Op thinks we can afford a house by 30 if we go to college.

36 and counting…
42 and counting… I actually have some small hope of trying to buy a house next year though. Not in my home of America though, it’ll be as an expat, and contingent on a foreign bank extending me credit. Not a sure thing at all, but… I’m hoping? There might actually be a path forward? Maybe?
I think the non-college route yielded better than college for my age cohort. First dude I knew who bought a house was like 19 and he’d been working at Costco for 4+ years. 2008 happened and suddenly this young man had a stable job and savings and looked great on paper 🥲
People I know with most real estate are 2 kinds.
- inherited everything.
- stayed in hotel Mama for free for years while not studying, but working as plumber/contractors/mechanic etc starting age 18-19. By the time they moved out age 26-30 they were already loaded, renting out multiple apartments.
Both required parents, either they had to be wealthy and die early or decided to gift capital early; or to be super supportive, fun (tolerable) enough to keep living with after 18 and not asking you to pay rent.
Yea I hope I put enough emphasis on the 2008 crash being responsible for his luck. I think he paid around $100,000 for a condo in California.
I grew weed for 20 years which was the only way I got on the housing ladder at 26. I’ve been forced to downsize already but haven’t fallen off yet
Also you could still rent a house back in 2008 for like $400-$1000 so the living with the parents thing wasn’t a necessity back then. We’d have 4 dudes in a 2 bedroom housing paying 2-$300 a month
I went to college, I’m way over 30. Buying a house is a vague dream.
I got lucky and bought a house in 2015 at 28, I barely pulled it off with roommates, barely pulling it off now with a fiancé. There’s no way I could buy a house now. I’m not even sure we could upgrade if we needed to.
something similar happened to my recently moved in neighbor, he thought it was because he had achild, no your PARENTS chipped for the house and renovations, you arnt paying for that almost 1.5-2mil hours on your own.
I’m 43 and only now buying a house. And that’s because I don’t have loans (not american)
What makes you think people with degrees can afford a house by 30?
I think people with degrees are less likely to own a house by the age of 30, because they studied longer and have to pay off debt first. The only reason i own a house is because i found one for super cheap and renovated it myself.
That’s probably the best strategy. Or buying a duplex and renting half of it. Either way now-a-days in America you gotta be willing to put ALOT of sweat equity in the get a shelter
Or buying a duplex and renting half of it
That’s just buying two houses to rent one though
Right, but you’d try to find a distressed duplex for the same price as a single family. If you’re gonna risk buying a shitter and fixing it, might as well get an additional income.
Is that a thing? I’m in Canada and I’ve never seen a duplex sell as a single house. If you could find it that would be a pretty sweet deal
Varies by town ordinance; but if it’s within standards usually you can get a deed for each unit and it becomes a condo association basically. Part of the zoning reforms we are fighting for.
Most people use this trick when they have friends or family and the rental is a mutually beneficial situation. but when you get into larger homes and commercial redesignation, we’ve turned a lot of old mansions and warehouses into 4+ unit condos.
Not a fan of capitalism? Just exploit the working class duh!
And especially after goibg to an US college.
All I heard so far, you will be even further away from reaching the house goal.
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It took an MS for me, a BS for my partner, choosing to not adopt children, five years of saving, a minor inheritance from an unexpected death, and the housing market cratering due to the pandemic for us to be able to afford a house that we absolutely could not afford now without making 150% of our current income.
All it took was accruing nearly $100k in combined school loan debt, plus over three times that much in mortgage debt. That’s freedom debt! Murica!
or the job field is soo dismal , catch 22.
You don’t need to. All you really need is to go for a walk in your desired neighbourhood, find a house you love, knock on the door and introduce yourself. Ask any questions you have about the property, then kill the occupants, flay them and wear their skin as your own as you lead your new charmed life, for as long as you can.
You kidding me dude? I’m past 40 and not chance to own a house. Grad and masters degree, working in IT. Ah and uni was good and free. granted that was in the developing world, now living in 1st world, but still no house.
When I was 7 my parents owned a house AND bought a beach house.
what happened to all the money your parents had from those houses?
Exactly! Learn a good profession like electrician, woodworker, furniture making… any kind of profession where you can create beautiful products and services customers love.
When we’re at school the teachers never actually take the time to talk about:
- what non-university educated careers
- what they involve
- how to pursue trades based jobs
And it’s weird, because I’m sure everyone would love to at least dabble in woodworking or some other form of craftsmanship. But they don’t get the chance to.
The school-university pipeline works for a lot of people, but I don’t think uni straight after school is the ideal situation for most people. It means we lose sight of what education is actually for, outside of progression to further qualifications
Home economics and shop class used to be pretty common, but most folks don’t take them anymore either because they aren’t offered or students aren’t aware they exist.
The trade-off is that finding a job that doesn’t require the large debt that comes with college means the job might not pay enough for a house, or if it does, its the kind of job where you don’t get much time to actually spend at said house.
A good tradesman can make a very good living. I know a builder who paid his mortgage off in his early 30’s.
It’s also one of the last bastions of hard work paying off.
Except private equity is increasingly getting involved.
I got an MS in a STEM field and wasn’t able to buy a house until I was 36, supervising multiple employees, and married to someone who also contributed.
you’re lucky, what major was it, i had a friend who got the MS version of BS degree, no job, but she had a partner so shes pretty much fine, since she already gave up searching for a job like less than 6 months.
a lot of people it takes years to find a job. esp if they are picky. my brother has been unemployed for 3 years but only because he’s a snob and refuses to work for a non-elite company.
cherry picking yea is a problem too. does he have experience in the field, he shouldve gone for any job thats in field. some people have been searching for years but dint cherry pick and they left eh field as a result of the low job prospects. the longer your bro waits, the less likely he will get hired, because time between your school(job gap) only increases, if his study was in tech, it would be foolish for him to not take a tech job, lol. my bros are in tech and it took them at least 1 year to find a job in tech, this was pre-pandemic of course.
other stems have a much harder to time getting into.
I’ve interviewed people over the years in IT.
A lot of candidates are complete morons, regardless of experience or education. We hire the people who show competence in the interview… a lot of people simple have zero.
and in helping some friends/people over the years get job… usually the biggest issue is how they don’t actually properly apply or sell themselves. They blast out some generic shitty resume/cover letter for every job and just expect it will get them hired, instead of tactfully marketing themselves to the employer.
Applying to jobs is a skill, like any other.
38 with a masters degree. No house in sight. Good luck. Remember, there is always [redacted].
Squatters rights?
You don’t. None of my highly educated friends own a house while the ones working in trades do.
Where they give you houses for going to college? Did I missed a promotion?
if you a rich person yea, you can guaranteed to have a house because your parents are paying.
You shouldn’t have to work to be able to live, period.
The right to live with dignity should not be dependent on productivity.
Anyone working full time should always be able to easily provide for themselves and a “reasonable size” family.

four people disagreeing because they think if people’s place in society is not tied to their productivity, then all the lazy foreigners are gonna come in and take our spot. only our heroic (self-sacrificing) eternal push to increase our bosses’ pockets are enough of an excuse to consume oxygen and continue to eat (massive /s)
I mean, someone has to work. How do you choose who the unlucky bastards are that get sent to the field to grow food for the people who don’t have to work?
How do you choose who the unlucky bastards are that get sent to the field to grow food for the people who don’t have to work?
Preferably, they’d be people without disabilities that prevent them from doing that kind of work. OP didn’t say, “Nobody should work,” just that being able to live shouldn’t be dependent on working.
For millions of people with disabilities, the difference between those two ideas is life-changing. It’s important not to conflate them.
The only people I know with houses are the ones with rich parents and it doesn’t matter if they went to college or not.
Since you said “house” I’m going to push back a little bit. Housing is unaffordable and we should address it but single-family homes are not a feasible solution for a lot of places and situations.
if you go to college you can’t even afford to pay for it by 30.












