Dept. of Small Fry Buying. New York City is not a typical real estate market, but if you spend your day toggling back and forth between here and Curbed, worrying if you'll ever be able to BUY an apartment and get out of rental purgatory, this is a good little book: Buying Solo - The Single Woman's Guide to Buying a First Home.
While aimed at women, we picked it up and read through it, and it has the effect you would really like it to have: it encourages you to invest in a home and gives you all the financial info you need to figure out how much you can afford (in our case, not much).
It has People Magazine style chapters such as "Can I Really Afford to Buy on My Own?" and "Is My Credit Good Enough?" and small case studies that really will get your blood pumping:
- Courteney Cox, the famous Friends star, is on her seventh house and has made a second career out of buying, rehabbing, and selling property. Courteney revealed that when she bought her first house back in the late 1980's, she was flat broke. But, as she got more money and built up her home equity, she changed houses - in effect, upgrading.
When asked if the price tag [of her first house] made her nervous, Courteney replied, "It was something I thought I couldn't or shouldn't afford. First it was couldn't, and then it was shouldn't." [Then] she realized that real estate was a smart (and fun) place to devote her money and her energy.
Buy! Buy! Buy! Fun! Fun! Fun! MGR
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Ouch! You got me! Guess I'll have to buy the book... *smile*
My husband and I just got married last year and really want to buy a condo. We don't have much money and are rehabing our credit (damned college credit cards!) If you have any other recommendations, please keep them coming! =)
ggrrrrr! Caveat- I have not read the above book.
That said, I generally loathe finance books written "for women" or "for single women", as they are often patronizing and contain very simple advice, ie "stop buying fancy shoes, buy a house!", as if all women are characters from Sex & the City. Why is it that many people assume that single girls don't make much money, and if they do, they don't know how to manage it, and are just waiting for Prince Charming to come along to pay the bills? I know plenty of men that could use some sound financial advice and money management courses, not just women, or single women for that matter.
That said, I bought my apt 3 years ago as a single woman (now married, to a man who was thrilled to catch "a babe that owns real estate!" his words), and I recommend the basic "For Dummies" books "Mortgages for Dummies" and "Home Buying For Dummies." They are both sound, basic primers for your first real estate purchase, although neither gets into the intricacies of condo vs. coop (coops are mostly a NYC thing).
And if you really need the basics -- I recommend this for college students -- "Get A Financial Life" by Beth Kobliner discusses how to manage finances, the impact of credit card debt, etc.