Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
My anecdote is that I lived in a Subaru Legacy for close to 2 years and banked 95% of my net pay. After that, I moved in with a friend for 6 years and paid $400/mo all inclusive. This allowed me to put 20% down on a 4-bed house at the age of 30, pay for a wedding, ring, and wife; pay off her school debt, pay off her CC debt, own my vehicles outright, and now pay $10k every 4 months to put her through medical school... and loan $50k to a friend.
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One problem with our housing market over the last... 15 years or so is that your experience is the exception, not the rule. You saved up to put 20% down and almost nobody does that on their first home.
When debt is cheap and easy to obtain, people try to take on way more debt than they should. This drives up demand for houses and inflates home prices. Add in a large dose of fraud and sketchy loans to get even more people into big loans and the housing bubble is further inflated.
...until it pops.
And now that I'm in the process of buying a new house, I was quite surprised at the loans offered to me. 0-3.5% down loans are again available...