At 20 years old, Patricia Introini figured she didn’t have a shot at buying a house, especially in today’s market.

That didn’t stop the Bakersfield native from trying.  It took three attempts before Introini and her husband, Mike, found a real estate agent who took them seriously.  The couple soon moved into a three-bedroom home in the southwest last May. They paid a little more than $200,000.  “We were tired of renting and not having something of our own,” she said.

Like Introini, more and more people in their 20s are choosing to buy rather than rent. And in a time of record-low interest rates and a new wave of sweet-deal loans, it’s easier than ever to do.

Nationally, the percentage of homeowners younger than 25 has jumped 69 percent—from 14.9 percent in 1994 to 25.2 percent in 2004 -- according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Bakersfield has had a strong market for young buyers, even with its soaring appreciation rates in recent years, said local real estate agent Susan Ferguson.  “You can’t do that in some parts of California ,” Ferguson said. “We can still do that here.”

They’re not buying their dream houses, but it’s a start, she said.  And it’s affordable.

With a variety of new loan offers out there, buying a house doesn’t require as much saving as it used to, said real estate agent Jeanne Radsick.   People can buy now without putting any money down and snag lower mortgage payments through adjustable-rate and interest-only loans.  “We’ve made it real easy for people to get in,” Radsick said.

Around 40 percent of first-time home buyers purchased with no money down last year, said National Association of Realtors spokesman Walter Molony. That’s up from 28 percent in 2003.  Roughly 24 percent also get a financial boost from f ami ly or friends.

People ages 25 to 34 make up the biggest concentration of owners at around 34 percent, Molony said.

The “echo” generation—children of baby boomers born in the mid-1970s to mid-1990s—are expected to be a big factor in house sales in the next 10 years, he said.

Now in his late 20s, Lyle Gartenlaub bought a house in the Panorama Drive area four years ago for just less than $130,000. Gartenlaub doubts that it would be possible now.  “We couldn’t even afford this house today,” he said. “The economy and the market today is a lot harder and a lot tougher than it was four years ago.”

Introini, who works as a receptionist at a law firm, said rising house prices made buying a place more urgent. Now she’s settled with her husband and son in a 1,200-square-foot house on a corner lot near White Lane .

Owning a home makes her feel more mature.  “I have a bigger responsibility than my friends,” she said. “I can’t stop working because then I’ll lose the house, but it’s worth it. Now I know I have something that’s mine.”

Copyright © 2005, The Bakersfield Californian
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

 

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