Blogocentric Formulations

Prospective Homeowners

It's not exactly a secret, but the housing market in California sucks. Especially where I live in Southern California. In my current city, the median home price last year was $1,130,000, which is nearly a 25% increase in value year-over-year. The average home sells in under three weeks, the majority (75%) going for 5-10% over asking price. In this area, there's a general presumption that if you can afford a house before you're 40, it's because you either: (a) come from wealth; (b) lived like a college student for over a decade after graduating to save up; or (c) inherited the house (or money) from a deceased family member.

There is some truth to that. For the past ten years (i.e., my thirties), everyone I knew who owned a house fell into one of those three categories. It's admittedly a relatively small sample size, but I don't think I knew anyone my age from the middle class who bought a house the "old fashioned way" where they graduated, got a job, and saved up for a downpayment.

As I mentioned in my notebook a few months ago, my grandmother passed away on Halloween last year. Since she's the last grandparent standing (my grandfather passed away a number of years ago), her assets got divvied up among her four daughters. And since my mom passed away in November 2020, my brother and I received equal shares of the assets that would have gone to my mom.

It was a fairly substantial inheritance. Enough that, when combined with what we already have in savings, it puts us just about where we need to be in order to afford a downpayment on a place of our own. Before you get too excited, it's still a bonkers seller's market so we're not rushing into anything.

We're going to wait until the market cools off and we don't have to get into a bidding war with other buyer to see who can pay the most over the asking price, but it occurred to me in a somewhat somber moment taking care of my grandmother's affairs that I now fall into that category of people who can only afford California real estate because we inherited money from a loved one who passed away.

It's a strange feeling. In early 2020, we were lamenting that we'd probably never be able to afford a house where we live. Or if we did, we'd be paying off the mortgage until we were in our eighties. Two years later, we have the money to buy a house but are faced with the reality that not only are we only able to afford it because my grandmother (and my mom) aren't here anymore, but that they'll never see the home that we buy and grow into with our family.

Ultimately, I'd give the money back in a second if it could buy even one more day with my mom and my grandmother. We'd happily give up the dream of ever owning a home if we could see and talk to them just one more time. We don't actually have that option, though, so we're going to try to buy a house and live there in a way that will do them proud ...

... just as soon as the housing market cools off a bit. Because over a million dollars for a modest three bedroom, two bath, 1,500 square foot home is still insane to me, no matter how much money we have in the bank.