When Autumn Makaafi and her husband Ilai toured the home they eventually bought in Kuna, they didn’t even bother to take a photo with it.
The couple, who are in the mid-20s and set to both finish college at Utah Tech University soon, lost several homes to other buyers while they tried to buy their first property in the Kuna area over the past several months. It seemed likely the home they put an offer on would meet the same fate, so they left not knowing it would become theirs one day. They eventually landed the roughly $400,000 home after their offer got passed over for other buyers who later backed out, giving them a chance to make a deal.
The Makaafis were determined to find a home to buy instead of spending more years putting money into a high-priced rental like they had in Utah, but without years of work history or cash to put down a major down payment, they knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Even with their combined incomes a little over $100,000 from work at Cloverdale Nursery and as a strength and conditioning coach, the combination of high interest rates and tough competition for the homes in their price range made buying instead of landing in a rental an uphill battle…