Reply to Afford $1.8M on 300K?

Forum Index » Real Estate

Reply to "Afford $1.8M on 300K?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

It sounds like you are not actually “maxing out” the 529s.  How much do you have saved in those accounts now, and how old are your kids? How much have you saved for retirement?  And how much do you have in other savings?  I agree it doesn’t make financial sense to dump large amounts of money in a bank account earning no interest.  There are many ways to invest your money.

I also agree with pps that your expenses will not stay the same with a house double the size. Everything is more expensive.  Unless you have a huge amount in savings now it seems risky to halt all savings.  Can you compromise, maybe getting a somewhat bigger house but not so much bigger?  [/quote]

OP here - thanks for the vigorous discussion - it has definitely helped feed the conversation between my spouse and myself about this issue.  I have a couple of clarifying comments for some folks:

1.  I meant $4K per child (so $8K total) for the 529s. We aren't sure whether 529s are the best vehicle for college savings (besides the tax deduction) so we're mum on that at the moment. Putting $ in stocks during a bear market doesn't look enticing either. We're maxed out on ibonds - but that's just $10K per year per person. I don't see many other investment opportunities. The nice thing about real estate is that you get to enjoy the benefits of your investment.  
2.  I think I wasn't clear about the prospective location. We're in fairfax now, but the neighborhoods of interest are not in or around Fairfax City. They are in Vienna/Mclean/Great Falls.
3.  For those who say that we would be the "poorest" in the neighborhoods - I don't see how that aligns with the data.  If you look at census data for neighorhoods in the general area (e.g. https://data.census.gov/cedsci/profile?g=1400000US51059460100 ), you can see median household income of around $200,000. So we would be higher than the median.  We drove through these neighborhoods - I don't think the people driving land rovers and BMWs would be looking down their noses at our Odyssey - this isn't Bugatti territory.
4.  It definitely sounds like a $9K PITI is outside DCUM's comfort level. But maybe $6K PITI is easier to swallow.

[/quote]

I have posted a couple of times already - I said that we stayed in our house and fixed it up and the extra money each month gives us flexibility, etc. It sounds like you have your mind made up and this is what you want to do. I hope that your income is straight salary and not dependent on bonuses bc if you have a bad year, you won’t be able to pay all of your expenses. I also want to add that when you look at the median income for, say, McLean, it also includes all of the condo buildings (I’m assuming). Plus you have to remember that a lot of people bought their homes years ago when prices were much lower and they may retired now but they likely have a lot of assets (which is what allows them to stay in their homes which are now worth a lot of money). I think you are assuming that all of your expenses will stay the same except for your mortgage. Have you checked the property taxes? Utilities? Landscaping costs? Put all that into your budget and see how much you have left over every month. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics