I definitely want to give you some props in my post because you've done a great job in life. You also picked a great field of study in finance - which was very wise. But I do have to disagree with a few of your points, specifically regarding not getting any help...

I do remember the insanely cheap housing prices in Southern California right after the crash. I had a job offer that I accepted in 2009 in La Jolla for 56k. It was absolutely nothing for money but it was actually doable. A nice condo by the beach in OC was less than 400k🤣 for a brief moment. In short, you could live in Southern California in 2008 for 60k/yr. It was also an absolute anomaly in housing prices.


Points where I disagree with your post

1. If 2009 was the greatest housing opportunity in history, 2009-2019 was easily the second best. So you get the silver medal.

2. You received by far, the CHEAPEST money in history because the psychopaths at the Federal Reserve decided to let a future generation pay for their mistakes by keeping interest rates low for another decade. This kept money cheap and allowed people to borrow more than they otherwise could.

Then, they dropped the fed fund rate to zero and allowed everyone to refinance to (again) historically low rates. That is absolutely a trust fund to anyone who owned a home at that time.

3. You likely didn't have to compete against a dozen cash buyers, wall street, or foreign investors for your home. How do I know this? Because you got a home. All-cash offers above offers were the new 20% down after COVID. Unless you were a cash offer in your market, you probably weren't getting it.

4. You did receive a massive subsidy for college by going to BYU. No need to explain more, just simply a reminder that you probably graduated college with very little student debt. You were already a hundred thousand dollars ahead of others who didn't have access to such a valuable institution.

For someone with a background in finance, it's a bit difficult to read how dismissive you are of inflation and interest rates. If rates drop anywhere near what they were before, there will no longer be a middle class. Even 4-5% rates will likely cause stagflation for decades. We're probably there already.

Like I said, I give you massive props for making it in Southern California starting with an entry level salary, but if you were to run the same numbers again with the current rental rates, interest rates, and starting salaries, there is likely not a way in Hades you would be able to repeat your same success.