Unintentionally playing the housing market.

Using some first time home buyer incentives about a decade ago, I was able to buy a house on my own. I had to pay mortgage insurance, but it still wasn't too bad. Cheaper than renting a two bedroom apartment. Five or six years later, my city keeps popping up on Most Affordable Cities lists and the real estate turns into a feeding frenzy.

When the market was at its peak, I listed my house for sale for about 70% more than I paid for it. I had an offer for it at 10k over asking and they'd buy the house sight-unseen within three days of it hitting the market.

Now, this was clearly a buyer's market so you'd think selling was easy but buying would be a nightmare right? Well, you'd be right and it took 10 months of living with my parents and a shit ton of getting outbid on houses, but I was able to get into a slightly bigger house by putting half of the value down at closing for a house that was brand new, on a bigger lot of land and closer to my family, and I was able to pay off my car loan, resulting in lower monthly payments overall for a house much better suited to my lifestyle. Since moving in two years ago, it's already appreciated another 15%, not that I'm moving out any time soon!