It’s crazy to see that amidst this unprecedentedly hot housing market, both my close friend and my cousin have closed on houses recently. Houses in San Francisco. I think if you go back and asked us in high school if we think we would ever pay over a million dollars for a house, we would say that is impossible. In our mind, million-dollar homes are the province of the rich and wealthy, of which we are decidedly not.
And yet that’s the entry price for a decent house here in San Francisco. I feel overwhelming joy for my friend. He’s going to get married soon, and buying a house was definitely on the checklist to do before settling down onto the next phase of life. I just didn’t think he would make the move during this housing madness. There are way more buyers than houses for sale, and with interest rates at historic lows, the scale is tipped heavily towards sellers.
But sometimes you have to make the move, even if the conditions aren’t ideal. So what if people are overbidding each other? For a home to presumably live in for a huge chunk of the rest of your life, a few hundred-thousand can be amortized nice and long. The crucial thing is my friend gets to stay in the city he grew up in, and live close to his family. I say that’s money well spent, even if it is seven-figures for not really a lot of house.
Plus there’s the remodeling.
It is slightly jarring to see my cousin and friend getting married and buying homes. Meanwhile, I’ve barely started embarking on proper bachelorhood and living on my own. I guess I shouldn’t expect the people around me to all be at the same stage of life. Some will for sure move faster, like my other friend who’s already got two young kids. Perhaps I’ll feel some pang of missing out when everybody else joins in on the fray, but thankfully that day won’t come for awhile.
Supreme management.