Home is more than four walls and roof. Home is a door opening to you, your family, your pets, your lifestyle, your neighborhood, your community, your city. It’s all encompassing on so many levels.
The Best Graduation Gift Nobody Gave You
What if your diploma came with a down payment? Richmond home values have nearly tripled since 2015. Here's what every new grad needs to know about real estate.
Graduation season is here. The caps are in the air, the cards are stuffed with cash, and somewhere out there a well-meaning relative is handing a new grad a card that says "The world is yours!" — along with a check for $200.
Sweet. Totally useless. But sweet.
Here's a thought I want you to sit with for a second.
What if, back when you walked across that stage — let's say the Class of 2015 — someone had handed you a down payment on a house instead?
In 2015, the median home price in Richmond was around $145,000. Today that same home is worth somewhere north of $400,000. That is not a mistake. That is a gain of over $250,000 in equity sitting quietly in a house while you were out here living your life.
You would have bought a whole asset for what some people are currently paying in rent every two years.
Now I know what you're thinking. "I was 18. I didn't know anything about buying a house." Fair. Nobody told you. That's actually the problem I'm pointing at.
We spend twelve years in school learning things most of us will never use again, and somehow "how to build wealth through real estate" never made the syllabus. Algebra: mandatory. Understanding equity: optional. Cool system we've got.
So here's what I want to say to every grad crossing the stage right now:
You are not too young. You are not too broke. You are not too early. You are exactly on time — if you start paying attention right now.
Richmond is still one of the best markets in the country for first time buyers. It's affordable relative to other East Coast cities, it has strong appreciation history, and it has neighborhoods with actual character and soul. This city rewards people who get in.
The grad who buys something modest at 22 is the one sitting pretty at 32 while everyone else is still writing rent checks to someone else's mortgage.
So now that you’ve walked across that stage, how about walking over the threshold?
Ready to talk about what homeownership could actually look like for you? Let's connect.