What It’s Like Buying a House in New Jersey as a Millennial

If I could get away with writing a one-word article I would simply end this one with, exhausting.

Unfortunately, that wouldn't make for interesting content and Google prefers 250 words.

My husband and my house-buying process sort of started over the summer before we got married. We kept an eye on the market to get a feel for just how much houses were going for.

Spoiler, houses are crazy expensive.

After the wedding, we turned our focus to buying a house.

If we thought planning a wedding was stressful, we were about to find out what real stress was like.

Luckily, my dad is a contractor so we had him come with us to look at houses to give his professional advice. We wanted to know if the houses we were looking at were even worth putting an offer in for and to know what work he thought would have to be done.

We were realistic in our lists of wants and knew we would never find a perfect move-in ready house in our budget. Honestly, I don't know many millennials who could afford most of the houses on the market today.

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We wanted three bedrooms (this way we don't have to add on when we start a family), at least one and a half baths, a dining area (I like hosting), and a decent backyard. We didn't feel like we needed anything extravagant.

It's an expensive world out there folks.

We visited a few houses, drove right past open houses that weren't worth going into, and watched some houses we wanted to look at get marked as pending on the real estate websites.

After three mortgage lenders and some stressful tears later, we found our house.

We had hoped we would qualify for the first-time homebuyers program and get downpayment assistance, but we soon found out that they don't actually list all of the requirements on the state site, so we didn't qualify.

Of course, in a perfect world, we would have put down 20% to avoid PMI, but for a $340,000 house, who has over $80,000 in cash for the downpayment and closing costs?

Remember, it's an expensive world out there...

Months and months of searching were well worth it in the end because in January we will close on our very own house.

To all of my fellow millennials and non-millennial readers, let me just say that yes it is an expensive and stressful process, but there are houses out there for you.

Take advice, but also remember that the housing market is very different in 2024 than it was even a few years ago. Your house-buying experience will be very different compared to your friends and family members who purchased their houses in the past.

Don't let all of the advice from everyone you know overwhelm you. Everyone you know will give you their two cents and it can be a lot. Just nod your head, smile, and move on.

I am a project-oriented person. I love DIY projects and crafts. I cannot begin to explain how excited I am to have a never-ending project.