MERIDEN, Conn. – Ben Borecki and Raleighe Orszulak-Borecki, both 29, searched for about a year to find their perfect home. They visited over 20 houses and bid on five. Finally, the couple purchased a 1912 colonial in Windsor this January. They had viewed the house before and liked it, but it went off the market – only to be relisted months later and at a cheaper price.
For the most part, mortgage rates have stabilized — and delaying a purchase could end up backfiring as home prices spike.
“Keep looking, keep going, don’t be afraid and don’t get down on yourself if you don’t end up getting that one home; another one will come,” is Ben’s advice to frustrated homebuyers.
Ben says that not having children made their homebuying journey easier as it allowed them to save money and did not force them into a set timeframe; they were able to keep living in their Windsor apartment and save money until the right house came along.
“We definitely do want to grow our family at some point down the road, but not having any kids now has allowed us to find a suitable house for us to do that. One that we liked and could afford,” he says.
Raleighe also says their decision to buy a house now was partly influenced by societal pressures.
“I think a lot of our generation thinks that we should get married and have a house right now. And I definitely personally felt that pressure…It’s definitely nice for us as a starter home,” she says.
Who’s buying a home? Dual-income, no kids
Dual-income households with no kids (often referred to as DINKs), like the Boreckis, are becoming a rising trend nationwide. A 2023 news release from the U.S. Census Bureau stated that there are fewer families living with their own children now than there were 20 years ago; 48% of all families across the nation lived with their own children under the age of 18 in 2003, as compared to 39% in 2003.
William Pitt Sotheby’s Realty agent, Jessica Blancato, who focuses on Middlesex County in Connecticut says that, to her recollection, she only had one buyer with children in the past year.
“We’re seeing a bit of that, driven by the fact that just the cost of living in this area is really quite expensive, right? So you really need, in a lot of cases, dual income to kind of support the ability to buy the type of house that you want to live in,” Jason Mudd, a member of the Cindy Raney & Team group of Coldwell Banker Realty, says about purchasing a house in Connecticut.
DINKs often have more disposable income than dual-income households with kids, which can help them keep up with rising costs and interest rates. The Boreckis have similar incomes; Ben is a policy analyst for the state of Connecticut and Raleighe is a school counselor.
Copyright © 2024, The Cheshire Herald; additional reporting by Andrew DaRosa. All rights reserved.
