Our first house was financed at 14%. Our second home was financed at 7.5 and it was some kind of government loan that you had to be under a certain income to get. The rates at the time were 8-9. OF course at those rates we bought exactly what we could afford and nothing more. They weren’t much.
Same here. Our first house was a 2BR/1 bath, 984 square-footer. We paid $169,000 in Long Beach, CA. Our rate was just over 8%, and the broker struggled to get that for us. That was in ‘95.
We moved up the coast to Oxnard in ‘99, and we got a $224,000 loan at 6 and 7/8%. Refi’d to 5.5% four years ago. We looked at houses here that were $260,000 then, but our limit was $250,000, so we went to a more affordable area.
We have friends who bought a house three years ago. They absolutely had to buy, because the market was going nowhere but up, according to their other friends. They paid $660,000 for 1,500 square feet. Put no money down. The wall of their house is the wall of their neighbor’s yard. The wife was staying home with the kids, but she immediately had to get two jobs waiting tables.
I have no idea how they must be feeling right now. I’m sure they can’t get $450,000 for the place now.