Would you buy a 1.2 million dollar home

[Anonymous]

Did you post your monthly take home after 401k and the monthly PITI?

Those are the important numbers.
If you are at 250 and salary is 170, bonus is 70 then NO WAY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you post your monthly take home after 401k and the monthly PITI?

Those are the important numbers.
If you are at 250 and salary is 170, bonus is 70 then NO WAY.

oops I meant 170k salary and 80k bonus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t live in the DMV area please stop responding to financial threads. There is no way anyone with kids in this area can find a habitable house for $420k. Stop trying to fool everyone.

+1. It’s so unhelpful. It’s like us telling you to find a house for 50k.

I'm the 420k house poster. I live less than a mile outside the beltway in Moco and I consider my house habitable

How many years ago did you buy it, and how much have you invested in it since?

[Anonymous]

I'll be the outlier--I think that's fine, assuming property taxes are under $15K or so. We are in a higher cost area and that's fairly routine at that income.

Whether it's wise depends entirely on your local market. If you are in the DMV, you probably have other options at lower prices. Can you get into the same district for $800K and have a slightly less house? Then I'd do that. But where we live, $1M is a 2BR starter home, so people make different choices about how to spend their income. Stick to the rule of keeping your PITI under 30% of your pre-tax income--but you can likely do that with an $850K mortgage. Whether you should depends on all the other variables.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll be the outlier--I think that's fine, assuming property taxes are under $15K or so. We are in a higher cost area and that's fairly routine at that income.

Whether it's wise depends entirely on your local market. If you are in the DMV, you probably have other options at lower prices. Can you get into the same district for $800K and have a slightly less house? Then I'd do that. But where we live, $1M is a 2BR starter home, so people make different choices about how to spend their income. Stick to the rule of keeping your PITI under 30% of your pre-tax income--but you can likely do that with an $850K mortgage. Whether you should depends on all the other variables.

I think is this good advice, especially trying to game it out in a lower tax area. We shopped on PITI, not just home prices. We could buy a 1.2 mil in Falls Church City, but taxes would be around 10K. We put 20% down and qualified for a 4.375% loan (about 6 months ago). From there, our goal was to keep PITI under 5K month, which still sounds terrifying. We're first time buyers with a $350K income and no debt, no daycare, only home expenses, food, insurance, and shuffling money into savings. Our PITI is $4600 living in DC in a 1 mil house in a not-so-hot neighborhood, but it's slowly gentrifying and zoned for Deal/Wilson. We made sure to buy a house that we could rent the basement in the event of needing income to pay mortgage. The bank will force you to have 1 year of savings if you're going with an 850K mortgage, but I'd make sure you have another 100K liquid just in case (we stuck 100K in an 11 month no-penalty Ally CD at 2.10%).

Anyway, nobody can really tell you what your mortgage risk tolerance is. Yes, you can do it at the numbers you've posted here, but do you really want to? Lots of people would and lots of people wouldn't. Just be as smart as you can and make sure you buy what you want and need and not more than that. Is it your forever home? That's another factor. Just so many factors that are personal to you that we can't answer if we would or would not based on the numbers you shared. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

No way, but we’re more fiscally conservative. We have similar stats. We make close to $290k and put $300k down on a $850k house. Kids are in public schools, no debt, max out retirement, college funding on track, etc. I like that we save a good chunk each month and are still able to take nice (not extravagant) vacations, pay for kids’ sports, tutors, music lessons, etc.

[Anonymous]

No. You can find a nice place for 800K and with your down-payment that would give you manageable mortgage and taxes payment. With let's say 900K mortgage, as you are suggesting, your monthly payment is over 4K. Add taxes to that and with your income that is insane. And 3 kids mean a lot of expenses that can't be predicted. Before you know it you will be in cc debt to your hairline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t live in the DMV area please stop responding to financial threads. There is no way anyone with kids in this area can find a habitable house for $420k. Stop trying to fool everyone.

+1. It’s so unhelpful. It’s like us telling you to find a house for 50k.

I'm the 420k house poster. I live less than a mile outside the beltway in Moco and I consider my house habitable

How many years ago did you buy it, and how much have you invested in it since?

I bought in 2018

Only a few thousand so far

The schools have pretty good reputations btw (for the schools snobs)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t live in the DMV area please stop responding to financial threads. There is no way anyone with kids in this area can find a habitable house for $420k. Stop trying to fool everyone.

+1. It’s so unhelpful. It’s like us telling you to find a house for 50k.

I'm the 420k house poster. I live less than a mile outside the beltway in Moco and I consider my house habitable

How many years ago did you buy it, and how much have you invested in it since?

I bought in 2018

Only a few thousand so far

The schools have pretty good reputations btw (for the schools snobs)

So where is your SFH located? Get enough DCUM interest and your value will sky rocket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t live in the DMV area please stop responding to financial threads. There is no way anyone with kids in this area can find a habitable house for $420k. Stop trying to fool everyone.

+1. It’s so unhelpful. It’s like us telling you to find a house for 50k.

I'm the 420k house poster. I live less than a mile outside the beltway in Moco and I consider my house habitable

How many years ago did you buy it, and how much have you invested in it since?

I bought in 2018

Only a few thousand so far

The schools have pretty good reputations btw (for the schools snobs)

So where is your SFH located? Get enough DCUM interest and your value will sky rocket.

For 420K, it's located nowhere near wear most of us would consider living.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t live in the DMV area please stop responding to financial threads. There is no way anyone with kids in this area can find a habitable house for $420k. Stop trying to fool everyone.

+1. It’s so unhelpful. It’s like us telling you to find a house for 50k.

I'm the 420k house poster. I live less than a mile outside the beltway in Moco and I consider my house habitable

How many years ago did you buy it, and how much have you invested in it since?

I bought in 2018

Only a few thousand so far

The schools have pretty good reputations btw (for the schools snobs)

So where is your SFH located? Get enough DCUM interest and your value will sky rocket.

For 420K, it's located nowhere near wear most of us would consider living.

where

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t live in the DMV area please stop responding to financial threads. There is no way anyone with kids in this area can find a habitable house for $420k. Stop trying to fool everyone.

+1. It’s so unhelpful. It’s like us telling you to find a house for 50k.

I'm the 420k house poster. I live less than a mile outside the beltway in Moco and I consider my house habitable

How many years ago did you buy it, and how much have you invested in it since?

I bought in 2018

Only a few thousand so far

The schools have pretty good reputations btw (for the schools snobs)

So where is your SFH located? Get enough DCUM interest and your value will sky rocket.

For 420K, it's located nowhere near wear most of us would consider living.

You live where you can afford.

OP, also needs to look at interest rates - big difference from a 2.5 vs. 4.5 and things like insurance, maintenance, utilities, furniture, etc. A $5K montage may not include all that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t live in the DMV area please stop responding to financial threads. There is no way anyone with kids in this area can find a habitable house for $420k. Stop trying to fool everyone.

+1. It’s so unhelpful. It’s like us telling you to find a house for 50k.

I'm the 420k house poster. I live less than a mile outside the beltway in Moco and I consider my house habitable

How many years ago did you buy it, and how much have you invested in it since?

I bought in 2018

Only a few thousand so far

The schools have pretty good reputations btw (for the schools snobs)

So where is your SFH located? Get enough DCUM interest and your value will sky rocket.

For 420K, it's located nowhere near wear most of us would consider living.

well -- you sure are making a broad statement. And perhaps you didn't get the value of the schools you paid so much for -- the correct spelling is "where" not "wear."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t live in the DMV area please stop responding to financial threads. There is no way anyone with kids in this area can find a habitable house for $420k. Stop trying to fool everyone.

+1. It’s so unhelpful. It’s like us telling you to find a house for 50k.

I'm the 420k house poster. I live less than a mile outside the beltway in Moco and I consider my house habitable

How many years ago did you buy it, and how much have you invested in it since?

I bought in 2018

Only a few thousand so far

The schools have pretty good reputations btw (for the schools snobs)

So where is your SFH located? Get enough DCUM interest and your value will sky rocket.

For 420K, it's located nowhere near wear most of us would consider living.

well -- you sure are making a broad statement. And perhaps you didn't get the value of the schools you paid so much for -- the correct spelling is "where" not "wear."

Even if autocorrect didn't screw it up, doesn't change the fact that any house for $420K within an hour of DC is a total shitbox. And the person doesn't belong posting in this thread. They (you) have a completely different life and priorities that don't have anything to do with OP's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t live in the DMV area please stop responding to financial threads. There is no way anyone with kids in this area can find a habitable house for $420k. Stop trying to fool everyone.

+1. It’s so unhelpful. It’s like us telling you to find a house for 50k.

I'm the 420k house poster. I live less than a mile outside the beltway in Moco and I consider my house habitable

How many years ago did you buy it, and how much have you invested in it since?

I bought in 2018

Only a few thousand so far

The schools have pretty good reputations btw (for the schools snobs)

So where is your SFH located? Get enough DCUM interest and your value will sky rocket.

For 420K, it's located nowhere near wear most of us would consider living.

well -- you sure are making a broad statement. And perhaps you didn't get the value of the schools you paid so much for -- the correct spelling is "where" not "wear."

Even if autocorrect didn't screw it up, doesn't change the fact that any house for $420K within an hour of DC is a total shitbox. And the person doesn't belong posting in this thread. They (you) have a completely different life and priorities that don't have anything to do with OP's.

NP here, but you sound completely angry with life.