Nobody is talking about childcare in connection with the work requirements.

[underpants]

3. We got about 20-25% more house from no longer having to pay for daycare

We bought this house in July 2019. Our daughter was just about to turn 14 and could stay at home by herself. There was an hour overlap between her getting home and one of us being home. I think we paid $200-300 a WEEK - that was low even then (good daycare of course) let alone since COVID when staffing and availability dropped dramatically and price shot up.

Our longtime rental HOUSE was at $1,400 a month was sold out from under us and suddenly we had to move. We sat down (literally kitchen table stuff) to figure out what we could afford. My wife handles the money. When she gave me the number that we could afford I was shocked. Me: Really? My wife: We don’t have daycare anymore. Basically doubled. It completely changed the market we could look at.

We would have been eating PBJ for a year if we had to actually have the down payment. VA loan due to my Army service. Out of pocket I think it was $5-8 thousand dollars earnest deposit for the first two months in a 2,600 square foot house.