The bad news: It takes the typical homebuyer six years to save up enough money for a downpayment. The good news: Many would-be owners have already been saving their pennies, dimes, nickels, and quarters for five years.
But it hasn’t been easy, according to a survey of 1,000 owners and would-be owners on behalf of Raisin, an online saving marketplace.
Among other things, they are prioritizing saving for a house over saving for retirement, working overtime, and delaying major life events like marriage or having children. Some are moving in with family or sharing a place with roommates to trim their housing costs.
In all, pollsters found that 93% of the buyers and would-be buyers they interviewed have made sacrifices to save for a home. Many wannabes worry they may never get a foot onto the homeownership ladder, and some who have taken that step fear they may have stretched too far.
The “American Dream,” Raisin says, has become the “American Sacrifice.” People “are being forced to make unfavorable decisions in order to chase their homeownership dreams,” the savings site says.
“Homeownership is a milestone that every American deserves the opportunity to achieve, but rising costs make even the best efforts fall short,” said Cetin Duransoy, CEO at Raisin.
Even those who have bought a home within the last seven years are feeling the pinch, the survey found.
Noting that “financial reality" has settled in, Raisin found that owners are still cutting back on travel, dining out, and even canceling subscriptions. About one-in-four say they haven’t been able to save for retirement, and just under half fear they bought more home than they could handle financially. The same number said the impact on their monthly expenses has been greater than they expected.
Most folks save for a downpayment through traditional bank accounts, but nearly one-in-four are holding cash outside the banking system. More than 30% of GenZer’s keep their savings “under their mattresses,” so to speak, as do 20% of millennials and Gen Xers.
