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I could not downvote this faster. Ridiculous and wrong. Shameful advice. I be curious know your age, income, and net worth to see how out of touch you are. Do

I could not downvote this faster. Ridiculous and wrong. Shameful advice. I be curious know your age, income, and net worth to see how out of touch you are. Do not take this advice and debt at this ratio. - take home is gross income not net like taxes or health insurance. It also doesn’t factor in retirement even - mortgage estimate is wrong - does not factor property taxes - Just open an affordability calculator or mortgage estimator. It would put you probably in high 500s - doesn’t include debts - If you only make 140k you probably don’t have 200k for a down payment or comment doesn’t include PMI

silicon2401 5y ago
I've been planning to buy a house in the near future with my partner, and this comment has a great breakdown of information useful to anybody starting the process. I agree with you that the other poster's numbers are wildly unrealistic. Since you seem pretty informed, do you have any resources on how to get well-informed enough to take the plunge and buy a house?
- suchow 5y ago
  Here’s a good resource https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-cal..., but a financial advisor who knows your situation and is familiar with local real estate may be better.
- vel0city 5y ago
  This is truly just my personal opinion, YMMV, IANAL, talk to your doctor, etc. But personally I find putting a hard requirement on needing 20% down to buy a house to be a bit extreme in these valuations and this market for a first time homebuyer. I was entering the market wanting to do that, my partner ended up finding a house that I just couldn't say no to. My partner and I ended up buying a house even though we only had a bit over 10% down about a year and a half ago. If we had waited another year of saving up for a down payment, we wouldn't be able to afford the neighborhood we live in now. We paid 1 year of PMI (<$1,000). We refinanced at a lower rate and no longer have PMI as the valuation increased so much that we already hit >30% equity in the home. The P&I, insurance, and taxes after refinancing are less than the rent we were paying for an apartment down the street with less than half the square footage, no garage, no private yard, no EV charging, etc. And rent there has gone up, not down. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying the 3% or less you can technically get away with are a good idea. I'm just saying, in this market having a hard rule of 20% down doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Do the math on your finances and what seems to make sense in your area. I'm certain the market is different where you are from where I am, there's a lot of nuance.
chimerasaurus 5y ago
This. Also factor in: - Upkeep. Houses require work (example - re-painting every 10-15 years can be >$15-$20k.) - Special assessments (city, county, special district) that come up because other people vote for them. (example: Seattle can vary $150->$1k some years) - Homeowners insurance, flood insurance, earthquake insurance, if relevant. (example: Seattle - $800 + $600 + $1400 / yr) - Hidden costs that are not obvious (example - in King County, WA new homes have a sewer connection charge ~$18k that is paid off over like 15 years.)
carom 5y ago
>Ridiculous and wrong. Shameful advice. I be curious know your age, income, and net worth to see how out of touch you are. Chill out with the insults.
wsloth514 5y ago
This is not really shameful advise. As a Software Engineer in 30s, with occasional side work. I make more than $140k alone. This is not to mention my wife in marketing, who does well, so we are above $200k combined both working remotely now. Now I wouldn't do $1 million because that would just be too big of a house. But we are currently doing half that on our renovation which is feasible even with the increased construction costs. I agree there is more to the costs like property taxes. But I know people in the city who's rent is above $3k a month in rent just for a studio who are now considering buying because it makes more sense now. They also make a lot more than me doing the same thing. But even when all is said and done, factoring in mortgage, utilities, taxes, etc. My wife and I will be paying around an extra $500 a month for an actual house than renting an apartment?
yardie 5y ago
I made no insinuation that you should buy everyone has to decide for themself. Now, based on current lending standards a $1mm home is not as far off as much as you would like to believe and it doesn't take a CEO salary to "afford" it, either. But you can continue to wait and see if prices come down, which will happen when supply goes up, which will happen when the supply chain returns to normal, which will happen when manufacturing returns to normal. The point being is there are a lot externalities driving home prices right now, and whether buyers can comfortably afford it isn't one of them.

silicon2401 5y ago

I've been planning to buy a house in the near future with my partner, and this comment has a great breakdown of information useful to anybody starting the process. I agree with you that the other poster's numbers are wildly unrealistic. Since you seem pretty informed, do you have any resources on how to get well-informed enough to take the plunge and buy a house?

suchow 5y ago
Here’s a good resource https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-cal..., but a financial advisor who knows your situation and is familiar with local real estate may be better.
vel0city 5y ago
This is truly just my personal opinion, YMMV, IANAL, talk to your doctor, etc. But personally I find putting a hard requirement on needing 20% down to buy a house to be a bit extreme in these valuations and this market for a first time homebuyer. I was entering the market wanting to do that, my partner ended up finding a house that I just couldn't say no to. My partner and I ended up buying a house even though we only had a bit over 10% down about a year and a half ago. If we had waited another year of saving up for a down payment, we wouldn't be able to afford the neighborhood we live in now. We paid 1 year of PMI (<$1,000). We refinanced at a lower rate and no longer have PMI as the valuation increased so much that we already hit >30% equity in the home. The P&I, insurance, and taxes after refinancing are less than the rent we were paying for an apartment down the street with less than half the square footage, no garage, no private yard, no EV charging, etc. And rent there has gone up, not down. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying the 3% or less you can technically get away with are a good idea. I'm just saying, in this market having a hard rule of 20% down doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Do the math on your finances and what seems to make sense in your area. I'm certain the market is different where you are from where I am, there's a lot of nuance.

chimerasaurus 5y ago

This. Also factor in: - Upkeep. Houses require work (example - re-painting every 10-15 years can be >$15-$20k.) - Special assessments (city, county, special district) that come up because other people vote for them. (example: Seattle can vary $150->$1k some years) - Homeowners insurance, flood insurance, earthquake insurance, if relevant. (example: Seattle - $800 + $600 + $1400 / yr) - Hidden costs that are not obvious (example - in King County, WA new homes have a sewer connection charge ~$18k that is paid off over like 15 years.)

carom 5y ago

>Ridiculous and wrong. Shameful advice. I be curious know your age, income, and net worth to see how out of touch you are. Chill out with the insults.

wsloth514 5y ago

This is not really shameful advise. As a Software Engineer in 30s, with occasional side work. I make more than $140k alone. This is not to mention my wife in marketing, who does well, so we are above $200k combined both working remotely now. Now I wouldn't do $1 million because that would just be too big of a house. But we are currently doing half that on our renovation which is feasible even with the increased construction costs. I agree there is more to the costs like property taxes. But I know people in the city who's rent is above $3k a month in rent just for a studio who are now considering buying because it makes more sense now. They also make a lot more than me doing the same thing. But even when all is said and done, factoring in mortgage, utilities, taxes, etc. My wife and I will be paying around an extra $500 a month for an actual house than renting an apartment?

yardie 5y ago

I made no insinuation that you should buy everyone has to decide for themself. Now, based on current lending standards a $1mm home is not as far off as much as you would like to believe and it doesn't take a CEO salary to "afford" it, either. But you can continue to wait and see if prices come down, which will happen when supply goes up, which will happen when the supply chain returns to normal, which will happen when manufacturing returns to normal. The point being is there are a lot externalities driving home prices right now, and whether buyers can comfortably afford it isn't one of them.