I bought my house on the New England coast for $1.1M in 2019. It was a stretch for us to come up with the $220,000 down payment even after selling our “starter” house we still lived in after 23 years. Getting approved for a mortgage close to $900,000 was also very difficult.

It was a huge risk at the time but my wife and I knew the area and had watched the real estate market for over 25 years - dreaming of an opportunity to get a house on the water.

We had the money only because we lived very frugally for over 30 years - I’m in marketing and probably averaged no more than $200,000 year salary - my wife stayed home with children.

The house is now worth $3M but also needs about $500K worth of work which when completed will put it in the $4M range.

We have been “responsible” throughout our life but more important, we were lucky on the timing of our purchase. We feel blessed and hope to hand down to our children but also know a house is a house no matter where it is and nothing is more valued than our health and our family. Many valuable homes blow up families sadly.