For some potential Seattle homebuyers, the down payment feels like an unclimbable mountain that stands in their way. As home prices grow ever-higher, the chances you'll be able to scrape together the wad of cash needed to get your foot in the door of a new home gets tougher to imagine.
Realtor.com says there is one thing you can do: start saving. They've crunched the numbers for the biggest urban areas in America, including Seattle, to figure out just how much buyers need to save per day to eventually purchase a home of their own. Using median home listing prices in May, they figured out the numbers and then put them in terms any Seattleites can understand: the number of Starbucks grande Caramel Macchiatos (retail $4.45) you’d need to skip buying in order to hit your goal.
Using a Seattle median home price of $445,000, which we assume takes into account the surrounding area since Seattle-proper is coming in way hotter than that, they figure that the average down payment is $59,185. They figure if you were going by a five-year saving plan, you'd have a daily savings goal of $32.41 (about 7 Caramel Macchiatos). If you're using a ten-year saving plan, you'd have to sock away $16.21 a day (four Caramel Macchiatos or so).
Why you're drinking so many Caramel Macchiatos every day is a question for another time.
The truth is, given the way the housing market has skyrocketed here, we hope you've been putting away that Macchiato money for some time. The good-ish news is that if you just start to save us now, in theory, the market won't be as insane when you're ready to buy.
Realtor also spoke with Michael Corbett, host of Extra’s "Mansions and Millionaires" and author of "Ready, Set, Sold!" to get his advice on saving. He recommends setting aside tax refunds and annual bonuses or even taking a part-time job on the weekends for your down payment (As if people aren't already working enough as it is).
· Here’s How Much You Need to Save Each Day to Buy a Home in 15 Top Cities [Realtor]
· Repent & Refinance: Seattle median single-family home prices now $666K [CS]
· Seattle-area home prices have risen 53 percent in four years [CS]