What can we realistically buy with $250K HHI?

[Anonymous]

I’m so frustrated. Wish we had bought in 2020. I feel like we will never own a home again (rented when we first moved to the area). Three kids, decent retirement savings, not great college savings. It seems like everything in a safe neighborhood with decent schools and enough space costs $1M. I’m so down and discouraged.

[Anonymous]

Depends on your debt and expenses, and your down payment.
A general number is 3x gross salary. But if you have a ton of debt, less than that.
Will your income grow in the next 3 years? If so, I’d do 1M now.

[Anonymous]

Just move elsewhere. You might make less but at least you'll be able to afford a house. Schools aren't that great here anyways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on your debt and expenses, and your down payment.
A general number is 3x gross salary. But if you have a ton of debt, less than that.
Will your income grow in the next 3 years? If so, I’d do 1M now.

3x gross salary is outdated and not remotely realistic anymore for the non-wealthy.

[Anonymous]

A lot, just need to change the areas you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on your debt and expenses, and your down payment.
A general number is 3x gross salary. But if you have a ton of debt, less than that.
Will your income grow in the next 3 years? If so, I’d do 1M now.

3x gross salary is outdated and not remotely realistic anymore for the non-wealthy.

Oh Please. She’s not getting anything under that. You have no idea if OP is at 250 HHI and stuck there, or 250 mid 30s with a potential climb to 400.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on your debt and expenses, and your down payment.
A general number is 3x gross salary. But if you have a ton of debt, less than that.
Will your income grow in the next 3 years? If so, I’d do 1M now.

3x gross salary is outdated and not remotely realistic anymore for the non-wealthy.

Oh Please. She’s not getting anything under that. You have no idea if OP is at 250 HHI and stuck there, or 250 mid 30s with a potential climb to 400.

What? I mean that most people realistically spend way more than 3x gross salary because it is necessary unless they want to live in a tiny dumpy condo forever.

[Anonymous]

We made 80K when we bought a 650K house. We had scrimped and saved for 10 years, lived in a crappy one-bedroom rental with our two young kids, in order to pay a downpayment sufficient enough to qualify for that mortgage with that income: 40%.

In the years I've been on DCUM, I have often come across posts like yours, OP. Invariably, the authors of the posts have not saved as much as they could have. Most don't have no idea what REAL belt-tightening entails. They've never lived like that.

You made choices. Own them. Home-ownership is not for everyone - like everything that matters in life, you need to be able to prioritize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We made 80K when we bought a 650K house. We had scrimped and saved for 10 years, lived in a crappy one-bedroom rental with our two young kids, in order to pay a downpayment sufficient enough to qualify for that mortgage with that income: 40%.

In the years I've been on DCUM, I have often come across posts like yours, OP. Invariably, the authors of the posts have not saved as much as they could have. Most don't have no idea what REAL belt-tightening entails. They've never lived like that.

You made choices. Own them. Home-ownership is not for everyone - like everything that matters in life, you need to be able to prioritize.

Bullshit. You didn't save $240k with 2 kids on $80k a year anywhere near DC without serious family help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We made 80K when we bought a 650K house. We had scrimped and saved for 10 years, lived in a crappy one-bedroom rental with our two young kids, in order to pay a downpayment sufficient enough to qualify for that mortgage with that income: 40%.

In the years I've been on DCUM, I have often come across posts like yours, OP. Invariably, the authors of the posts have not saved as much as they could have. Most don't have no idea what REAL belt-tightening entails. They've never lived like that.

You made choices. Own them. Home-ownership is not for everyone - like everything that matters in life, you need to be able to prioritize.

Bullshit. You didn't save $240k with 2 kids on $80k a year anywhere near DC without serious family help.

No family help. We used savings and sold Apple stock we had invested in previously.
We send money to our relatives. Not the reverse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We made 80K when we bought a 650K house. We had scrimped and saved for 10 years, lived in a crappy one-bedroom rental with our two young kids, in order to pay a downpayment sufficient enough to qualify for that mortgage with that income: 40%.

In the years I've been on DCUM, I have often come across posts like yours, OP. Invariably, the authors of the posts have not saved as much as they could have. Most don't have no idea what REAL belt-tightening entails. They've never lived like that.

You made choices. Own them. Home-ownership is not for everyone - like everything that matters in life, you need to be able to prioritize.

Bullshit. You didn't save $240k with 2 kids on $80k a year anywhere near DC without serious family help.

No family help. We used savings and sold Apple stock we had invested in previously.
We send money to our relatives. Not the reverse.

One parent was a SAHP, or what did you do for daycare?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We made 80K when we bought a 650K house. We had scrimped and saved for 10 years, lived in a crappy one-bedroom rental with our two young kids, in order to pay a downpayment sufficient enough to qualify for that mortgage with that income: 40%.

In the years I've been on DCUM, I have often come across posts like yours, OP. Invariably, the authors of the posts have not saved as much as they could have. Most don't have no idea what REAL belt-tightening entails. They've never lived like that.

You made choices. Own them. Home-ownership is not for everyone - like everything that matters in life, you need to be able to prioritize.

Bullshit. You didn't save $240k with 2 kids on $80k a year anywhere near DC without serious family help.

No family help. We used savings and sold Apple stock we had invested in previously.
We send money to our relatives. Not the reverse.

Ahh Apple stock. There you go.

I mean, good for you. Seriously. But that's LUCK and TIMING, PP. Come on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We made 80K when we bought a 650K house. We had scrimped and saved for 10 years, lived in a crappy one-bedroom rental with our two young kids, in order to pay a downpayment sufficient enough to qualify for that mortgage with that income: 40%.

In the years I've been on DCUM, I have often come across posts like yours, OP. Invariably, the authors of the posts have not saved as much as they could have. Most don't have no idea what REAL belt-tightening entails. They've never lived like that.

You made choices. Own them. Home-ownership is not for everyone - like everything that matters in life, it you need to be able to prioritize.

What year did you buy your house? And how much is it worth now?

[Anonymous]

My spouse and I saved like crazy. We lived in a crappy apartment took on extra work, worked our butts off at our FT jobs to get promoted, higher salaries then move on for a higher salary and another promotion.

We had no car. No Netflix. No vacations. No eating out. No take out unless work paid because we worked late. No cell phones (spouse had one through work). No internet. Used the library. Budgeted for everything. We invested our money for a down payment/ retirement. We did this for years.

When friends wanted to go to brunch I said I would meet for a walk or run instead. We did have people over to our tiny place but again budgeted.

We ended up shopping around and finding a couple banks that would lend us more $$ for a mortgage than anyone else. We knew our HHI would continue to grow and we also knew we are budgeters. So that’s what we did before covid. We lost our on 5-6 homes even then. We knew the area we wanted so we bought something a bit smaller but with a larger lot that needed some work, but are happy we did it. The first year was rough because our mortgage was so much more than our cheap rent. But soon we refinanced got rid of our PPi (we did not pay 20% down payment) and have been promoted and more $$ since. We also had a kid toward the end of the home price purchase and are diligent about saving for retirement and college. Our house is worth so much more $$ now and we get offers to buy it frequently. Our realtor tried to get us to look out more, but we knew where we wanted to be and stuck to it.

I have friends who lived the high life for years, renting at fancy buildings with gyms, a pool and concierge. Others rented fancy townhomes or drive a fancy leased BMW, Tesla, etc. That is their choice. Some now complain about the market and how they will never be able to afford a house, yet they don’t look back on their choices. When they were off in Miami over a long weekend I was working my second job or reading up on investing.

I have other friends who have fled in order to be able to buy a home. Two moved to Texas, another Midwest, and one for Europe. They all seem very happy and all bought beautiful homes for a fraction of what it costs in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We made 80K when we bought a 650K house. We had scrimped and saved for 10 years, lived in a crappy one-bedroom rental with our two young kids, in order to pay a downpayment sufficient enough to qualify for that mortgage with that income: 40%.

In the years I've been on DCUM, I have often come across posts like yours, OP. Invariably, the authors of the posts have not saved as much as they could have. Most don't have no idea what REAL belt-tightening entails. They've never lived like that.

You made choices. Own them. Home-ownership is not for everyone - like everything that matters in life, you need to be able to prioritize.

This poster got lucky with Apple stock and is acting all high and mighty like they did it all on their own. 😂