The way some people have it figured, the good life should follow a road map. You go to college, you get your first “real” job, you get married, have a baby or two, and buy a house. Those last few steps are more or less interchangeable, but you get the point. There’s a lot of societal pressure on young adults to hit all the milestones of grown-up life before hitting the big 3-0. Accordingly, a lot of twenty-somethings run headlong into homeownership, buying what they can afford (which usually isn’t much) with an insufficient downpayment and little room for a growing family. There are actually some great cases to be made for waiting until you hit your 30s to buy a house. Here are a few.
First of all, ``as mentioned, a lot of younger buyers don’t have the full twenty percent for a down payment on a home. This need not be a dealbreaker - there are mortgage loans with down payment requirements as low as 3.5 percent - but you will need to pay for private mortgage insurance (PMI) and likely a higher interest rate to compensate for not having upfront funds. Waiting until you have some serious savings puts you in the running for the best interest rate and pay make it realistic for you to take a 15-year loan instead of a 30-year one, meaning you will pay your home off faster.
Speaking of money, having more of it (like one does in their 30s) means that you have the ability to buy a house that doesn’t need as much work on it as a younger, less stable buyer. For many youthful homeowners, a fixer upper is a near-guarantee, since that is all that they can afford. They then have to spend their money making major repairs to their home, keeping them from getting further ahead financially. If you are more financially stable, you can buy a home that is turnkey-ready, allowing you to enjoy your home as-is and spending little money on major repairs.
One final reason to wait until you are a bit older to buy a house - and it’s a big one - is that you will know exactly where you want to settle down. Young people without kids have the whole world in front of them, and they tend to want to go exploring it. It’s not unheard of for a twenty-something to move from state to state, whether for college or work, not knowing where they will end up. It’s silly to buy a home before you are sure you want to stay in a place. Also, in your 30s, you may be interested in things that didn’t particularly concern you before, like school districts (because you have kids) or crime rates (because you have a nicer car).
Overall, the right time to buy a house is when you have the money to purchase and maintain it, and you know that you are ready to settle down. Some people in their 20s are ready to make this kind of commitment, but for many, it makes sense to wait until you are a bit older and wiser.
