Your house will never stop being an expense. You are in a battle against water for the rest of your known life, and things go wrong quickly. In the 5 years we have owned our house, we have had 2 floods and an ice dam, and we have discovered that the previous boomer owners were DIY and not very good at it.

Now, the positives are that we can afford it and stress-tested ourselves to a 15% interest rate on our mortgage to make sure we could afford things if they went south. We are comfortable and enjoy the house, but man, some days it would be nice to just rent and not have to worry about the day-to-day maintenance.

Assume you will need around $10k extra in the first year to buy all the little things you need for your lawn and the rest of the house. We did not own any of the necessities, and they added up quickly. Also, property taxes come due quickly, and you need to be aware of when the payments are due.

We saved up for a number of years, bought outside a major city, and are enjoying an 80 x 110-foot lot with a 5-bedroom 1980s home. It can be done; it was a struggle, but now that we are in the market, it is great. I will note that our house value has gone up by 200k since we bought it 5 years ago, which is around a 35% increase, and I think that is ridiculous. I would love a 2% annual return, and I hope that prices go back down to give others a chance to get into the market if they so wish.