How long did it take you to actively save for a house? Did you move back in with parents to save? My husband and I live in Massachusetts and the houses are very expensive in our city. He just turned 29 and I’ll be 27 in October. We rent a very nice and spacious place, but we’re starting to feel like it’s time to purchase a home. We just had our 3rd and final baby. Since our family is finally complete it’s time to gear our focus towards our finances a little more. I think we’re doing okay financially. We’re able to afford one family vacation a year, a couple of mini weekend trips, and our two oldest kids are in extracurricular’s. We have a couple thousand in savings but nothing close to a down payment.

When it comes to saving up for a down payment I feel like it’s going to take us forever. The main reason why we have this new found urgency to purchase a home is because the market in our city has been getting worse. House prices and rent keep increasing. The longer we wait the more unfeasible it will be for us. In a perfect world we’ll be able to save our down payment in a year, but I just don’t know how possible that will be. How long did it take you to save? How exactly did you start saving?