Owning a house?

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I suppose a “hot,” real estate market is relative to its surrounding area, but when I see sub $1000 rents and $350k detached house prices I don’t consider it “hot.” But my perspective is skewed by living in one of The Hottest real estate markets on the face of the Earth. Things of skyrocketed through the stratosphere here to the point that some areas have $2M condo starting prices and I’ve worked on $70M houses. Rents are stabilizing and declining due to covid, but still, there are ads for renting a partitioned living room in a downtown condo for $1000/mo - basically a couch to sleep on.. and during peak rental insanity someone was paying $1000/mo to pitch a tent in a backyard and have access to a bathroom/shower and laundry. Sooooo, prices where people who work hourly paid jobs can still afford to save up and down payment and BUY a home with relative ease != “hot,” To Me.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

^ The Vancouver market is truly insane. Something needs to be done about the wealthy overseas buyers that buy property as a means to store wealth. I don't know how anyone manages to live there anymore. It's very unfortunate because it's such a nice area.

I was BAD with money, wasting 70% of my income on eating out, hoarding, ebay, thrift stores, etc.. then I lost my free housing and I decided I HAD to buy a house to put my life savings ($90,000 USD) somewhere or inflation would eat the money away, also my dad, mom, sister and half brother do not actually own any real estate, although mom lives in public housing. I bought the FIRST house I could within two months. I looked at 3-4 four houses, and I bought this one like I was in a dream. I was doing it for the first time, not sure if it would work out, just knowing I had to buy a house or it would never happen. Ended up buying a small house in an OK area about an hour away from work. It SUCKS living in a house that is in disrepair, but my dad is a handyman and wanted to fix it himself. It did not work as I imagined, as I don't know how to make a house pleasant and look luxurious, and I am NOT good and hate working with my hands. But here I am. So far, I don't like it as I am very isolated here and I cannot relax because of the disrepair.

Also, the house is next to a protected wood land wetland that will never be built on. There will be less green space and housing in a private area with nature as time goes on, in general, people will keep buying up land and property around the city where the jobs are and I assume my state will turn into California with housing going up and up in price due to more people moving here for jobs and less land available.

I bought right before Corona happened. We were just starting to wear masks for showing houses. Now of course, it would be much harder to buy because there is more demand due to the Corona making people want to buy single family houses away from the city.

This is not an area I expect to become very expensive and the house is not one you can get a lot of money for, so I do not expect to get rich off this house.

There are many parts of the US where houses go for under $100,000 and rents are under $600 for a one-bedroom apartment. Some of these are in pretty areas, though sort of in the sticks.

Built the most units in the nation?

Are they occupied or snapped up by investors who simply hold them like safety deposit boxes?

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

I bought the house that I now live in for £19,000 in 1988, which would be equivalent to around £50,000 in today's money when adjusted for inflation. It didn't seem especially cheap at the time, but the same property would be priced at around £110,000 now.

I also bought a studio flat for £35,000 in London in 1998, just before the market began to 'take off'. Sold it for £95,000 in 2007. It would go for at least £200,000 today.

The UK housing market has gone insane over the last two decades!

Having a job, albeit minimum wage, has opened my mind to the prospect of buying my own place. But i'm probably a slight naive in that even with keeping savings to the side, i'm only taking home 50% of my salary after tax, pension, investments (took this off because it isn't a sure thing that will pay off in the next 5-10 years), and being so close proximity to a major city makes rent and buy prices super high regardless of the economic situation we are in.
It will take at least 5 years (bad credit rating for defaulting on accounts) to even start to think about buying my own place, but also should start thinking strategically about ideal towns rather than large cities and still have access to the necessary services.

Again low wages means the longer I have to save up, really don't see a future in the current situation in the next 5 years so it will be a bumpy ride.

Where in the world can one buy a home earning minimum wage?

Literally impossible here, and anywhere else I can think of.

_________________
No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

^ That sounds about right for the UK as well.

What's the minimum wage? About £10 per hour? That would give an annual salary of around £17,000 per year, but you would struggle to buy even a modest house in my part of Greater Manchester for under £100,000: and this is in one of the cheapest parts of the country. In London, a comparable property is £400,000+, and once again that's at the bottom end of the market.

So not one month in I got an offer for 30k more than I just paid for it. I might buy a 2 bedroom and 1031 exchange it to defer the taxes on it. I could then use the excess funds to buy another property, but outside my state. Still need to think it over, but for a tad more I can get a 2 bedroom and rent out the other one .