How did starter homes become aspirational even with a decent job? Row-homes selling for close to $400k. How much will housing cost in 2026?

I know it’s worse for many others out there and I’m actually in a privileged position, but I just really thought my current financial situation would give me more options than it has.

Some years back I started on a career path that took me from $24k/yr to now breaking 6 figures. I’d gotten into a small amount of debt, but I made it a priority to pay it down by the end of my first year at the new job, and did. My starting salary was ~$50k, which felt like total luxury in comparison to before, and I continued saving pretty diligently after I was out of debt.

Soon I started thinking about a house, but it seemed like a huge commitment (I wasn’t sure where I wanted to live, or where I’d be working) so I kept putting it off. Better part of a decade passed, my income grew, and bit by bit, so did my savings.

When I started considering buying more seriously just before the pandemic, I was aiming for something in the $280k range. I soon learned that there weren’t many sub-$300k houses in my area, and I remember feeling pretty discouraged. I figured I’d wait & save some more, and then the housing market went crazy so it would have been stupid to buy then, right? Everyone was saying the bubble was about to burst.

But no, it just kept going up, and so did my rent and cost of living, and I felt I just really needed to go and get on that homeownership ladder.

At this point my salary was up to $110k and I had over $230k built up in savings. That would have been my absolute definition of financial success a few years earlier: it’s what I’d been working towards. But in that time, the cheapest houses in my area went from $290-$300k to $350k, and then while I was still trying to come to terms with that, to $370k and now $380-$390k. Over the course of less than a year!

And with interest rates being what they are, borrowing even $150k would leave me with a higher monthly payment than borrowing $250k a few years back.

I initially saw myself buying a standalone house, and also not that long ago thought that if I spent $380k on a house it would be a well sized one. But at this point the only affordable places were either remodeling projects or row homes, so I went with row home.

Now, I do think the place I recently went under contract on is totally cute, and I’m really excited to move in there, but it just isn’t what I pictured a $380k place to be, you know?

And I didn’t think I’d have a mortgage payment as high as I do given a TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLAR downpayment and excellent credit.

My income did rise to keep up with inflation and I’m definitely grateful for that, but it didn’t rise at the pace these house prices did ($440-500k for a basic “not huge but not tiny” home in my neighborhood now.) Ughhhh. It just feels like the goal posts keep moving.

(Obligatory disclaimer: obviously prices are location dependent and cheaper housing is available elsewhere… but not where I live on the East coast.)