How old were you when you paid off your house?

[Cheddar Stacker]

I estimate I'll be about 91 when that happens.

36 years old, ~20% equity, 2.875% 15 year loan.

Plan to move in 3-5 years and hope to get an 80% loan for 30 years at the lowest rate possible. That loan would be paid off around 70 years old. But, we'll likely move again in 25 years once the kids are grown up and get another 30 year loan.

I could pay off all debts today with cash/investments, but it's not my style. Congrats to all those who've paid it off though, good for you.

[Spork]

I guess this depends on the definition of the word "house".

At 42, we chucked almost everything we had and bought a unabomber metal shed in the woods.  600 sqft... and not a "house" by most standards, but it was paid for and came with about 8 acres of woods, a bunch of deer and a very friendly fox.

We lived there about 5 years, living really low and saving money and eventually paid cash for a real house out in the shed's front yard at about age 48.

[birdman2003]

I guess this depends on the definition of the word "house".

At 42, we chucked almost everything we had and bought a unabomber metal shed in the woods.  600 sqft... and not a "house" by most standards, but it was paid for and came with about 8 acres of woods, a bunch of deer and a very friendly fox.

We lived there about 5 years, living really low and saving money and eventually paid cash for a real house out in the shed's front yard at about age 48.

Kudos to you.  Did the shed have electricity and plumbing? 

[Davids]

I am 32 right now and I hope the answer will be 36.

[Cassie]

When we bought our last house 2 years ago at age 58 we paid cash.

[stlbrah]

27 in a few weeks. Not even close: been there 5 years, and i paid off about 13% so far. I could pay it all of right now, but I prefer stock index funds, REITs, bond funds, and other investments that area easier to take w/ me.

I will be selling my condo for a small profit hopefully next year, then I would like to go back to renting for a while. Crime is starting to spread to my area, and I am not sure exactly where I want to go, and would like to live in another city. The crime wont make the value drop overnight, but it is definitely something to think about long-term.

[Norioch]

I paid cash for a one-bedroom condo at age 27, with the help of a 401k loan. The loan was fully paid off ten months later, when I was age 28.

[Spork]

I guess this depends on the definition of the word "house".

At 42, we chucked almost everything we had and bought a unabomber metal shed in the woods.  600 sqft... and not a "house" by most standards, but it was paid for and came with about 8 acres of woods, a bunch of deer and a very friendly fox.

We lived there about 5 years, living really low and saving money and eventually paid cash for a real house out in the shed's front yard at about age 48.

Kudos to you.  Did the shed have electricity and plumbing?

Yes.  By anything other than first world standards it would have been a luxury apartment.  It even had rudimentary air conditioning (window units).  No heat... but I'm in the south, so AC was more important.

[infogoon]

Right now I've got about 84% equity in the house (calculated using the original mortgage value, not the current actual value) -- I should have it paid off before the end of the year when I turn 37.

[fmzip]

Congrats to all the young people on here with paid off homes!

I am 48 with 87%. Could pay it off tomorrow but its only 30K at 2%. 4 years and it's done!

[bearkat]

It's interesting to see all the folks that paid cash for homes or paid off their homes so quickly (and at a young age) ... It's probably just selection bias (and the fact that there are a lot people in this forum), but from other threads I can't find now, I expected to see a lot more responses like Cheddar's.

25 years old with 22% equity on a 5/1 ARM. I'll probably pay this house off when I move in 5-ish years, and then get another mortgage or rent, who knows.

[agent_clone]

It's interesting to see all the folks that paid cash for homes or paid off their homes so quickly (and at a young age) ... It's probably just selection bias (and the fact that there are a lot people in this forum), but from other threads I can't find now, I expected to see a lot more responses like Cheddar's.

25 years old with 22% equity on a 5/1 ARM. I'll probably pay this house off when I move in 5-ish years, and then get another mortgage or rent, who knows.

I would say it would depend on how much you earn, and how much the houses cost in the area you bought.  For example if houses here were $100k I would have been able to purchase outright last year, or have been able to get a mortgage with 20% deposit at about 25, and have paid it off by now.  However for a 1 bedroom apartment your looking at a minimum of 250k, for a house a minimum of 350k, with the average house price being somewhere between 500-550k in my current city.  A previous city I lived in has a much cheaper housing sitution, however by the time I had saved my deposit I had decided that I did not want to stay there longer term as there was less job opportunities.

[happyfeet]

Age 50. Sold a $400,000 house and paid $210,000 cash for our current home.

[thor800]

33 with ~25% equity and 30 year mortgage @4.25% just refinanced which dropped payments by $100 / month.  I plan on putting that extra $100 ($1200 annual) along with about $10k into a Vanguard type ETF account which will hopefully allow me to completely pay off the mortgage in 20ish years (i hope assuming 5% interest).  Having this extra $ liquid is also attractive.

Currently living in a high cost real estate area (jersey city - right outside NYC) where finding investment properties that fit the 1% rule is difficult.

I give the 20yos with houses paid off already alot of credit.

[forummm]

Could have paid cash, but didn't. I bought a cheap foreclosure during the housing crisis for way under what it was worth (less than my annual salary). Fixed it up a bit and refinanced (3%, rebate points) to pull out a lot of cash to invest in index funds (which has already grown by about 1/2 the purchase price). Will only pay it off if the rate jumps up high when it can start adjusting in 5 more years.

[libertarian4321]

I think I was 34 or 35 when I paid our house off.  It was many years ago, so I don't recall the exact date.

[MN]

28 when I paid of the first one. When I sold that I took a 50k 401k loan to make up the difference between proceeds from the sale of the first one to pay cash at closing on the new place. Paid that off in less than 2 years at 35.

[GardenFun]

34 years old.  Had mortgage for 8.5 years.  While it felt great once paid off, it was also weird.  We threw all extra money at the mortgage and once it was gone, we were out of debt.  Took some time to figure out what to do with the extra money.  Fortunately we didn't go crazy and ended up saving it in various mutual funds and a 529. 

However, this wasn't the house I expected to stay in long-term but husband doesn't want to move because the house is "paid off".  So I have a new goal of saving extra money for either an addition or new house - either option to be paid with cash.   

[foobar]

I have a mortgage by choice but could have paid it off at 36.  I don't plan on paying it off until retired.

When a bank is willing to give me a 7 year loan a 2.5%, I can't remotely justify putting a single extra penny towards principle.  If in 7 years the mortgage rates are a 10%, I will write them a check. If they are at 4%, I plan on refinancing and taking cash out. I don't think I would be super aggressive (i.e. if my house doubled in value I don't think I would go much above the initial mortgage amount) but I hate having my money trapped in a low return investment. 

[iris lily]

We were 35 when we bought it for cash, in total need of renovation and unlivable. A year later after DH worked on it was habitable, barely, so we moved in and it took another 20 years to finish it.

I always told people "and you could have a paid-for house too if you were willing to live in a pit."

[TheDude]

We are 33 and our oldest is 3.5 years old. We bout the the house 3 years ago for 200k and put 20% down. Since then we have refinanced several times. Now our house is worth 250k and we owe about 138k on a 15 year at 3%. I plan on carrying all the way to the end. That would correspond with out oldest going to college. I'm in no hurry its pretty cheap money.