Is 300k the bare minimum income to buy a single family now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Feels impossible to buy a house with a 2 car driveway and a yard unless you have a stable 300k/yr income. I make around this much and am still holding off because I don’t feel secure in my position. I could pay the bills just fine but if income disappears tmrw I’m screwed and my industry is laying people off left and right

With that income you could buy a 500K house and pay it off in just 5 years or less.
If you say you couldn't, then you are wasting so much money somewhere.

100K income family should be able to pay off a 500K house in 15 years with no problem.

Not if they are 2 $50,000 salaries plus they have to pay for daycare for 2 kids.

Well then they should wait until kids are out of daycare. Daycare is an equivalent of a mortgae and no, they can't afford two mortgages on that salary. It's all about choices.

WHY AREN'T YOUNG PEOPLE HAVING CHILDREN??!?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Feels impossible to buy a house with a 2 car driveway and a yard unless you have a stable 300k/yr income. I make around this much and am still holding off because I don’t feel secure in my position. I could pay the bills just fine but if income disappears tmrw I’m screwed and my industry is laying people off left and right

With that income you could buy a 500K house and pay it off in just 5 years or less.
If you say you couldn't, then you are wasting so much money somewhere.

100K income family should be able to pay off a 500K house in 15 years with no problem.

Not if they are 2 $50,000 salaries plus they have to pay for daycare for 2 kids.

Well then they should wait until kids are out of daycare. Daycare is an equivalent of a mortgae and no, they can't afford two mortgages on that salary. It's all about choices.

WHY AREN'T YOUNG PEOPLE HAVING CHILDREN??!?!

I know, right? It's like some people are disconnected from reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your post is too stupid for any productive conversation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming you can put 20% down on a house, a 420,000 loan at ~5.5% interest over 15 years is $3,400/month just on the principle. Add in another monthly $150 for insurance and $500 for taxes (which is a very low estimate in any locality that isn’t cheap) that is over 4k/month mortgage.

A family making 100k/year is bringing home maybe 7k/month tops after taxes and health premiums and very modest retirement contribution.

Let's get the spelling and arithmetic right.

A 20% down payment on a $500,000 house is $100,000, leaving a $400,000 principal loan balance.

Now 5.5% of $400,000 is $22,000/year or almost $2k/month. A 15-year amortizing mortgage payment would be $3,268.33/month.

Online paycheck calculators show that a a pre-tax annual salary gives a paycheck of around $6,600/month.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the average family spends around one-third of budget on housing. One-third of the paycheck would cover interest, but it would take half the paycheck to cover a 15-year payment. I have not even considered taxes, insurance, and maintenance.

Here is the tricky part. I figure the long-run real interest rate is around 3%. With higher interest rates, your house tends to appreciate at the rate of inflation. But there is also taxes, insurance, and maintenance. So I think the real cost of home ownership is around 6% per year, or .5% per month. That is $2,500/month on a $500,000 house, or 38% of of the $6,600 paycheck. That is getting tight. D.C. is a high-tax area, both income and property taxes.

Theoretically, this homeowner might afford the house in a low-tax area if the homeowner does a lot of the maintenance and is "house poor". This will almost certainly require digging into savings to cover insurance and property taxes in addition to the mortgage. In the long-run, the house appreciation will repay it, but you should plan on living frugally for a decade.

I don’t see how the mortgage payment would be so low at 5.5%. We have a 15 year mortgage at 2.375% that we took out in 2021 on around 400k. Our payments are $3900 a month (including taxes and insurance).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Feels impossible to buy a house with a 2 car driveway and a yard unless you have a stable 300k/yr income. I make around this much and am still holding off because I don’t feel secure in my position. I could pay the bills just fine but if income disappears tmrw I’m screwed and my industry is laying people off left and right

With that income you could buy a 500K house and pay it off in just 5 years or less.
If you say you couldn't, then you are wasting so much money somewhere.

100K income family should be able to pay off a 500K house in 15 years with no problem.

I don’t know if you’re being a troll or what. A 500k house in this area will run you almost $4000 a month on a 15 year mortgage at today’s interest rates.

If you make 100k a year (take home) that would be almost half your income going to your house. Thats unaffordable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved to an area with lower COL. You do have choices.

What are your occupations and salaries?

Fed and private sector in regulatory field. $150k a piece. Not enough for a good school district in the DMV.

We had friends buy in Chevy Chase and N Arlington this year with $300K HHI and 5-10% down around the $1.2M mark. That’ll get you in an original 3-4 bed, 2-3 bath home close in (say 2200 ish sq ft). Not saying it’s risk free but it can be done if you stretch. If you’re a fed I’d be more inclined to stretch.

Have you turned on the news lately?

Yep. Another example of someone completely out of touch. Feds are worried daily about their jobs. Stability is gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good single family homes in this area are now over 1.5 M. You need a lot more than 300k per year to afford a house and start a family.

This is BS. You do not need to spend 1.5M.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved to an area with lower COL. You do have choices.

What are your occupations and salaries?

Fed and private sector in regulatory field. $150k a piece. Not enough for a good school district in the DMV.

We had friends buy in Chevy Chase and N Arlington this year with $300K HHI and 5-10% down around the $1.2M mark. That’ll get you in an original 3-4 bed, 2-3 bath home close in (say 2200 ish sq ft). Not saying it’s risk free but it can be done if you stretch. If you’re a fed I’d be more inclined to stretch.

Have you turned on the news lately?

Yep. Another example of someone completely out of touch. Feds are worried daily about their jobs. Stability is gone.

Clinton fired 2x the # of feds compared to Trump. Obama implemented a 3 year pay freeze for feds.

Was there ever stability?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved to an area with lower COL. You do have choices.

What are your occupations and salaries?

Fed and private sector in regulatory field. $150k a piece. Not enough for a good school district in the DMV.

We had friends buy in Chevy Chase and N Arlington this year with $300K HHI and 5-10% down around the $1.2M mark. That’ll get you in an original 3-4 bed, 2-3 bath home close in (say 2200 ish sq ft). Not saying it’s risk free but it can be done if you stretch. If you’re a fed I’d be more inclined to stretch.

Have you turned on the news lately?

Yep. Another example of someone completely out of touch. Feds are worried daily about their jobs. Stability is gone.

Clinton fired 2x the # of feds compared to Trump. Obama implemented a 3 year pay freeze for feds.

Was there ever stability?

They weren’t doing it to purposely induce trauma, nor was it done so randomly

[Anonymous]

No

[Anonymous]

Homes are much cheaper than three years ago as most kids are in stocks which is way up more than housing last three years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Feels impossible to buy a house with a 2 car driveway and a yard unless you have a stable 300k/yr income. I make around this much and am still holding off because I don’t feel secure in my position. I could pay the bills just fine but if income disappears tmrw I’m screwed and my industry is laying people off left and right

With that income you could buy a 500K house and pay it off in just 5 years or less.
If you say you couldn't, then you are wasting so much money somewhere.

100K income family should be able to pay off a 500K house in 15 years with no problem.

Assuming you can put 20% down on a house, a 420,000 loan at ~5.5% interest over 15 years is $3,400/month just on the principle. Add in another monthly $150 for insurance and $500 for taxes (which is a very low estimate in any locality that isn’t cheap) that is over 4k/month mortgage.

A family making 100k/year is bringing home maybe 7k/month tops after taxes and health premiums and very modest retirement contribution.

That generously leaves 3k for everything else. Oh but childcare is easily 2k/month per kid. Even if you have a SAHP, 3k wouldn’t allow for much of an emergency fund with today’s grocery and healthcare prices. Oh and then guess what, a new HVAC is 10-15k. Need new tires on your car (didn’t even factor in a monthly payment) but there is $800+ gone. Good luck putting together an emergency fund or sending kids to college.

For comparison, I bought a $900k house with a 2.75% loan now worth $1.3M and have a 4k mortgage. We moved up to this from our 500k starter home except that starter home in our old neighborhood is now $900k and now the starter home is most likely the home you’ll be in for a very long time.

Families just starting out today and in such a worse situation than I was as a newly wed/new mom a decade ago.

WHAT? LMAO!

DP. Where’s the lie? Childcare is extremely expensive these days and that doesn’t guarantee quality

I don’t think that PP is in the DC area. $2K per month per kid for childcare is actually on the low end.

I honestly can’t tell if they’re laughing because it’s too low or too high.

[Anonymous]

300k is not that much anymore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved to an area with lower COL. You do have choices.

What are your occupations and salaries?

Fed and private sector in regulatory field. $150k a piece. Not enough for a good school district in the DMV.

We had friends buy in Chevy Chase and N Arlington this year with $300K HHI and 5-10% down around the $1.2M mark. That’ll get you in an original 3-4 bed, 2-3 bath home close in (say 2200 ish sq ft). Not saying it’s risk free but it can be done if you stretch. If you’re a fed I’d be more inclined to stretch.

Have you turned on the news lately?

Yep. Another example of someone completely out of touch. Feds are worried daily about their jobs. Stability is gone.

Clinton fired 2x the # of feds compared to Trump. Obama implemented a 3 year pay freeze for feds.

Was there ever stability?

Clinton followed RIF procedures so there was severance. Regarding Obama, with a freeze you still have a job. Both situations were more stable than the present.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved to an area with lower COL. You do have choices.

What are your occupations and salaries?

Fed and private sector in regulatory field. $150k a piece. Not enough for a good school district in the DMV.

We had friends buy in Chevy Chase and N Arlington this year with $300K HHI and 5-10% down around the $1.2M mark. That’ll get you in an original 3-4 bed, 2-3 bath home close in (say 2200 ish sq ft). Not saying it’s risk free but it can be done if you stretch. If you’re a fed I’d be more inclined to stretch.

Have you turned on the news lately?

Yep. Another example of someone completely out of touch. Feds are worried daily about their jobs. Stability is gone.

Clinton fired 2x the # of feds compared to Trump. Obama implemented a 3 year pay freeze for feds.

Was there ever stability?

They weren’t doing it to purposely induce trauma, nor was it done so randomly

OK? so, those cuts didn’t hurt? 🤦‍♀️