I just did (although not my first, that one I bought 10 years ago)… sold may old apartment (still in the French Riviera) and with my wife we bought a very nice house 100m from the sea! Mortgage interest rates are great at the moment… 0.9% ain’t bad!

"Why do you need money? Aren't you already rich like me?"

Yeah the cognitive dissonance is fascinating in people all over the world. I hear the same responses from people here in California.

"Why don't you stop renting? Just buy a house like I did 15 years ago, taxes are so low!"

Right... your taxes are artificially low thanks to Prop 13.

"Why do we need high density housing? Just look further away from the city for cheaper housing, I'm going to stay put".

I literally sold my old apartment last year for almost the same price I got it for… so no profit. And my current home was bought this year… therefore considering the current housing market.

In SF/LA or SD? How is that possible? The entire market has moved significantly up in the last few years.

Don't forget to subtract sales commission and expenses.

In southern France… the French Riviera! I am not from the US!

Roughly how much did you spend on the home, if you don't mind me asking? I'm curious how expensive that area is.

Most homes that are near the sea are pretty damn expensive in the US. Or if not, have significant flooding, hurricane, and/or will probably be underwater thanks to climate change in 10-15 years.

Here homes are all built using either brick ore reinforced (like my home) and the climate is mild. Over the years there are hardly any damage… mine might only need to fix a bit of paint on a couple of corners… but 10 years old and no maintenance required so far (for the previous owner was a second home he barely used)

Isn’t that a very reasonable salary to be buying a home on? Especially at the upper end of that range.

Homes in that area are about 10x that salary - so no. Reasonable ends at 3-4x your salary. I would be surprised if you could get a loan if you're taking a mortgage out that is 8x+ your salary... but maybe you can in France? Not in the US!

That is not true… only sea view apartments and houses do have incredibly high prices… otherwise you can find an apartment of 100m2 for prices ranging from 200k euros to 500k. Many homes with garden in the area range from 450k to a million (depending on the location). If as a couple the household income is 100k or more a year it is not difficult at all to get a mortgage. In France is very hard to get fired… there is a much higher job security… and since we have universal healthcare we don’t even risk to not be able to pay due to a medical emergency! For a bank is less risky to lend you money! Life here is good!

500k is getting close to 10x the salary.

If you are married or in a pax it is getting closer to 5x not 10x

Just as a counter-point, I live and work in London. I can't imagine ever being able to buy a home here unless something drastically changes, house prices are close to 10x my annual salary.

> house prices are close to 10x my annual salary

Plenty of people in the world save for 20 years for a house.

https://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Europe/price-gdp-per-cap

And historically houses have always been hovering around the same 20x multiplier for desirable places, except for a few small blips like the postwar boom.

And of course stuff like the American westward expansion, because land was dirt cheap as were materials (everything was forested so you just had to start chopping, more or less).

It is… most of my colleagues own a house or an apartment and we all have more or less the same salary!