What can we realistically buy with $250K HHI?

[Anonymous]

Depends on how big your down payment is, OP

[Anonymous]

We made much less than OP when we bought our house in CC Md.

But that was 1998 and I feel prices were lower then.

[Anonymous]

OP, in order to figure out what you can afford, you need to map out your expenses and see what you can pay each month for a mortgage. If you're willing to sacrifice your day to day comforts for a house, then maybe you can afford more house.

[Anonymous]

I never saved a nickel I partied hard and spent more than I made when single.

I was then a passenger in a car crash 100 pervert drivers fault and even better an on duty cop witnessed it and driver confessed and took blame at scene.

That lawsuit was my downpayment. There is no morale to the story

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We made much less than OP when we bought our house in CC Md.

But that was 1998 and I feel prices were lower then.

Gee, ya think?

[Anonymous]

Really depends on how much you are willing to pay (max) on PITI and how much you can put down as well (but if need be, in my view, you could put down a little less of it makes a negligeable monthly difference if it manes you have more emergency funds available). Really base it on that PITI (the monthly payments) rather than the price of the place.

At 250k gross, given 3 kids (and their associated espenses) I would assume 4.5k-5k would be your ambsolute max PITI that you should go for and even then it may be tight. Yeah the current market sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Same OP. Same. We moved in 2021 and rented initially. Now I feel like we are priced out of everything. Super depressing.

[Anonymous]

Have you looked into one of the areas trailer parks?

[Anonymous]

When I bought my first house in Nassau County NY in 1999 I recall nationwide the average purchase price was 2.5x household income. But in Nassau County it was 4x household income.

Desirable suburban areas close in with good schools in NY, Boston or DC has always been 4x household income and people who stretched went 5x

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really depends on how much you are willing to pay (max) on PITI and how much you can put down as well (but if need be, in my view, you could put down a little less of it makes a negligeable monthly difference if it manes you have more emergency funds available). Really base it on that PITI (the monthly payments) rather than the price of the place.

At 250k gross, given 3 kids (and their associated espenses) I would assume 4.5k-5k would be your ambsolute max PITI that you should go for and even then it may be tight. Yeah the current market sucks.

We have a similar HHI and just bought so we will be paying around $5k PITI after 20% down, but we have only 1 child. It would be very tight with 3 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you looked into one of the areas trailer parks?

Do tell us. How do you like living there?

[Anonymous]

OP what proceeds do you have in savings from your previous home sale?

[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.

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

They did do it on their own. It doesn’t mean their stock picking is a strategy other people will be able to replicate successfully though.

[Anonymous]

Lower your standards of what you consider a "great" school or your commute. We are very happy with our <$700k SFH and neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never saved a nickel I partied hard and spent more than I made when single.

I was then a passenger in a car crash 100 pervert drivers fault and even better an on duty cop witnessed it and driver confessed and took blame at scene.

That lawsuit was my downpayment. There is no morale to the story

I have a no morale story either, I was in a very bad accident at work when I was 23 that was the fault of a 3rd party. Badly broken leg allowed me to buy a house in cash at 30. I honestly can't even imagine where I would be without that, which is probably pretty sad.