How would you handle buying a SFH in this situation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were in almost this exact situation when we bought our home 3 years ago. We were able to buy that million dollar home first with 10% down and the recast to a much smaller loan once we sold our townhouse (we put in $300K). Our PITI now is $4800/month with a $280K HHI and we are thrilled with two late ES-aged kids to have a much larger house and yard. Worth it.

*Our utilities increased but not by as much as we thought. Maybe this house is just better insulated?

The mortgage wouod be roughly double that today

[Anonymous]

I’d wait till your kids start school and your wife can go back to work. Do you live in the DMV? House prices are not exactly on fire at this time. Why do you want to sink so much cash beyond 20% down into a house right now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were in almost this exact situation when we bought our home 3 years ago. We were able to buy that million dollar home first with 10% down and the recast to a much smaller loan once we sold our townhouse (we put in $300K). Our PITI now is $4800/month with a $280K HHI and we are thrilled with two late ES-aged kids to have a much larger house and yard. Worth it.

*Our utilities increased but not by as much as we thought. Maybe this house is just better insulated?

Another clueless post.

[Anonymous]

Not in this uncertain economy especially being a sole provider in tech which is very unstable currently. Save your money and reconsider in 2 years.

[Anonymous]

We plan to buy a SFH in 2 years and our down payment is currently in a money market fund so depending on your brokerage account, I’d take out the down payment and put it in something safe (money market, HYSA or bonds). At least that was advice from our CFP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pondering buying a single family house. We currently own a town house. Early 30's, 2 kids, wife stays home. I make 250k in tech.

Current PITI/HOA is $2200 combined with a mid 2% rate.

Our assets:

Town house equity is roughly 230k.
450k in retirement accounts
45k in an HSA
390k in brokerage (not much in gains, most of this I recently put in from an inheritance, so minimal tax from selling)
25k in cash

We don't need to buy a bigger house right now but in 5 years I think we'll wish we did, when our kids are older. Given that tech is unstable with layoffs I'm hesitant to make a big purchase and wipe out our savings but I'm also afraid of being priced out of larger houses in the future if we wait. The
houses we would aim for are around $1M.

Wait 4-5 years and see what your needs are and what your income is (will your spouse go back to work?) before buying a larger house. You are doing great for early 30s + an inheritance. The only note is that you should set up 529s and max those annually.

[Anonymous]

Responses here are blatant trolling or ridiculously conservative/illogical.

No, someone in their early 30’s with over 1M net worth is not poor.

No, they do not need an 8k/ month mortgage since they have way more to put down than most people buying a 1M house at this age. We’re talking 3-4k a month, completely doable on 250k salary, and they have 30+ years left to work to build up retirement savings and college savings.

People here are dumb as rocks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were in almost this exact situation when we bought our home 3 years ago. We were able to buy that million dollar home first with 10% down and the recast to a much smaller loan once we sold our townhouse (we put in $300K). Our PITI now is $4800/month with a $280K HHI and we are thrilled with two late ES-aged kids to have a much larger house and yard. Worth it.

*Our utilities increased but not by as much as we thought. Maybe this house is just better insulated?

The mortgage wouod be roughly double that today

Oooh, I wrote 3, I meant to write 2 - we bought in 2023. Our mortgage is 6.5%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not in this uncertain economy especially being a sole provider in tech which is very unstable currently. Save your money and reconsider in 2 years.

"tech" could mean a lot of things. Some tech-related industries are very, very stable.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry, but you need to stay where you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No way I’d spend a million on that salary. Kids need college savings, activities, etc. they get. More expensive vs less. Sit tight.

+1. the inheritance is for college. You’re doing great as is OP - why would you want to do less well? Assuming the schools are ok where you are it would be incredibly foolish just to move because you have some idea about the house you need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were in almost this exact situation when we bought our home 3 years ago. We were able to buy that million dollar home first with 10% down and the recast to a much smaller loan once we sold our townhouse (we put in $300K). Our PITI now is $4800/month with a $280K HHI and we are thrilled with two late ES-aged kids to have a much larger house and yard. Worth it.

*Our utilities increased but not by as much as we thought. Maybe this house is just better insulated?

So no college savings?

[Anonymous]

OP you make enough however project 2025 is the house bill
When that passes and it will the US will be in a bad place.

Stay put!

I am old and not wrong the economy is going to be in tatters . Stay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Responses here are blatant trolling or ridiculously conservative/illogical.

No, someone in their early 30’s with over 1M net worth is not poor.

No, they do not need an 8k/ month mortgage since they have way more to put down than most people buying a 1M house at this age. We’re talking 3-4k a month, completely doable on 250k salary, and they have 30+ years left to work to build up retirement savings and college savings.

People here are dumb as rocks

Why is it dumb as rocks to be conservative with housing costs? That extra 2k/month goes to college, activities, giving his wife more breathing room to find a job she likes or continue to stay home, or if g-d forbid OP gets laid off. Having affordable housing is a massive boon and OP wants to throw it all away because … why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Responses here are blatant trolling or ridiculously conservative/illogical.

No, someone in their early 30’s with over 1M net worth is not poor.

No, they do not need an 8k/ month mortgage since they have way more to put down than most people buying a 1M house at this age. We’re talking 3-4k a month, completely doable on 250k salary, and they have 30+ years left to work to build up retirement savings and college savings.

People here are dumb as rocks

The big issue, as alluded by a few other posters, is that this is one income. I don't know what tech really means here. He does make an excellent income for someone in his early 30s and that implies room for growth but tech is a field I know nothing about so I don't what his growth potential is like, or his ability to quickly find a new job if he gets unexpectedly laid off. On a single income I would not want to be trapped into a large mortgage and I'd also like to keep as much in easily accessible funds for the same reason rather than tying it all up in equity.

I have a smallish house I want to sell and upsize but between a 2.7% mortgage and that I'm also a single income household, I have held back. I like sleeping easily at night also knowing if I get laid off, the mortgage is affordable and there's plenty of money in the bank to tide things over till I find another job, even if it takes a year. In OP's feet, I would not be looking to upsize until wife is back in the workforce, bringing in the security of a second income.