Congrats. Owning a home is amazing and terrifying at the same time. When most people are buying a house, they forget to remember that things need to be fixed, replaced and/or maintained. Too many people stretch their budgets and end up married to their houses. Make sure you stay within budget and allow yourself enough comfort room to still be able to have a life. Having a nice house is awesome, but if you have to stay home every night and eat ramen noodles and hotdogs 7 days a week and only see movies at the $1 Cinema to afford it, it aint worth it.

 

With that said, I don't get how people up North or in high price areas do it. We moved from Florida just before things started to get ridiculous, but had friends in places like NY and Mass that would tell us about the outrageous prices people would pay for tiny little houses. We also watch "Trading Up" and some of the other shows on HGTV etc. where people are looking for houses and they are paying like $700k for some house that would sell for $60k here in Ohio. It's truly insane. I never understood how people could afford something like that.

However, life in the countryside can be quite boring, where the land is cheapest.  My family paid around 100 thousand for our place, which was 110 acres, and there was already a house on the land, which we renovated.

 

It was between Texas, NYC, and Ohio, and I went to Ohio. We bought and sold houses for a decade, and built our dream house when I was 32. I learned a ton about buying and selling houses.

 

I can't imagine trying to buy real estate near DC. The prices are so far out there, that it isn't logical. If the government starts to shrink, you will see a drop in real estate prices there I would guess... As most of the property is owned by people who work for the government.

 

If I were in your shoes, I would look for a fixer upper. You can make mad money if you have the time to do the work yourself. (big if, obviously).

 

I bought from HUD, and relocation houses in my area, not sure if there are many of those in your area again, because the biggest employer there is the government, and government has been growing for years with DC being one of the highest income areas and highest real estate prices in the country.

 

 

 

 

BO or DO?

 

Raising the minimum wage only increases the cost of living as all costs increase so your dollar buys less.

 

If you want more of something, you lower the costs. If you want less of something you increase the costs.

 

That is the problem liberal governments often forget, as they increase taxes to "raise" revenues, and the exact opposite result always occurs.