SoFi Blog

Who says you can’t have avocado toast if you want to buy a home? Oh, right—an Australian real estate developer who made the comment heard ’round the world about how it’s preventing millennials from becoming homeowners.

A wealthy real estate mogul recently told millennials to stop buying avocado toast if they ever want to buy a house, and the internet went berserk. The advice was poorly received, because many felt that it was out of touch with the current financial environment. For one, the millennial generation has only ever known income stagnation, wages that haven’t kept up with inflation, and skyrocketing college and real estate prices. Two, the assertion that we can’t stop shelling out for fancy breakfast foods buys into the shallow narrative that millennials don’t know the meaning of hard work or the value of a dollar.

While I largely side with the outraged denizens of the interwebs, I’ll play devil’s advocate here: Clearly, Avocado Man was hoping to make a point about frivolous spending, but he veers off track when making the assumption that this is a trademark of the millennial generation. Current times have seen people of all ages spend more on “stuff” than ever before.

If you’re in the market to buy a home, or you recently became a homeowner, you’ve probably noticed that mortgage interest rates are ticking up. And just this past March, the Federal Reserve increased the Federal Funds rate by one-quarter of a percentage point for the second time since December. Coincidence? Probably.

We’ll get more into what the Fed rate hike is all about below, but the burning question is: What impact does it have on mortgage rates? Most importantly, how will it affect home affordability and your monthly budget?

To help you make major mortgage decisions going forward—ones that have the potential to impact you for the next 30 years—we’ve broken down what the Fed rate hike really means for current and future mortgage borrowers, and the actions you should consider.

When you’re in the home-buying game, especially in hot markets, you’ll discover a process that is both multi-layered and time-consuming—and, at the end of the day, designed to take you from writing an offer to holding the keys in your hand. Understanding each part, your role in it, and how to maximize your participation in each part will save you time and money, and keep you ahead of the game.

There comes a turning point in every renter’s life, where that neighborhood you loved when you moved in just doesn’t feel right anymore. It happens—sometimes the community surrounding your home changes, and isn’t quite as sweet as when you first moved in. But more often than not, as life goes on, careers advance, families grow, and finances improve, it’s less about the neighborhood transforming, and more about your own priorities shifting for what you want out of an area.

While you may have once reveled in the fact that your neighborhood boasted plenty of hotspots just outside your front door, you may now yearn for a quieter, more family-focused locale so that you can start your own. Better yet, as your career has blossomed—along with your salary—it may be time to upgrade to a larger place with more of your “wish-list” items in an area, where you’ll be surrounded by up-and-comers just like you. After all, home buying isn’t just about falling in love with a house, securing a mortgage, and making that square footage your own; it’s also about finding the perfect neighborhood that works for you today and tomorrow.

If it’s time to assess whether you’ve outgrown your neighborhood, here are the questions to ask yourself: