How much would you spend on rent with $115,000 gross income?

[Anonymous]

OP, if you are looking for a loan with less than 20% down you should consider that you are likely looking at an FHA loan. We're looking to refi our current FHA loan (owe between 500-600) and under the new rates for these types of loans, if we have less than 20% equity and do another FHA loan the mandatory mortgage insurance (or PMI) will be almost 600 a month for 5 years plus we'll pay an upfront fee of 9k. For comparison, our current PMI on our existing loan is around 250 a month. As we're probably only a few thousand away from 20%, we're just going to pay the difference so we can get a conventional and a better interest rate. But, you should consider this as you are doing your thinking about down payments.

As for the amount you can borrow, I'd say 250-300 would be do-able. Even with PMI, your total costs (insurance, taxes, payment and PMI) should be around 2200-2500. That's reasonable on 115. You probably won't find many SFHs that are decent at that level, but you could find a nice 2 bedroom condo.

[Anonymous]

$2000

[Anonymous]

For a DC rowhouse such as you describe (3 bed, near metro, reasonable neighborhood) it' probably more like 375k to 600k depending on the condition and location. I know some friends who got a great coop apartment in SW with reasonable monthly fees. These are harder to find and sublet though, but might be a good option if you want something in the 125k to 225k range.

[Anonymous]

I think there is a suggested percentage, maybe 15% or 30% of your net income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Together we make about $115,000 and we have $16,000 in student loan debt and $8,000 of an auto loan (only one car). Minimum payments are about $450/month but we are paying about $1,100 to get it over with. We would like to have kids soon and both need to keep working (forever). How much would you budget for rent? We desperately want to stay in DC because my husband has to drive all over metro DC, MD, and VA for his job, which makes for a lot of driving, and adding a morning commute isn't ideal. Also, I don't think we're ready for the suburbs. I work in SW and expect to be there for a while. We want to be walking distance of a few restaurants and a park, and 1/2 a mile to the Metro (preferably anything but red). I would love to live in Capitol Hill, Eastern Market, Shaw, Columbia Heights, or Mt. Pleasant. Thanks for your thoughts!

The rent is too damn high!

I know you mentioned you wanted to stay in DC because of your husband's job, but I wanted to suggest to consider Shirlington Area (Arlington). We rent a huge bright one bedroom in Shirlington House Apts for $1450. It is 10 minutes commute to dc, buses run to pentagon every 5 minutes very much on schedule, and pentagon city metro is 5 minutes away. So we very much have the same accessibility as a DC resident with lots of shops and restaurants in the walking distance of our home. We used to rent in DC, but our life style hasn't changed a bit since; we don't even feel we are not living in DC anymore.

[Anonymous]

SW could be a good solution for you guys - close to where you work and close to 395 and 295 for your drive-everywhere hubby. The elementary schools are crummy, but people like Appletree, which has two campuses down there for pre-K, which would buy you a lot of time before you had to think through schools. My sense is that, once you figure in HOA fees, a two bedroom might be above your price point there right now (the cheapest building one sees down there, the River Park coop, doesn't allow pets. Neither does, I think, the condo Riverside). Renting could be a good option, though. Several apartment buildings down here allow pets, though, and that one over on 6th and I (next to, not across the street from Arena stage) has rent control.