> Usually when people say this, in my experience, it means they have some set of arbitrary requirements that aren't being fulfilled.
The requirement is $/mo is affordable.
Technically, yes, savings is irrelevant; as long as I can reach the required down-payment it doesn't much matter. It matters a bit in that, if I make a >traditional down payment, I can in theory, start cutting into the $/mo¹. The in practice problem is that my ROI has been outpaced by the housing market's lunacy, and more recently, there's the problem of inflation.
(There's also the other direction, where savings is irrelevant in that you can just ignore the traditional down payment, and like, take PMI or something, but that raises the $/mo problem.)
(Part of me is starting to go "well, but what if we just didn't count some of the cost as a cost per-se, I mean, housing is an investment, amirite? and the prices clearly only go up. (Heavy /s on that.))
Now, look at the current economy: inflation is +9% over the last 12 mo, YTD my investments are something like -18% (though of course, probably… things will get back to normal … any day now… — but that means that your time horizon for home purchasing has to be further out than things returning to normal), and IME eng salaries go down¹ until you inevitably change jobs, and tech companies are laying people off right now (so, it means gauging who you think is in deeper trouble: your current employer or your next employer, and boy do employees not get the kind of data or insight to tell that sort of thing — although after 2 years at a place I think one will know, for that company).
¹more or less. Adjustments for promotions might happen, but in my circle of people, we're not seeing meaningful adjustments for inflation or intra-level bumps.
Affordable is actually an interesting metric to take literally.
Can it be done vs do I like the price.
I spent 5 years struggling to figure out the difference when it came to purchasing a house.
Eventually I came to the realization that yes, I can literally afford it. no, I don't like the price. Unfortunately, chances were low I would ever see a price I did like.
The requirement is $/mo is affordable.
Technically, yes, savings is irrelevant; as long as I can reach the required down-payment it doesn't much matter. It matters a bit in that, if I make a >traditional down payment, I can in theory, start cutting into the $/mo¹. The in practice problem is that my ROI has been outpaced by the housing market's lunacy, and more recently, there's the problem of inflation.
(There's also the other direction, where savings is irrelevant in that you can just ignore the traditional down payment, and like, take PMI or something, but that raises the $/mo problem.)
(Part of me is starting to go "well, but what if we just didn't count some of the cost as a cost per-se, I mean, housing is an investment, amirite? and the prices clearly only go up. (Heavy /s on that.))
Now, look at the current economy: inflation is +9% over the last 12 mo, YTD my investments are something like -18% (though of course, probably… things will get back to normal … any day now… — but that means that your time horizon for home purchasing has to be further out than things returning to normal), and IME eng salaries go down¹ until you inevitably change jobs, and tech companies are laying people off right now (so, it means gauging who you think is in deeper trouble: your current employer or your next employer, and boy do employees not get the kind of data or insight to tell that sort of thing — although after 2 years at a place I think one will know, for that company).
¹more or less. Adjustments for promotions might happen, but in my circle of people, we're not seeing meaningful adjustments for inflation or intra-level bumps.