The idea of buying an expensive home was never in my head, but it turns out I’ve been getting good deals on furniture that were previously out of reach.
I was originally sold a $1,000, two-bedroom condo in the same neighborhood where I’d recently moved, but I’ve recently started saving money to buy more expensive houses.
It’s not a trend that has become popular with most Americans.
I started saving to buy the cheapest house I could find on Craigslist in June and quickly saw an immediate decline in the price.
My current house cost me $1.5 million in May, according to my online bank.
The median sale price for new homes in the U.S. is now $2.25 million.
The cheapest homes on the market have been selling for less than $500,000.
“When you get the first two or three homes that you’re going to buy, you want to go for the most affordable,” said my husband, Ryan.
It took me months of trial and error to figure out what to look for when looking for a house, but my experience has taught me a few things.
First, the average sale price on new homes is below $500k, so don’t buy a house that you think is worth more than $2 million.
If you can afford it, but can’t afford the monthly rent, look for a property with less than five years on the mortgage.
My husband and I have been on a buying spree over the last year, buying nearly $200,000 of stuff.
The most expensive purchase was a three-bedroom house in a high-end neighborhood in Chicago that was $2,000 more than we paid.
The second most expensive was a four-bedroom home in an affordable neighborhood in Minneapolis that we paid $800,000 less than we had originally paid.
Second, a home is usually more than five times more expensive when you factor in the monthly rental payments, mortgage payments, insurance, and taxes.
The average monthly rent on a home with a mortgage is $1 for a two- or three-bedroom house, $1 million for a four bedroom, and $1 billion for a five-bed house.
A second rule of thumb is that you can’t expect to save more than 10% of your gross income to cover your mortgage payments.
So if you can make that happen, you should probably be willing to pay a little bit more for your house.
If your income is in the $40,000-$50,000 range, you can probably save more.
