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How old were you when you bought your first house?

Runcharger said:
I had to buy a house as I needed a garage to work on the Mopars.
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Same here.
I lived in an apartment and a duplex before buying my first house. A single car garage was better than the parking lot at the apartment but a 2 car garage allowed me the room to keep tools and 2 cars out of the elements.
That luxury cannot be overstated.
Finally having the ability to leave a car partially apart while I tended to other matters was fantastic! Up until then, if I started a project, I had to have the car back together right away because the landlord would complain or the apartment manager would threaten eviction or have the car towed away for being "inoperative". Once in the house, I was able to paint a car for the first time, rebuild my first engine, weld, part out cars, cut them up and start buying more cars!
 
I was 26 when my wife and I bought out first house near St. Thomas, Ontario airport. It was a 100 year-old two story farm house on 1/2 acre lot on a busy highway, 3 miles from work. We lived there for 31 years, raising our daughter and son there. They knew no other home until they were out on their own. We paid $22,500 for it in 1973, and sold it for $176,500 in 2004, when we built our new house. A couple of years ago, it sold for $600,000! Just shows how sharply real estate values have increased around here.
 
BSB67 said:
Nice bike KD. The ex get the car?
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Ha ha....
When I clicked to post that picture, I shook my head....I don't remember the bike at all!
The EX got her own car and custody of the silverware. She needed it. She ate a LOT.
When we went to a restaurant, we started off by getting an estimate.
 
I was 38 when we had the opportunity to own. It was a modular[ mobile home] in a really nice park. Had a two car garage attached to it. 10 years later we traded that one in for a new one in a different section of the same park. Way nicer pad, 3 car garage and a 5k sqft backyard. Our current pad was paid for with the proceeds from the prior one plus a little family help.
 
Runcharger said:
Common theme here. Had to sacrifice and first house was modest. What I see these days is young people moaning they can't afford a home and those that do deserve a palace. That's where I live anyway. I worked lots of weekends, lots of nights, lots of out of town and lots of overtime. There is no easy way unless you let mommy buy it for you I reckon. I had to buy a house as I needed a garage to work on the Mopars.
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Very true. Our first house (pictured on the previous page) was a very modest 2-bedroom 1-bathroom ranch with a small single car garage underneath. A garage was a must for me.

Many of today’s younger people expect their first house to be 3,00 square foot home with 3 or 4 bedrooms, master bath, central air, granite countertops, 9’ ceilings and all the modern high dollar amenities.
 
In 1985, at age 28, bought a house for ex-wife #1. $50K for the house at around 13% interest. 3 bed/2 bath, 1056 sq.ft. on a 5500 sq.ft lot. Zillow says the place is worth $490K today. Was sold ten years ago for less than half that.
 
My wife and I bought our first house when I was 25 and she was 24. We still have it.

My sister and her husband had ridden a wave of increasing house prices but when we bought in 1990 home prices were actually contracting a bit. So my wife and I really stretched and bought a 4 bedroom, 2 car garage house on a nice plot. Over the years, we have remodeled and changed the main floor tremendously because the layout sucked, and also added a family room, porch, patio and third car garage with a lift. It's not a bad place now, so we'll stay here for awhile longer - it's paid for!

I think the younger generation will have a heck of a time owning their first home. Prices have escalated so much, coupled with the fact that many of these kids are carrying huge college debt that is almost a mortgage payment itself.
 
Budnicks said:
in 1978 that was a deal on the interest rate...
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Mackman said:
Just made it in time. That summer rates started up.
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I think in 1995 when I bought mine, the rate I got was 7.5%. I refinanced once at 6 7/8 and later at 6 1/4%. I was there 9 years and the house went from a $102,500 price I paid to $295,000 !
 
#41 said:
25.

All 790 square feet of it.

It was a real gem having been a long term rental, the block's party house, and with a former grow operation in the garage.
When I pulled the carpet out there was so much dirt you could barely see the carpet pad..... just sand and dirt.
Broken windows, every door kicked open at one point, ... the list goes on and on.... It was about the cheapest house in town.
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prodart440 said:
I was 20. Just had a kid and hated the apartments we were in. 1300 sq ft on a postage stamp lot.
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Mine was 1145 sq ft....3 bedrooms and '2' FULL baths. Yeah, the bedrooms were pretty small and the kitchen, dining and 'living' room were under one ceiling. The lot wasn't all that big but had a detached garage with a 14' work room added on the side. Didn't have much grass to mow but could get 4 cars in the back.
Kern Dog said:
Same here.
I lived in an apartment and a duplex before buying my first house. A single car garage was better than the parking lot at the apartment but a 2 car garage allowed me the room to keep tools and 2 cars out of the elements.
That luxury cannot be overstated.
Finally having the ability to leave a car partially apart while I tended to other matters was fantastic! Up until then, if I started a project, I had to have the car back together right away because the landlord would complain or the apartment manager would threaten eviction or have the car towed away for being "inoperative". Once in the house, I was able to paint a car for the first time, rebuild my first engine, weld, part out cars, cut them up and start buying more cars!
Click to expand...
Before the military, a buddy and I rented a house....cracked slab and a leaning oversized but detached one car garage. We straightened up the garage and reinforced the structure with angled 2x4's from the walls to the joists and boxed the joists to the rafters to hang a chain fall up in there. The garage was built with all 2x4's but it did well. One day when I was pulling the poly teen out of my first 66 Belvedere, I didn't have the engine rigged just right and the next thing I knew, the front end moved sideways just a hair. Huh....yeah, the front wheels were off the floor lol.

We moved there after my roommate's Mustang got stolen from the apartments that we lived in for a very short time. 'We' found it and figured out who stole it because of this one guy kept drooling over it and when it disappeared, so did he. Thing is, it was stripped and burned. We caught the guy red handed with the parts on his rag top....the dead giveaway was the teardrop glass hood with a personal touch that you could see once the hood was opened. Had to flag down a cop that was coming down the road and the sucker passed us by but came back when he saw that we were still in the road waving our arms lol
 
21 and second kid on the way. Time to get out of an apartment. $86,000 and a mortgage with the Permanent at 12%. Fitting name as the pricks charged us 3 months PIT to get out of the mortgage in 1985. Sold everything to start our own business, bought a 32' trailer and moved into a campground. Kids got the bedroom, we pulled the pull out couch every night. That lasted 2 years before I was at odds with the camp owner. Bought a cottage and that lasted a year... 3rd kid coming. Bought a house with 30 x 45 shop, wife wanted to at least see the inside of the house..lol. Paid that house off in 1989 at 27 & 25 years old. I built the house we've been in now for 28 years out of pocket.
 
25. Small 2/2, but a good starter home. Closed right after my birthday then spent about 2 weeks cleaning and painting before moving in Labor Day. Lived there 17 1/2 years and then moved to our current home that we had built on property we had bought.
 
When I was 33. 1982/83 General contracted/built what I could. Wife stuck to staging 16' up, she sat on a little snow melted and re froze. Took a bit wiggling to get loose. $36k mortgage 10% with small increase in payments $30 a month every 2 yrs to pay in off in 17 years. 2 weeks before first payment our union voted to strike. After 8 weeks got another job with a $6 an hour increase and all the OT you wanted.
 
Last edited:
21. Bought the sister-in-law's house, which the ex got in the divorce. Fast forward, I was 34 when I bought the house I live in now.
 
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