This year, several of my clients have been young people in their
mid-twenties. These smart kids know the value of home ownership, or rather,
their parents have instilled in them the value and pride of home ownership.
And they have all been young women.
Kay, a nurse’s assistant, was 24 when she started looking for a home. She
was straight out of college, single and at her 1st job, but decided
that she did not need Mr Right to buy her a house. She knew exactly what she
wanted and had saved enough for a down payment.
Like most young people of her generation, she was computer savvy, had
looked at a lot of homes online before going out to see homes. She had great
credit, had talked to a loan officer and got pre-approved and was all set to
go. What a dream client!
We had a contract on a home before her 25th birthday and she
moved into a brand new home a month after her birthday!
Jay, another young lady, was 26 when she bought her new home. Like Kay,
she had done her homework on areas that were suitable for her and had saved for
a down payment.
Both these ladies are from small towns, and Columbia is the
action-packed metropolis. As Jay said: ‘They had just 1 traffic light in her
town, and Wal-Mart was 10 miles away.’
Their protective parents and siblings made several anxious trips to
make sure that their head-strong daughters chose the right home in a safe
neighborhood.
I have just helped yet another young lady buy a home – same scenario - very
smart, has great credit and has put money by for the down-payment. And… she picked
out her dream home in 2 days!
These were the more fortunate ladies with no school loans and no babies
from teenage pregnancies.
Dee came to me 2 years ago. Sadly, her credit was bad and she needed to
get that fixed first. With 2 babies and a boyfriend not worth mentioning, I
know how difficult it was. But… she has fixed her credit and attended
homeownership classes to qualify for a down-payment assistance program. $4,000
that could be forgivable is not a bad deal, right? She now has a contract on a
home and hopes to close soon.
This leaves me wondering… why aren’t young men saving up and buying homes?
