I know someone who lives in an $800,000 home. He’s a well established professional who couldn’t afford to buy the home he lives in right now.
He bought it for about $450,000 some years ago. He could only afford it then because he was buying it with the proceeds of the sale of his prior home … which he sold for $300,000 after buying it for $225,000. And THAT home was only affordable for him because he had about $50,000 in equity left over after he sold his first home (a townhouse).
For interest sake, here’s the listings in the Hamilton, Ontario, area. You have to go to the pages in the 50s to get something for $550,000 range, and they’re basically dumps or apartments.
Our area is brutal. Fortunately, we sold a house we paid $320,000 for in 2010, last year for $850,000. We cashed in on this insane market, bought a 1200 sq. ft. new mobile home, have set it up on my daughter and SIL’s farm, and used the money to help them and my son. I just couldn’t see sitting on that big real estate payoff when my kids could use the help. Both my daughter & SIL and my son and DIL are the hardest working people I know - but everything is so stacked against young people today. They were making things work on their own, but not without intense struggle. The help just made life a lot less stressful, so I’m glad for that.