I’m currently on hiatus from The Domestic Front. While I am gone, I am republishing posts which originally appeared on my companion blog, Savour Home. This post was originally published in May 2010.
When K and I got married, back in 2003, we lived in New York City. You might have heard of it. It’s a land of tiny apartments, enormous real estate prices, and crazy liquidity requirements for buying. We thought about buying an apartment as newlyweds, but quickly decided against it (to this day, K still grumbles about that. “Do you know how much that 1 bedroom in Tudor City would be worth now?” he grouses).
Fast forward to 2005. We’ve moved to Los Angeles, where we’re pretty sure we’re going to stay. K is in law school, I’m gainfully employed. Everything’s so cheap here, compared to New York! We think about buying a 2 bedroom condo, and look at a few in Sherman Oaks. We ultimately decide we’d be better off saving for a few years, and buying a house instead. We’re still pretty happy about that. Do you know how under water we’d be on a 2 bedroom condo in Sherman Oaks we bought in 2005?
Fast forward to early 2009. K has graduated from law school, is gainfully employed, but about to take a leave of absence to go take a prestigious, but low paying (and thankfully temporary) internship. I have a new job that seems relatively secure, given what happened in 2008. We look at a few houses in Sherman Oaks and Studio City, go out with a broker, talk to a couple of mortgage people. Ultimately we decide to wait until after K’s internship is complete. In the meantime, we ditch the Valley, because we just don’t want to live there, even if it does make sense from a commuting perspective, and look east, to the Foothills, where I grew up. To Pasadena. That feels like a neighborhood, and a community.
Fast forward to 2010. We decide to dip our toes in once again. Get a recommendation for a broker, meet with her, start the process on loan preapproval, go to a few open houses, then boom.
We’re under contract.
What?
So, I just stopped by to see if you changed your mind and I find a lovely little story to read..
Thanks for sharing your story….