Young first-time homebuyers are making news. They are fearlessly charting the new terrain of the housing market and making their homeownership dreams come true. Adriana Moorman, Rylee Arnold, Samantha Garcia and Dominic Azpeitia have clearly outshone the rest of the group so far. Each one has exhibited extraordinary grit and financial discipline in their journeys towards homeownership.
Adriana Moorman, only 21 years old when she did so, was able to buy a condo in Baltimore for $202,000. Moorman’s journey to homeownership began well before her purchase. She had saved carefully since high school and entered the market totally debt-free. She opted out of enrolling in a traditional four-year college. She immersed herself in human resources, stashing away her savings so she could one day afford her own home.
Moorman recently shared her perspective on financial awareness. As she puts it, “I believe I lucked out by having this financial literacy at a very young age.” Her persistent initiative allowed her to acquire and protect her land mostly on her own without a lot of help, except for a modest inheritance received.
For example, in Salt Lake City, 28-year-old Rylee Arnold just purchased a home at the median price of $440,000. She intends to co-buy the home with her boyfriend, who will split the mortgage cost with her. Arnold shares how significant ownership is in her life with the quote, “I just feel like it’s important to own something.” She was pleasantly surprised during the buying process when her seller agreed to cover many closing costs, which significantly eased her financial burden.
Arnold said that without the seller’s generous credits, he wouldn’t have been able to purchase the home. Without those credits, the purchase would have been financially unattainable. Her experience is a testament that with the right knowledge of the landscape and a strong ability to negotiate, opportunities can be presented to young buyers.
Samantha Garcia, 23, and her fiancé were recently able to call themselves proud new homeowners. They bought a cash-flow-positive, fixer upper three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Redding, California for $335,000. Their journey was helped with financial support from her fiancé’s parents, with whom they live, gifting them $25,000 to put toward their down payment. Garcia candidly acknowledged the challenges of purchasing a home with California’s competitive housing climate. He told us, “I realized that I was never going to be able to buy in LA. There are almost no single-family homes in LA under $1 million.”
On the other end, 26-year-old Dominic Azpeitia moved to Phoenix earlier this year, with an original purchase price of $520,000. He decided to move from his native area to realize his dream of owning a home. For Azpeitia, it’s all about timing, “I just decided last year, there is no use waiting, you have to do it.” His foresight into the housing market leads him to think that prices are unlikely to decrease anytime soon: “In my opinion, housing prices aren’t going to go down.”
Every first-time buyer has faced their own set of challenges. They’ve identified opportunities that enabled them to crack the housing market. Their stories are part of a larger movement among younger generations who are hellbent on improving their financial futures by owning a home.