The housing market is a bit of a doozy right now, to say the least. And as a once-hopeful-homeowner-who's-now-renting-because-well-that's-life, I know it's hard out here for everyone.
So I recently asked the BuzzFeed Community to share their respective experiences and here's how it's going for them:
1. "I have a great full-time job where I make six figures, but in my youth, I struggled with financial literacy so I have no savings. I was living in basement apartments for years and living paycheck to paycheck to pay off credit card debts from long ago. It wasn't until I met my (very financially literate) partner, who had lived with his parents well into his 30's and had saved up for a down payment, were we able to move forward and get approved for a mortgage."
"However, even with a 20% down payment and salaries that equaled almost $200,000, we could only afford a bungalow. Breaking into the market is so difficult."
2. "Not good. I saved for years for a down payment and just when I thought I’d be ready to buy, the interest rates and housing market in my area became truly unhinged. You can’t find anything less than $250K that doesn’t need a decent amount of work and investment. We are probably going to get a new double wide on an acre of land, pay it off early, and move just to build equity."
3. "I started looking at houses in the Pittsburgh area for around $200,000 which gets you a two/three bedroom pretty standard house. After touring the first one, I was told by the realtor that the house had twelve offers with ten of them being over asking price. Second house I toured had four offers all over asking."
4. "'Going' would suggest there's been progress, which hasn't been the case for me. I've been looking for a few years now. At first, I was picky and couldn't really find what I wanted. Now, the prices are ridiculous and houses sell so fast, you can't even get an inspection (because if you ask for one in your offer, they'll just go for another offer that waives it). Houses I passed on three years ago are back on the market but with an asking price of $50,000 higher and they're selling!"
5. "I’m in London, thinking of buying a house is something only rich people can do right now."
6. "In the UK here. I have been renting all my life and just about getting by. Saved whatever I could, one financial emergency after another meant that I could never get to a deposit amount. My grandma died, I received £8500, [and] added that to the £1800 that I had saved. This was early last year. Interest rates are now too high. I had gone from being able to afford a mortgage but not a deposit, to having a deposit. But not being able to afford the mortgage. It feels like a scam."
7. "Dayton, Ohio area. We bought an 1800 square foot house (plus basement) on a quarter acre in a nice neighborhood for $360k in 2020. 2.1% interest rate, and we were the first owners. Recently we started looking for another house with one more bedroom, and we quickly gave up when we realized that even a house built in the ‘60s is out of our budget because of these psychotic interest rates."
8. "We bought two years ago and it was stressful trying to keep up with everyone buying a fucking Airbnb. We decided to stop looking in our hometown and in a bigger town an hour north with more caps and stipulations against Airbnb. We're very happy where we are now and glad it worked out this way, but it was ridiculous while we were looking in our hometown."
9. "We purchased out home in June of this past year. We started looking in March but every house I would send my realtor was contingent before it hit the market because people would put the house on Facebook market first and then list with the realtor once they had a confirmed buyer. When we did find a house we liked it was $475K, we signed the offer paperwork in the driveway because we were afraid someone else would scoop it up."
"We weren't able to close until June 2023. I watched the market get better in the those three months and in the six months that we have owned the home, I've watched new listings in my neighborhood not sell at all. My co-worker is looking for a house in the $350-400K range but can't buy anything because interest rates are now too high. Her $400K house payment would be $1000 more than mine and my house is $75K more than her price range!!"
10. "My boyfriend and I got our first house in 2023. We would have been approved for $350K which there is nothing for that price in our region. Fortunately, my MIL gifted us her house for a price below the market so we could afford it. We honestly think this is the only way we could ever afford a house. But even with the lowest interest rate we could get (4.95%), we are still struggling to make ends meet with a newborn. It’s impossible for anyone to afford a house in our counties."
11. "I bought in 2019. It was my grandparents house and a fixer-upper so seemed like a good investment for a starter home, even though it’s in the suburbs where I’d swear I’d never live. Now I desperately want to move back to the city, but my current interest rate is only 2.5%. If I were to buy something where I want to now, even with the equity I’ve built, my monthly payments would be [considerably] higher with an interest rate almost three times what I have now. It feels like the house version of golden handcuffs."
12. "We bought in 2006, on one of those 'bad' mortgages. In that time our home has gone from barely livable to the nicest place on the street. The few people on our street who have been here longer than us are great. Every other home has had people in and out, owners and renters, and all but one of those, have gone down hill. The neighborhood is not what we want for ourselves let alone our young kid. Plus we are now far away from jobs, school, friends, and family."
In short:
13. "Simply, it’s not going LOL."
14. "It's a fucking hellscape and I'm crying all the time."
Are you in the same boat? Let us know in the comments below.
Some responses have been edited for length and clarity.