At odds with spouse ove how much house we can afford

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, just bc you can comfortably afford 1.7m doesn't mean you should spend that much. ESPECIALLY in this economy. What happens if you or your husband loses employment? Become underemployed? What if you have unexpected medical expenses?

You can very easily find a great home for 1m and put away all of the extra that you would have spent on housing into savings.

Husband will not lose employment guaranteed. He may choose to work at lower paying in the future, but I still opine we could afford the mortgage on 1.5M with different salaries. Unexpected medical not covered by insurance- we would liquidate our other assets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Near Ballston metro, $959K, 4BR, 3.5 bath total reno with huge deck and yard:

http://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/851-N-Abingdon-St-22203/home/11244150

Bottom line, you're not looking hard enough, or you want too much.

Wanting too much? Have you taken a look around? I basically want an average home in one of several zip codes. This house is ho-hum in my opinion, I MUCH prefer the new open floorplans with few walls with the living/eating area all connected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, just bc you can comfortably afford 1.7m doesn't mean you should spend that much. ESPECIALLY in this economy. What happens if you or your husband loses employment? Become underemployed? What if you have unexpected medical expenses?

You can very easily find a great home for 1m and put away all of the extra that you would have spent on housing into savings.

Also, I'll note another reason you shouldn't immediately shut down your spouse: the housing market keeps dropping. You spend 1.7m on a house today, next year it can be worth 1.4 or 1.5m.

maybe in baghadad! the DC housing market has been shooting through the roof due to tight supply good jobs and high incomes.

+1- starting to come back like gangbusters

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those are some pretty old, small and ugly houses. I can see why the OP is not in a rush to buy one like that.

ITA! Thank you for saying that. I was trying to be more polite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Near Ballston metro, $959K, 4BR, 3.5 bath total reno with huge deck and yard:

http://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/851-N-Abingdon-St-22203/home/11244150

Bottom line, you're not looking hard enough, or you want too much.

Wanting too much? Have you taken a look around? I basically want an average home in one of several zip codes. This house is ho-hum in my opinion, I MUCH prefer the new open floorplans with few walls with the living/eating area all connected.

Wow I can't imagine finding that house ho-hum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Near Ballston metro, $959K, 4BR, 3.5 bath total reno with huge deck and yard:

http://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/851-N-Abingdon-St-22203/home/11244150

Bottom line, you're not looking hard enough, or you want too much.

Wanting too much? Have you taken a look around? I basically want an average home in one of several zip codes. This house is ho-hum in my opinion, I MUCH prefer the new open floorplans with few walls with the living/eating area all connected.

OP, I am looking in the 1.2 range. There are a lot of houses, but they are not close in. Or if close in, not new, or even newish. I think some of those recommendations are tear downs, meaning even more expensive. (Tear down, rebuild $$$) You just want too much from life!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Near Ballston metro, $959K, 4BR, 3.5 bath total reno with huge deck and yard:

http://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/851-N-Abingdon-St-22203/home/11244150

Bottom line, you're not looking hard enough, or you want too much.

Wanting too much? Have you taken a look around? I basically want an average home in one of several zip codes. This house is ho-hum in my opinion, I MUCH prefer the new open floorplans with few walls with the living/eating area all connected.

OP, I am looking in the 1.2 range. There are a lot of houses, but they are not close in. Or if close in, not new, or even newish. I think some of those recommendations are tear downs, meaning even more expensive. (Tear down, rebuild $$$) You just want too much from life!

This is precisely why I want to look above 1.2! Spouse wants certain things, I want certain things- to get them all we need to focus on a particular price range. He just doesn't get it! I don't want him to compromise on what he requires, nor do I want to do it myself. Convincing him what we can "afford" is a whole different animal.

[Anonymous]

OP I really think you should just find a realtor and have them start showing you stuff in from 750 to 1.5M. But what you do need to do, is agree with DH on the features that the house has - find your common ground. Master bath suite? Walk-in closet? Attached garage? Style? Updated kitchen? Certainly you and DH can agree on some things to narrow down the list; then you should look at what's actually out there and when it feels right and makes you both happy, that's your house. Maybe you'll luck out and it'll be <1M, maybe it'll be a bit higher, or maybe it's listed higher but the buyer takes a lower offer. You really don't know what you're going to find until you get out there.

[Anonymous]

OP, you appear to have very high expectations.

Several people have suggested figuring out a budget - have you done that yet? That is how you will really know what you can afford. No matter how many people tell you what you can afford, no one really knows but you. So just do the budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Near Ballston metro, $959K, 4BR, 3.5 bath total reno with huge deck and yard:

http://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/851-N-Abingdon-St-22203/home/11244150

Bottom line, you're not looking hard enough, or you want too much.

Wanting too much? Have you taken a look around? I basically want an average home in one of several zip codes. This house is ho-hum in my opinion, I MUCH prefer the new open floorplans with few walls with the living/eating area all connected.

OP, I am looking in the 1.2 range. There are a lot of houses, but they are not close in. Or if close in, not new, or even newish. I think some of those recommendations are tear downs, meaning even more expensive. (Tear down, rebuild $$$) You just want too much from life!

This is precisely why I want to look above 1.2! Spouse wants certain things, I want certain things- to get them all we need to focus on a particular price range. He just doesn't get it! I don't want him to compromise on what he requires, nor do I want to do it myself. Convincing him what we can "afford" is a whole different animal.

For our first house, my DH best friend said "Stop trying to economize and buy her the house she wants!" Happy wife = happy life!

[Anonymous]

As for the real estate market, it seems to be going up in the more desirable zip codes. Everyday I see a new million+ house being built and the next day it has a sold sign on it. I don't see a recession here (in the million range)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, just bc you can comfortably afford 1.7m doesn't mean you should spend that much. ESPECIALLY in this economy. What happens if you or your husband loses employment? Become underemployed? What if you have unexpected medical expenses?

You can very easily find a great home for 1m and put away all of the extra that you would have spent on housing into savings.

Husband will not lose employment guaranteed. He may choose to work at lower paying in the future, but I still opine we could afford the mortgage on 1.5M with different salaries. Unexpected medical not covered by insurance- we would liquidate our other assets.

What industry/field has guaranteed employment and pays this well?

[Anonymous]

Inheritance.

[Anonymous]

I can't believe this thread is 13 pages! Seriously OP get out of my price range and buy a 2 million + home. We're looking at 1-1.2 million on a hhI of 300 with 200 or so down. This thread just feels ridiculous to me. Also, don't know of any jobs that are safe at 1 million - unless perhaps a doctor in a specialty field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's another, not far from Bethesda Metro:

http://www.redfin.com/MD/Bethesda/5602-Mclean-Dr-20814/home/10673273

\

Appreciate the suggestion, but we need minimum 4 BR preferably 5 BR due to family size and likelihood of parents moving in.

so just stfu and move to minnesota and you can have your frickin' 8 BR palace for probably less than 1.2 million... really sick of hearing you whine.... and yes it's a combination of the fact that you make a ridiculous amount of money (you could probably live like some of us here) and pay off that 1.7 mil house in 4 years and you're snobbery about the kind of house you want....