How Old Were You When You BOUGHT Your First Home?

At 28 we squeezed into a condo in southern California. I didn't get married until I was 27. We moved to a house 2 years later. A year later we sold and moved to Texas, where housing was more reasonable, so that we could afford a home, and I could quit my job (being a stay at home mom). All worked out well for us.

33. I got married late, I was too busy doing other things......I am very happy we didn't buy a home sooner. I hated renting, but houses are giant sucking financial voids.

I was 23 - he was 26. Although we have moved several times, we rented it out and still own it today - and now it's paid for!

I was 27. However, we lost the house to foreclosure when I was 33 because my husband was laid off from his job. He took a job that paid 1/4 of his previous salary, and we just couldn't make ends meet with the mortgage payment we had. We tried everything, short sale (because of course by this time, the market had totally collapsed and our mortgage was $250K higher than the value of the home - gotta love Bay Area home prices), we tried negotiating with the bank, no luck anywhere. So we were heartbroken, but became renters once again.

I am happy to report, that was 3 years ago so we're done being punished according to the FHA guidelines, and we are placing an offer on our second home. :) Now that prices are more reasonable than they were, we're able to find something decent in a price range we can afford on just one salary (we learned THAT lesson!). It will be nice to own our own home again.

We were both 26. We're 32 now. Biggest. Mistake. Of. Our. Lives. Financially.

I was 19. I had been in a car accident and I took the settlement and bought a house.

My husband and I bought our first home when we were 23 and 27. Sold that 4 years later (moved out of state) and bought another home. Sold that 12 years later and built a new home in the same city. Sold that 2 years later (moved back to Texas) and bought the one we are in now. I was 41 and he was 45. We will probably sell in a couple of years and down size. Right now, my idea of down size and my husband's idea of down size aren't the same! We have never lost money on any of our homes nor are we upside down in our mortgage now! We have been very lucky!!!

I was 27, my husband 30. It's been two years now. We LOVE our house, but there are things we don't love about our neighborhood. Still, I think we will be here a long time.

We are not "still" renting, we are renting period.
I have no ambitions of owning a house. No one in my family ever owned a home, nor did they want to. Where I am from in Europe home ownership is simply not as desirable as it is here.
Personally I think home ownership is way overrated. I understand that some people love it, but I don't think that it's something that everyone should feel is "necessary" to have a happy life.

Where we live we would look at $350 000 + for a house that is comparable to our current rental - and that is in a down market! Our housing bubble never really burst... one of the few places in the country.... and I have no intentions of sinking that amount of money into a house, put the interest on top and we would spend up to three quarters of a million $$$. No thanks.
I have actually done the math, comparing our rent over 30 years with the cost of a mortgage... it would only be worth it for us if we got a "real deal" of a house and even then we would probably just break even (and only if you disregard major maintenance and repairs).

And then the fact that you tie yourself down to a place. I know that I am an age where I should be "settled" (36), but I am not and I want to be free to go where my career or my interests take me. Nowadays you can't just sell your home in the timespan of a month, recoup the money you put into it (not even talking about making any on top) and be on your way...

DH on the other hand really wants to own a home... so I guess we may eventually buy one and of course if we ever move somewhere, where homes are actually affordable - I may change my mind as well.

Just bought our first 27 years of age for both of us. I am more then glad we waited. And couldn't be happer with our mortgage amt So affordable for us...although I am a bit bummed we rented for so long I am stoke that over the next few decades our Mortgage is not going to increase like rent does!! Yes taxes might a little but that's it!!!

I was 19. I was very fortunate to get a great job within a month of graduating HS to put myself through college.

27 and we're still in it :)

I was 24 and single and bought my first home, it was a condo. When I married at 30, my husband and I had a manufactured home built. In 2003 we moved to AZ and bought a 5 bedroom house, which we lost in the divorce. Currently my new husband and I are renting, thanks to our crappy credit from our divorces...and hope to buy in the next 2-3 years. =)

I was 30 when we bought our home. We bought it 9 months after we were married. We moved in 2 weeks before we had our son.

Actually because of tragedy in our families my husband and i bought our first home outright/cash when i was 21. I look young anyway so it was always funny when repairmen and utility people would come to my door and ask if my parents were home. We bought our second house when i was 27 and we still have the first one. Currently the first house (although 15 years newer than the one we live in) is falling apart. We are trying to sell it but wont get what we should for it unless we do work on it. While we do the work the taxes are drowning us. ugh

we were too young when we bought that one, the previous owners took us for a ride!

24 - boy was that a long time ago!

Dawn

28 years old and we Re still in the same house! We love our neighborhood.

Husband was 28 & I was 22.

~We still live in it and still LOVE it!

1998 and I was 23, husband 25, and we bought it for 108k...it was a foreclosure. We then sold it for 350k in 2004 in the boom. It wasn't even listed and we had a buyer approach us. It was a crazy market then and the housing bubble was growing at an insane rate.

Good luck and best wishes!

We bought our first at 25/26 and our second at 30/31.

We are 30 and 31. We are still renters. Probably won't be able to buy for another few years. It's taken us a while because of college, internships and not knowing where the career would take us. We almost bought 2 years ago when my husband got his great new job and relocated. Fortunately, we didn't find anything and rented, because he was laid off only 6 months later, and we would have been screwed with a home because he found a new job 7 hours away. No way we could have sold a home that quickly in this market.

28 and we sold that when I was 31 and bought this. We're upside down on our mortgage by almost $100K though so I hardly consider us homeowners...

I always rented because.....I hadn't settled into my "forever" place yet. I moved around and also traveled a lot when I was single. I got married about 3 months after I turned 30, and we signed up to stay in my husband's bachelor pad another year while we worked and figured things out. But I got pregnant 6 weeks later! Well, we just worked like crazy, and it was very exciting. He worked 6 days a week about 60 hours/week, and I worked 7 days a week about 50 hours/week (pregnant, so I did low hours on the weekend, my 2nd job). My son was actually 18 months old before we moved out of that apartment though----we saved and worked and just made do a little while, knowing there was a bigger picture and we were doing what was right for us. (We wanted to not have any other debt, we wanted to correct our credit scores, and we wanted a proper downpayment and "incidentals" for an emergency saved up before we purchased). About 6 months after I turned 32, we bought my first home. Now I'm 36 and we have 2 houses; we rent one out.

24 and it is all mine along with all the bills that go along with it!!!! :)

25! 28 now and still LOVING my house!! I've lived in this house longer than any other house in my entire life.

We just put up a privaacy vinyl fence and a large deck, so we're staying put for a while!

We were 21 years old (in 1989) and still live here.

28 for the first.
We still have it (it's paid for) - can't sell it right now to wipe out the mortgage on our 2nd house, but we rent it out so it helps.
45 for the second.

I married my first husband a couple of months before turning 22 and became a co-owner of the home. When we split up a couple of years later I bought the home from him at 24 years old. My present husband bought his first home at 27.

22 my ex was 24.

We lived above my ex's families business until we found where we wanted to build and built the house I still live in. :)

Rented 2 different apartments with my husband (boyfr at the time) from 18-23 years old then bought our house together at 23, 10 months after getting married. We've been here 13 years. :)

we were both 23, bought 3 months before we married

I was 33, my husband was 31 when we bought our first home.

i was a single mom, not receiving any child support, and had absolutely not one penny from anyone to *gift* me money to build my first home on my 22nd birthday

I found your answers to be so interesting - looks like many people were in their mid/late 20's when they bought their first home. I was 26, my husband 27! Weird. We sold our first house and bought our 2nd (a move out of state) when I was 29. Sold that one and bought our 3rd and current house (another move out of state) when I was 33. We've been here for 6 years and it looks like we'll be here FOREVER. We bought in the Fall of 2005 - need I say more??

I was 29 and single and it was a completely audacious thing to do at the time. Everybody in my age range and circumstances was renting and they all thought I went a little nuts. However, shortly thereafter several of my friends followed suit and bought in the same area.

It was one of the smartest things I ever did. Prices doubled, tripled, then quadrupled. Even with the recession my house is worth triple what I paid back then.

25, hubby was 28. Just bought it last year! It's infinitely better for us than renting an apartment.

20 (myself) and 24 (husband)

My husband and I are in our mid twenties and we choose to rent. The wall in our home office represents our mortgage = our education. We each have a Masters degree and we have decided that paying back our loans is priority. Because we were not tied down, we have been able to follow career opportunities for advancement that would not have happened if we had to negotiate the sale of a house in the relocation package (the company made it clear). It all worked out because of lease was up anyway.

I have always had a dream of building my dream house from the ground up. Until we can afford to do that, I'll stick with renting the nice houses that people can't afford to sell because of the bad economy. Our current landlords would love for us to buy this house in a few years when the market turns around. I, however, anticipate we will be moving again once another opportunity opens up in a year or two.

I was 35 when my husband and I bought/built the house we live in now. We bought the land for this house when I was 32.

When we married, he already owned a home and I was renting, so I moved in with him.

We bought our first home a year after 9-11...We lived in a high rise which was 18 floor's and everytime an airplane would pass to land at O'hare airport we would get freaked out! I was 20 and our first home was $175,000...It was a townhouse and loved everything about it! We only rented for about 2 year's, buying a home (at that time) was what we thought a good investment.. Too bad we cant say that today! Hope you have a wonderful Holiday season!

I was 29 and single.

My husband and I bought our first house when we got married in 1990. We were 23 and 28.

I was 27 & he was 28. We rented for 8 years before buying & had actually ended up moving states from New Jersey to Delaware specifically so that we could afford to buy a house.

26. it was my birthday present to myself. i loved it:)

Before marriage, I was tired of renting and purchased a condo at 24. When I got married we purchased our now townhouse when I was 28 and he was 31 and been here for 7 years now.

I was 19 and he was 22 :) We went to rent a house and the guy said well ya'll have a family so would you be interested in your own home... so instead of renting we bought from the guy :)

Built our first home when I was 28 (hubby had just turned 29). Our closing date was on my birthday when I turned 29.

I was 21 and my husband was 25.

My daughter and her husband just bought their first home at 24 and 26 (and it's a lot nicer than our first home!) ;)

We bought our first home three months before we got married - I was 22 and my husband was 23. It was suppose to be our 'starter' home but we're still here 11-1/2 years later =)

My husband was a Vietnam Vet. We had a VA load and bought our first house when I was 27.

43 years old in 2010

ETA: do I win a prize for being the oldest? LOL

My husband and I were 30 when we bought our first home - right after grad school. Actually, I was just shy of turning 30...so 29 almost 30. I am 40 now and we are in our 4th home. And this is a good one!!!

I was 19, I'm 22 now. It's alot harder when your younger, it took forever 2 close. My co-signer is my bro in-law, he was I think 23 at the time. My husband was 31.. But his credit sucked. And nobody else wanted to help me. But I did it. and now I want a bigger house. I have 3 bedrooms, but not alot of closet space. I need lots of storage space. But maybe when I'm 30, or when I hit the lotto I'll buy a bigger place. For now, we just have to add on.