Another can we afford this post, HHI $325k

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02/01/2026 16:32

Subject: Another can we afford this post, HHI $325k

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Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$325,000 after Fed, State, and Payroll Taxes is likely around $250,000 take home. Assuming you are contributing fully to 401(k) and Roth IRAs, that's $64,000 a year to savings, which is a good target at just about 20%. That leaves $186,000 for spending, or $15,500 a month.

I don't know what kind of loan you are looking at or the home insurance/HOA/Property Tax fees, but using your number of $6,500, you'd be putting 42% of your take-home pay to your PITI. Using a general metric that fixed costs should not be more than 60% of your take-home pay, that would leave only $2,800 for other fixed costs like car payments, gas, daycare, groceries, out of pocket medical, pets, insurance, home maintenance, and all utilities - electric, gas, phone, water, sewer. That's very tight, probably impossible. So your fixed costs would be high compared to your take home pay.

That would put stress on your ability to do other savings like college and brokerage accounts, plus limit vacation fund, entertainment, eating out, clothing, gifts, and other discretionary purchasing.

It just depends what kind of life you want to live. If you think you will love this house and it's worth putting a huge chunk of your earnings to it every month, I think you will manage. If your income grows, even better, and things will loosen up. But I do think it will feel tight. You'll probably have to save less than 20% to retirement and take smaller vacations.

Run some numbers yourself. See if that's the life you want.

The metric I have heard is that PITI should not be more than 25% of net.

I would not do this deal in a million years but I also have no desire to live in a TH and be house poor.

Granted sounds like OP is counting on inheritance money and doesn’t need the appreciation she would see from a SFH.

If townhouses are going for 1.3M in that area, OP definitely can't definitely afford a SFH anywhere close. They're likely priced at more than twice that amount.

We bought a 2800 sqft TH for 1.1M back in 2016 in a really sought-after school district. Now, it's valued at 1.7M.
We're really pleased with that appreciation. Our friends who bought SFHs in the same price range but in less desirable locations aren't seeing the same appreciation.

Your mistake is assuming we’ll see another appreciation run up like we saw during COVID. That was due to “free money” via historically low interest rates. You should check what a SFH that sold around the same time you bought in the same school zone appreciated for (%) - it will be more than your TH.

Not sure I buy that your friends saw less appreciation on their SFH in less desirable areas too unless it was outside the DC area - for example Springfield and Annandale saw bigger SFH appreciation % increases during this same time period vs McLean or Arlington.

We’ll likely see much more modest appreciation between 2026-2036 in which case I’d put my $ where it historically holds or even appreciates in slumps, which is close-in land. Especially if the budget is tight and I’m relying on an inheritance for retirement that might get eaten up by PE-run nursing homes and other vultures.

There’s SFHs for sale in good school districts for $1.3M or less in N Arlington, Vienna (not close in but still super desirable), etc today. They won’t be “new” but they will appreciate more.