[karlgkk]

Well, interest rates are high right now, but you’d be surprised at how little down payment you need for purchasing a house or a condo. If you’re a tech worker with a stable career making that kind of money, most underwriters will just give you the loan.

I think people commonly underestimate how accessible this stuff is

It’s easy to make a 40 year forecast spreadsheet for retirement, including housing costs, property, taxes, maintenance. Include vacation, budget, food, general cost of living.

[swatcoder]

So you oblige yourself to an enormous long-term loan at high-interest, burn PMI on it because you have too little equity, secured against an overpriced-for-quality home whose value may already be at peak or plataeu, fixing yourself to one location, while all signs warn that you may be laid off at any time and facing a long period of unemployment.

I knew a lot of people who did almost exactly that ~18 years ago. It didn't go well for them.

And then it turned out that staying flexible as a renter and setting aside cash set me up to buy after a correction instead of before. That part went very well for me.

Be careful with the assumption coded into your "forecast spreadsheet"

[karlgkk]

Well yes, there are tradeoffs. On the other hand, go ahead and burn 3k a month on rent.

There is no one size fits all solution but i’m surprised at how many people here are inadvertently revealing to me that they haven’t even tried evaluating.

For example, you saying there’s nothing “affordable” when the baseline assumption is an income of $250k? Can tell you haven’t looked at what’s in your price range. Alright, good luck I guess!

[rkomorn]

I left Silicon Valley 5 years ago. Are people getting $1M+ loans with zero down these days?

[karlgkk]

No? What?

I mentioned Lifestyle creep before but what is with everyone’s fried brains?

A small condo in a nice neighborhood in Santa Clara is below $500k. Yes, that’s a lot, and you certainly can get more bang for your buck if you’re willing to do a little commuting.

Btw a $1m house is accessible if you make $250k yr, although to be honest, I would highly recommend against it

[rkomorn]

The question I originally responded to was "why would you rent and save for a house at the same time?"

I said "because you need to have a downpayment".

You reply "downpayments aren't that high".

Unless you're getting loans zero down, you literally still need to save to have your downpayment. While you're renting.

So where is my brain fried?

Even on a $500k condo, you're putting 10% down, you still need to have that saved up. Noticeably more, in fact, because I'm sure you'd agree "lemme sink every saved cent I have into my house downpayment" wouldn't be wise.

[karlgkk]

> So where is my brain fried?

Many places.

First, you can get a zero down loan at that income level. Wouldn’t recommend it but I can tell you haven’t seriously explored home loans if you don’t know this.

Second, if you make $250k a year and you’re struggling to put $10k, or hell, even $50k down… you need to make a budget because damn

> you literally still need to save to have your downpayment. While you're renting.

Just so you know, I did it. I bought a condo a 20 minute train ride from sf, making quite a bit less than 250k.

I did it at $180k a year by moving into a studio in oakland, and that was overkill tbh. Saved $1.5k a month and biennial vacations were to New York and Vegas instead of France and Japan. Such a sacrifice /s. Now imagine how easy it’d be with an extra $70k (about the average annual salary).

The best advice i can make to you, if you really are making above 200k a year, is to make a budget spreadsheet.