11/10/21 Boy Needs Some Creative Ideas To Buy A House?

     I know Boy is feeling like it's time to leave the nest, and I agree, specially when I see he has so many knick-knacks all over the house.  He has sofas in the garage, about as many kitchen gadgets as us in the kitchen in every nook and cranny.  He has his rom full of 3D printers, plus all the tools and accessories that go along with all that, not to mention the closets full of old projects and clothes he still thinks he might wear some day.

    All that aside, the reality is that the median housing price for the Austin metro area is $480,000.  This is the main reason that even the smaller houses we have seen are all above $300,000.  It was only a couple years ago that these same houses would have been easily around $200,000, which is much more manageable.  Still, there is no use hoping for the past or wishing things get better.  We must live in the reality of what is.  I still think with some discipline Boy could afford a $300,000 house, at least the interest rates are at all time lows.  Factoring that in with him living at least with the girlfriend, he is saying he wants a house as a precursor to moving along with marriage, so the girlfriend title would only be temporary, as far as I can tell.

    He keeps trying to find cheaper houses, yesterday, for example, he showed us some condo which was around $260,000.  The price sounds great, but it was built in the 70's and the HOA monthly charge is close to $400.  Even if the mortgage is $1600-$1700, adding the HOA, still kicks it above $2000.  He then showed us a townhome, but that was a 2 bed/2 bath unit for about $260,000 as well.  I didn't like that it only had a 1 car garage, so the cars would have to be lined up one in front of the other, that would be a hassle if one works later in the day and the other leaves in the morning, as they do now, plus again the townhomes were built in the 80's and both of these were in Leander, which is about an hour from us, and still plenty far from both their jobs and school.

    He did mention last night that the girlfriend's grandma, who has a house on 3 acres is willing to sell them half an acre and they could then build on that piece of land.  I like that idea because she is only a few miles from here, and it would be good for them to have her family as neighbors, that is always a comfortable feeling, to know the people that live around you.  As much as I would like for Mijo to be our neighbor, the houses in this community are very pricey, we could not afford to buy one here today, so I am thinking, at least for now, this is the best idea he has come up with.