and 1 bath going for $180k, in the middle of nowhere; it will likely cost you about $1k a month for a mortgage. But you still have to consider HOA fees and extra insurance for $500.

A grand total of $1.5k

So for 3/3.5 bedrooms and 3/2.5 baths going for $360k, in the middle of nowhere; it will likely cost you about $1.878k a month for the mortgage. But you still have to consider HOA fees and extra insurance for $750.

A grand total of $2.5k.

Conclusion

Most people would be better served with buying at their price range versus buying for Social Media. It’s always worth it to consider the total costs so much so that I wrote about the 7 thing that I wish I knew before buying a home. There are real tangible wealth benefits from buying a home smartly.

Check out the bonus information (below) for how much you can expect to spend upfront before furniture and utilities and utility deposit.