400k house estimated - became a 470k house / an experience report

I also think that prices (real and perceived) vary extremely strongly.

Here with us, in the outermost S-Bahn catchment area around Stuttgart, prices have long been decoupled from any wage development.
Current example. The last development area here in the village, the semi-detached house and single-family house were bought from a developer for about 350,000€. That was about 6 years ago. At the moment, a single-family house there is being sold for over 600,000€.
The m² prices for building land (if any ever comes onto the market) have exploded just as much. About 500€/m² was the price for the last building plot here.

Not everyone can definitely afford that anymore. The generations of my parents definitely paid less for their houses.
I know examples from them that they managed to pay off a house completely in about 15 years back then. And they were craftsmen and skilled workers in metal construction, so not university graduates or anything like that.
That is utopian today.

And those were craftsmen and skilled workers in metal construction, so not studied or anything like that.
That is utopian today.

I don’t know that. I have studied and earn about 1/3 of what a craftsman makes. Unfortunately normal in my profession. Craftsmen earn very decently, I think.

That definitely can't be managed by everyone anymore. The generations of my parents definitely paid less for their houses. I know examples from them that they managed to pay off a house completely in about 15 years back then. And they were craftsmen and skilled workers in metal construction, so not university graduates or anything like that. That is utopian today.

Prices Stuttgart and surrounding area clear. That's above that. That you could pay off a single-family home completely in 15 years as a skilled worker back then, I put a question mark on that. But to do a calculation example of what the interest makes: 500k - 1.5% - 2k installment takes 25 years To be finished in 25 years at 5% with the same installment you get "only" 350k So the property costs 40% more in the first case, you just pay less to the bank.

As I said, these are examples reported to me from that generation. Whether they are representative, I cannot say.

You can hardly find a house from that time smaller than 300m2 of living space.

A colleague of mine bought such a house 6 years ago. He completely renovated the interior, with an 80m2 split-level living room, a huge basement with a billiard room, but he wondered why he had a 25,000-liter heating oil tank.

Well, now the heating costs are eating him up, or he renovates the still very well-preserved facade for a lot of money. Meanwhile, what started as 280,000 euros has easily become 800,000 euros, about 30 km to Stuttgart, 30 to Karlsruhe, etc.

In which villa area did you grow up??
That only applies to the "rich districts" in our area.

Very rural and working-class neighborhood. The background is rather that it was thought necessary to include a granny flat for the children, and the space requirements were higher than today. However, the houses were not poorly equipped. Today, there is just a bit more technology and insulation... double garages, basements, and nice materials were already standard back then.