People seem to be really opinionated with regards to parental help. Including another thread which infers that I'm a free-loader after my mom's pocket book. Which is funny because my mom never has money (children give her money).
Most of my family is close, and we all help each other. My brother lived in my house rent free for 6 years. I'm sure the people on the forum would berate him for doing so... "I'd rather be homeless than live with my brother" or something like that. Which makes no sense. Nor does it make sense, that I let him stay at my house "so that I could control him" as some other comments would infer. Sometimes, family helps family. Why is that so hard to comprehend? Maybe I'm unrealistic, because I'm trying to get most of our family (me, mother, brother) to stay in Irvine so that we can live close to each other for the foreseeable future. It just happens to be a nice comfortable place to live, that's not to far from friends, work and other things that surround our lives.
If someone marries into a rich family who cares? Me, I just got my wife's grad loans, but it doesnt matter. We are happy as pie (especially with our daughter). But I don't and won't hate on others. One of our friends just bought a $1mm home in La Crescenta thanks to wife's parents. Who cares. Good for him. If he starts flaunting it, then I'll call him out. But if he lives a happy life, and is a good husband and parent, more power to him.
The idea of how much someone needs to make to afford a house is just too hard to figure out. I think its a really interesting topic however, because it does point to underlying fundamentals that affects the market clearing prices for real estate. Such fundamentals are exactly why housing prices are lower today. Lack of leverage prevents certain buyers from purchasing, thus lowering demand. I think a good summary of some people's points here is that absent private capital and other funding sources, demand SHOULD be down significantly leading to an adjustment in pricing. However, some who are looking for 50% drops are ANNOYED that external factors such as family gifts and FCBs are affecting Irvine's pricing. Instead of sticking to the same model and complaining that you are not explaining all factors and noise, why not add a few more variables into your regression? Think outside the box.
Others believe that our economy is continuing to deteriorate and that due to macro economic factors, house prices should continue to fall and that anybody who chooses to purchase now is doomed. Sob debt issues will hurt the global economy, and the contagion will spread leading to a horrible global recession. Fine. People are free to have such opinions. But given revised (but not perfect) lending standards, why do people assume that everyone that buys today will just become another non-performing borrower that will require additional gov't bailouts? What is the support that we are heading for such a case? For that reason, we think that the only people who should buy homes are those who save 50% down (but only on their own), and have monthly incomes that are 20x the monthly mortgage... great, progressive thinking. You should run for the white house...
