20.
“I bought my house in the Bay Area before 30 this last summer. We didn’t have help from parents and it was very hard work, but to be honest anyone who manages to buy a house in this market got lucky somewhere.”
“Ways I worked for it:
-Sticking to a strict budget and not increasing spending over the years as I made more money
-Working side jobs while I was hourly, then working double time for years to earn bonuses once salaried
Ways I just got lucky:
-Being married and therefore being able to combine our income
-Living in a city with rent control laws. After ten years in my apartment, I was paying less than 70% of what other in the complex were paying
-Lawsuit settlement from my former employer which came out to about half a year’s pay after taxes and my attorney’s cut
-Signing an agreement promising not to sue another company, which came out to maybe a couple months pay after taxes
-Finding a new job that, without any exaggeration, nearly doubled my salary overnight”
—oatmealthegnome
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/meganeliscomb/millennial-homeowners-stories