Pinching Pennies To Save Up for a Down Payment
This week’s cover story in the New York Times real estate section is about people who’ve scrimped and sacrificed— sometimes for years— to save up enough money for the down payment on their first home. One guy survived for an entire year on a daily diet of a $2.95 chicken special and a 99-cent coke;…
This week’s cover story in the New York Times real estate section is about people who’ve scrimped and sacrificed— sometimes for years— to save up enough money for the down payment on their first home. One guy survived for an entire year on a daily diet of a $2.95 chicken special and a 99-cent coke; another woman started drinking only at happy hours. It’s notoriously hard to save from paycheck to paycheck in New York City; we were lucky that a real estate deal we worked on back in 1999 paid off well enough a few years later to enable us to come up with the downpayment on our house. (That, and we had the good fortune to flip a couple of one-bedrooms in Manhattan between 1997 and 2000, when we cashed out thinking the market had peaked! Got that one wrong, huh?) There must be lots of tales of self-deprivation in the name of nest-egg building. Anyone care to share?
Every Penny Counts [NY Times]
I scrimped and scraped together the down payment for my studio apt back in 2000 and then in 2003 stretched myself (by then with my husband) to trade up to a brownstone that needed gut renovation on the fringe of Clinton Hill. When opportunity arose to trade up 2 1/2 years later to a larger house (for the growing family) on a nicer block in Fort Greene to another brownstone needing gut renovation we took it. We’re still stretched (not starving) but we have a long term view based on where and how we want to live not based on profit. Surely we don’t want to be upside down in our mortgage or take a loss if we sell (many years from now), but there is something about sacrificing to build the life that you want for yourself and your family that is intrinsically rewarding.
I agree with the advice about not trying to time the market. Although I have benefited from the market appreciation and I acknowledge that it has facilitated my ability to trade up but my goal was always to live in a nice neighborhood in a nice house and I’ve definitely paid my dues and I’m still not finished but on my way.
Kudos to all of those who believe in delayed gratification and sacrifice for home ownership. And I wish all of those who are still in the struggle (with me) all the luck and perseverance.
2:20,
LOL. Go ask anyone on Wall St. how everything is fine and dandy these days. you are clueless.
Well, I don’t think most people think their first home is going to a brownstone in Park Slope anymore. Just like 20 years ago nobody thought their first place would be a brownstone in the West Village. You need to make a LOT more than 400k for that to happen.
More often, people are using proceeds from a sale to fund a brownstone. So maybe you better stop whining about not being able to afford a brownstone in Park Slope and either get a brownstone further out or an apartment. Ever heard of the property ladder?
“Just wait for the crash, it has already started.”
You do realize condos were way up in manhattan and up a bit in brooklyn last quarter right? Most people think the correction will be over by the end of 2008. NYC is already moving up.
I too was glad to see this post. It is hard to live within ones means. It requires discipline and patience -anyone who does live within their means understands what it takes. And those that don’t wont.
It is wonderful when the results of living within ones means allows a person to achieve something that is really important to them. It brings a great sense of pride and accomplishment.
I view people that get help from their parents as being fortunate – not evil, greedy or pampered. I imagine If I had a kid and could help them out with a down payment, I would.
ok 1:30. i hear ya.
it’s funny…i have noticed the guy that lives across from me in a really lovely brownstone with his wife and kid (i’m in a small apt. in one directly across) and watched him sneak out last night to light up a cigarette. seeing the look in his eyes of pure bliss of managing to escape and then puff away about 10 houses down wamed my heart a little.
if you could have seen him, you wouldn’t have been envious.
When did Brownstoner tell us that his parents bought him his brownstone??? Or is this just a white paint-like, unneighborly assumption on your part, anonimouse?
(Three cheers for the present and for not jumping on what all the adults around you say you SHOULD do.)
Are you kidding? That believe is so 50 years ago. Anyone who doesnt’ feel compelled to spend every dime and them some is counter-cultural in the present environment. Forget what they said. What did all the adults around you actually do? What Madison Avenue told them to, that’s what.
Slopehead,
Nobody here is letting bitterness and jealousy consume their lives. I’m simply letting bitterness and jealousy slowly turn me in to a gnarled up imitation of the innocent, naive person I once was. I’m just allowing jealousy and bitterness to slowly nibble away at my soul encouraging me to do all sorts of shadowy things like visit strip clubs when my wife isn’t looking and steal pieces of fruit when the mexican has his back turned at the deli. But allowing it to consume my life? Please, enough with the exaggerations. Do me a favor and grant me some space for some healthy envy! I mean please! Haven’t you ever wanted to paint your brownstone white just to piss off your neighbor? Brownstoner said his parents bought him his brownstone, and I just wish I was as lucky.