Updated February 2021
You don’t feel like you make enough money, you haven’t saved enough, your students loans and debts are a burden and you live in Seattle, one of the most expensive places to live in the country. If this sounds familiar to you, you might question my sanity if I told you that you may very well be able to (and should) buy a home now. Don’t make the mistake some of my friends made in early 2020: when they saw COVID-19 start to shut-down business and people started staying home. They wanted to wait to “see how things shake out” before jumping into buying their first home… and now a year later, home prices/values in Seattle have increased 13.6%, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
I completely understand the hesitation and uncertainty association with becoming a homeowner - in the recent past, you may not have only personally experienced a substantial rise in your rent and cost of living in this highly desirable city but you have likely seen some of the sensational recent headlines, Facebook posts and memes about how pricey real estate has become and how we are becoming the next San Francisco as the median house price is North of $700,000.
Lets face it, being constantly fed disappointing news can sour our outlook... but how can you reject something when you don’t have the full story? If you could see the larger context of the Seattle market and take the time to fully understand the home buying process, you may be surprised that it is actually much more doable (and personally beneficial) for many Seattle renters to transition into Seattle area home owners and start building your home equity and personal wealth through owning real estate!
In realizing that one of the largest barriers and hesitations for younger Seattleites to buying their own home was that they didn’t think they could afford it or didn’t understand the value and wealth creating potential that home ownership provides. To help dispel some of these rather commonly held beliefs, I decided to create and start a first-time home buying class in West Seattle... to inform, discuss and answer questions all about the process and realities of becoming a homeowner. Initially we meet at The Westy, provide the drinks, appetizers and a fun laid-back class and have aptly called it the “Beers + Home Buying” Class. Though once COVID-19 hit, we transitioned to a regular online Virtual Home Buyer Class (article updated Feb. 2021), where I’ve partnered with Stephanie Maulding, from CrossCountry Mortgage to explain the first step of the process - getting prequalified for a mortgage. During last weeks initial class, we had a great turn out and were able to answer some real good questions, exchange ideas and experiences over our years in helping our clients with their home ownership needs.
Some of the big takeaways and myths we tried to dispel with the class were:
If you can afford rent in Seattle, you can likely afford to buy a home.
Check out Zillows Rent vs. Buying Calculator
Why pay your landlords mortgage and help them accumulate equity and wealth, when you could be doing that for yourself?
You don’t need as much money for a down payment as you probably think you do!
The combination of the Seattle housing market having cooled off in the last 8 months, increased number of homes available and still historically low interest rates are providing great opportunity for Home Buyers RIGHT NOW!
The feedback from the “Beer + Home Buying” class was so positive and it was such a success that we plan on doing this class monthly. If this may be something you are interested in joining us for in the future, go over to our Facebook page and “like” the Sea-Town Real Estate page, so you’ll see when we post our events each month.
Thanks for sharing in this journey with me.
Until next time, be well and be excellent to each other!