SAN DIEGO — The American dream of buying a home seems further and further away for many people.
A Zillow study revealed the median income should be $273,613 annually to comfortably afford a typical home in San Diego.
Another study showed it could take a couple more than a decade to save for a down payment on a home and up to five decades for single people.
“That’s a lot of money. That’s a lot of money,” said Casey Broach, V.P, DACA Financial Group.
Broach is a financial advisor who says this report should not crush your dreams of owning a home in America's Finest City.
“It’s attainable with a lot of proper discipline, and obviously a very defined goal set,” said Broach.
C.A.R.I.T.
“I call it the CARIT method," Broach said.
Broach said the acronym can help guide potential homebuyers down the path to homeownership.
- “C” is creating a monthly, annual, and projected budget and analyze your income and expenses.
- “A” stands for setting up an automated savings account. Whether that be from a paycheck via direct deposit or after you’ve paid something off.
- “That's usually the easiest. It's a car payment or cell phone payment. As things automatically get paid,” said Broach. “That’s going to make it a lot easier.”
- “R” is reducing your spending and see where you are throwing money. Check your bank and credit card statements annually to see where you can cut back on expenses.
- “Do you have Netflix, Hulu, Disney. You name all the media type subscriptions you may have on top of cable, on top of maybe a radio subscription,” said Broach.
- “I” is for increased income that you can tuck away.
- “Side hustling DoorDash they’re doing these delivery type services out there. Maybe they are selling items from their homes that they don’t necessarily need anymore. I mean, I have kids that are constantly rotating through older ages of their sports. I have a lot of sports gear. Once a year, I’m doing garage sales,” said Broach.
- “T” is for tracking your progress and monitor it consistently to make sure that you are still closer to meeting your goals.
“Your timeline to when you may be a buyer of a home is going to dictate how successful your initial plan is right?” said Broach.
Broach says if you follow the C.A.R.I.T. acronym, it's possible to achieve the American dream of owning a home.
“If that is one’s goal, then there’s abilities to achieve it. It just here in San Diego specifically, it’s going to take a lot of discipline, and likely a lot of sacrifice, to get you into that position to buy a home,” said Broach.
Broach also says to reach out to a mortgage counselor who can give you insight about first-time homebuyer programs and low-down payment options to make it possible.
Currently, the cheapest single-family home listed on real estate websites is $605,000 in Logan Heights. It’s a three bedroom, 2 bath 1,046 square feet and needs updates.
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