1.3M SFH
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Anonymous
| Hi, I have about 600K saved up and would like to buy a house. I am a single mom of 2 young elementary school kids, currently living at my parents place (paid off) in Arlington. The houses I’m looking at in Langley school district are around $1.1-1.4M range, townhouses and SFH. I make $200K and have been pre approved for 1.45M with 5.25 ARM rate for 5 years. Do you think I should put down all my money or just 20%, obviously putting down a bigger chunk will lower my monthly payment. Or should I just put down 20%? The SFH are in the 1.3 to 1.4M range, is that stretching it (about 7-8K) monthly payment. I don’t have any other debts. I have it all currently invested in a brokerage account. |
Anonymous
| i wouldnt do that as a single mom |
Anonymous
| How much savings do you have in addition to the $600k. How much in retirement? You are going to be paying more than 50% of your take home on the mortgage so unless you have some sort of crazy additional savings or money in retirement you would be worse than house poor. You would be in serious risk of losing the home. |
Anonymous
| How do you define house poor? What’s a safe amount to pay monthly then? |
Anonymous
House poor is when you have something of value aka a valuable house, but you stretched yourself too thin so you don't have savings to manage upkeep or do anything because so much of your money is tied up in the house. At $200k single income with 2 kids honestly $4-5k a month is what you should aim for. |
Anonymous
FFS. She makes 200k per year. |
Anonymous
| When I made $200K, I was comfortable with a $4K mortgage. I found that left enough to contribute to 401K, 529s, pay for camps, and still go on vacations. |
Anonymous
| What's your monthly payment if the mortgage rate goes up? |
Anonymous
OP is about to become house poor and broke. If she doesn't lose her house. Plus kids will be with Richie Rich peers in McLean and trying to keep up with that lifestyle. This sounds like a disaster unless OP has rich parents or large child support or other assets she did not mention. I wouldn't recommend that mortgage to someone with double her income, much less someone earning 200K per year with two children. Good rule of thumb is that PITI should be no more than 25% of net. |
Anonymous
Point? It’s still not enough. Is there another parent financially supporting your 2 children? Then you need to think about the other costs of ownership, is it a new or near new home? You would have to put down more because 20% will net you a mortgage over a million and underwriters tend to not like that. But on the other hand you want to hold on to your reserves b/c what if you lose your job? Think on this…if you have a backup plan like moving back to your parents’ then maybe it could work… |
Anonymous
So?? For 1.3-1.4M home that's not enough. |
Anonymous
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What happens if you lose your job? Do not tie up all your money in non liquid assets. How much have you saved for retirement? 529? Without knowing your bigger picture I would honestly stay with parents and sock away as much cash as possible to build funds and 529s. Or else keep
Purchase price to what you can put 20% down on and easily cover monthly Costs. |
Anonymous
+100 JFC, OP. DO NOT put all your money into a house. No no no. |
Anonymous
| What % of my overall savings should be invested in a house? |
Anonymous
A house is not an investment. It’s a place to live. |