Koolau
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
We bought our first small house in the mid 70s for $8.5k (about $46.5k in today's dollars) at 8.75% when our combined income was $13k (about $73k in today's dollars) while we were just getting started and paying off student loans and a VW beetle loan. The house was an abandoned "fix-er-upper" so there was a lot of sweat and building supplies going into making it habitable. After all the bills, insurance, taxes, building supplies, tool rental, etc. there wasn't much left at the end of the month.
As challenging as it was I don't think it would be possible to accomplish the same today with today's dollars. Where could you find a house for $46.5k or even 3x the price and then afford the materials to make it habitable?
Cheers!
Lots of things have changed since the 70s. Even in the 80s, DW and I rehabbed the Old Home Stead. We used a home-builder's salvage place and bought cabinets, Formica tops, even lumber. It wasn't a tenth of what folks would spend just on materials these days (I mean, who would "intentionally" install Formica?) We still love it and don't mind the "cheaper" stuff we snagged for very little money. Who knew we'd be living here 40+ years later?