17/03/2026
That starter home your parents told you to buy in 2016 for $180,000 is now $425,000. Hope you listened.
And if you didn't? You're not alone. Most people didn't.
Because in 2016 $180,000 still felt like a lot of money for a starter home.
Interest rates were around 3.5%. Monthly payment on that $180,000 house with 20% down was roughly $647 a month.
Today that same house at $425,000 with rates at 6%?
$2,800 a month.
Same house. Same street. Same square footage.
FOUR TIMES the monthly payment.
And it gets worse.
In 233 cities across America a starter home now costs over $1,000,000. Not a forever home. Not a luxury property.
A starter home.
Five years ago only 85 cities had million dollar starter homes.
Today it's 233 and climbing.
To afford the average $425,000 starter home today under the recommended 30% income rule you need to earn at least $112,000 a year.
The median household income in America is $86,000.
So the house that was supposed to be the first step into the American Dream now requires an income most Americans don't make.
Your parents weren't giving you bad advice in 2016.
The window was just genuinely open in a way it hasn't been since.
The question now isn't whether you should have bought then.
It's what you do next.
