We both had full-time jobs and savings in the bank, so we visited a mortgage broker, sorted out our price range and started circling "for sale" ads.
We spent our weekends at open homes and got as far as putting offers down on two properties and bidding at auction for a third, all to no avail.
The first property we bid on, a Welcome Bay house, we put an offer in that was $80,000 above its year-old valuation, feeling sick to our stomach. The house went to an Aucklander who offered $50,000 more than us.
It wasn't long until there was nothing left within our price range, or at least nothing that wouldn't need thousands of dollars of work that we couldn't afford on top of servicing a mortgage.
It was heartbreaking. We halfheartedly kept an eye out for a while longer, then gave up.
Sometimes the average house price has risen by more in one month than what we're able to save in one year while paying Tauranga rent.
We're still saving towards our deposit, but with no real hope of buying a house without the market crashing or picking the winning Lotto numbers.
Our dreams are different now. Instead of imagining what colours to paint our walls, we're picturing what countries to travel to.
My husband has gone back to study towards a different career, something he could not have done while helping service a mortgage.
We millennials are often derided for the way we spend our money and how radically different our lives are to our parents'.
But it's not always the life we pictured either. Rather, it's moving our goalposts.
If we're never going to get a mortgage, why not explore the world instead? It's an achievable dream. Unlike buying a home.
