If you bought a house over $1.5 were you able to afford to do so on your salaries or equity?

[Anonymous]

Take a look at the thread on how people afford $1.5-2M houses...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s really hard to read these threads where people like OP act like they are middle class and can’t afford a million dollar house. 600k??? Give me an effing break. You don’t have the vaguest idea of what it is like to not be able to afford something.

Understandable sentiment, but I don’t think that’s fair to OP, who didn’t claim to be middle class or even despair about not being able to afford anything acceptable. He/she just said they wouldn’t be comfortable with that large a payment. There is nothing immoral about being conservative with your money.

Then they should buy what they are comfortable with spending. There’s no law saying you have to buy a 1.5 million house.

[Anonymous]

Wow, I had no clue that my competition included people making $400K-$600K. Figured those people would easily be looking in the $2-$2.5 million range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have 1.2M on 300K and it's perfectly comfortable. Could we retire earlier with a smaller mortgage? Sure, but we don't want to be totally cramped and miserable in our home.

Do you think everyone who owns a home less than $1.2M is totally cramped and miserable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 1.2M on 300K and it's perfectly comfortable. Could we retire earlier with a smaller mortgage? Sure, but we don't want to be totally cramped and miserable in our home.

Do you think everyone who owns a home less than $1.2M is totally cramped and miserable?

That’s what I thought too lol I guess my 700k house must be a shack.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$1.5m with 20% down at 3.5% interest should be under $7k/month, or $84k/year. Even at $300k HHI that's still less than 1/3 of your gross income. Understandable if that still makes you uncomfortable but you're competing against a lot of buyers who will stretch themselves much further to make things work.

That mortgage is an insane amount. We make around 500K, I'm a fed, and we couldn't pull 7K/month without huge sacrifices. We wouldn't be able to save a lot, travel, afford cleaning services and quality food, pay for the kids' tuition etc.

[Anonymous]

Rolled equity from condo sale (appx 400k) into down payment and just under 1 mm HHI can easily afford mortgage and upkeep

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 1.2M on 300K and it's perfectly comfortable. Could we retire earlier with a smaller mortgage? Sure, but we don't want to be totally cramped and miserable in our home.

Do you think everyone who owns a home less than $1.2M is totally cramped and miserable?

Of course not, and apologies for sounding so insensitive. That's not what I meant. We have 2 people who work from home, so we have a larger house than we otherwise would on our salary. I only meant to convey that the mortgage amount was comfortable on our salaries, not a stretch. Wish we'd bought 10 years ago, though!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1.5m with 20% down at 3.5% interest should be under $7k/month, or $84k/year. Even at $300k HHI that's still less than 1/3 of your gross income. Understandable if that still makes you uncomfortable but you're competing against a lot of buyers who will stretch themselves much further to make things work.

That mortgage is an insane amount. We make around 500K, I'm a fed, and we couldn't pull 7K/month without huge sacrifices. We wouldn't be able to save a lot, travel, afford cleaning services and quality food, pay for the kids' tuition etc.

Tuition is where you've gone wrong. You're probably spending $7k/month on tuition, when the schools in this area are among the best in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1.5m with 20% down at 3.5% interest should be under $7k/month, or $84k/year. Even at $300k HHI that's still less than 1/3 of your gross income. Understandable if that still makes you uncomfortable but you're competing against a lot of buyers who will stretch themselves much further to make things work.

That mortgage is an insane amount. We make around 500K, I'm a fed, and we couldn't pull 7K/month without huge sacrifices. We wouldn't be able to save a lot, travel, afford cleaning services and quality food, pay for the kids' tuition etc.

Tuition is where you've gone wrong. You're probably spending $7k/month on tuition, when the schools in this area are among the best in the country.

Yeah, you’re nuts. If you are paying for private school, that’s the issue. We have a much larger mortgage and less salary, but NO problem affording the lifestyle we want because we pay $0 in childcare/school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1.5m with 20% down at 3.5% interest should be under $7k/month, or $84k/year. Even at $300k HHI that's still less than 1/3 of your gross income. Understandable if that still makes you uncomfortable but you're competing against a lot of buyers who will stretch themselves much further to make things work.

That mortgage is an insane amount. We make around 500K, I'm a fed, and we couldn't pull 7K/month without huge sacrifices. We wouldn't be able to save a lot, travel, afford cleaning services and quality food, pay for the kids' tuition etc.

We're at $400K (salaries + bonus) and NO WAY in hell would we ever feel comfortable buying at $1.5M house. We purchased in 2020, house was $1.21M, mortgage + taxes and insurance = $5100 a month. We max out our 401K, we barely travel - vacation every 2 years, kids are in public.

$1.5M at $300K is insanity. You would be eating PBJ for the rest of your life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1.5m with 20% down at 3.5% interest should be under $7k/month, or $84k/year. Even at $300k HHI that's still less than 1/3 of your gross income. Understandable if that still makes you uncomfortable but you're competing against a lot of buyers who will stretch themselves much further to make things work.

That mortgage is an insane amount. We make around 500K, I'm a fed, and we couldn't pull 7K/month without huge sacrifices. We wouldn't be able to save a lot, travel, afford cleaning services and quality food, pay for the kids' tuition etc.

We're at $400K (salaries + bonus) and NO WAY in hell would we ever feel comfortable buying at $1.5M house. We purchased in 2020, house was $1.21M, mortgage + taxes and insurance = $5100 a month. We max out our 401K, we barely travel - vacation every 2 years, kids are in public.

$1.5M at $300K is insanity. You would be eating PBJ for the rest of your life.

Yeah that is insane. You’re housepoor at that point. I can get it if you need a large house because you have 8 people living with you. But a family a four or less? Nope

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1.5m with 20% down at 3.5% interest should be under $7k/month, or $84k/year. Even at $300k HHI that's still less than 1/3 of your gross income. Understandable if that still makes you uncomfortable but you're competing against a lot of buyers who will stretch themselves much further to make things work.

That mortgage is an insane amount. We make around 500K, I'm a fed, and we couldn't pull 7K/month without huge sacrifices. We wouldn't be able to save a lot, travel, afford cleaning services and quality food, pay for the kids' tuition etc.

Tuition is where you've gone wrong. You're probably spending $7k/month on tuition, when the schools in this area are among the best in the country.

Yeah, you’re nuts. If you are paying for private school, that’s the issue. We have a much larger mortgage and less salary, but NO problem affording the lifestyle we want because we pay $0 in childcare/school.

DC1 is in med school...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1.5m with 20% down at 3.5% interest should be under $7k/month, or $84k/year. Even at $300k HHI that's still less than 1/3 of your gross income. Understandable if that still makes you uncomfortable but you're competing against a lot of buyers who will stretch themselves much further to make things work.

That mortgage is an insane amount. We make around 500K, I'm a fed, and we couldn't pull 7K/month without huge sacrifices. We wouldn't be able to save a lot, travel, afford cleaning services and quality food, pay for the kids' tuition etc.

Tuition is where you've gone wrong. You're probably spending $7k/month on tuition, when the schools in this area are among the best in the country.

Yeah, you’re nuts. If you are paying for private school, that’s the issue. We have a much larger mortgage and less salary, but NO problem affording the lifestyle we want because we pay $0 in childcare/school.

DC1 is in med school...

LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I had no clue that my competition included people making $400K-$600K. Figured those people would easily be looking in the $2-$2.5 million range.

Um what!!?

400k and a 2.5M house. Do you know what a 400k income shakes out too? I wouldn’t touch event a 1.3M house with 400k. House poor