Our HHI is just over $300k and a $1.8M mortgage sounds nuts. What are your other expenses? Do your kids go to public school?

That is crazy to me. You are thinking about cutting your savings so you can invest in real estate. Why not secure your retirement and then move somewhere that isn't Fairfax?

We’re a bit above 400 hhi and thinking about those payments gives me anziety

It sounds bananas to me but you know your situation better.

Insane. And where in Fairfax are houses that much?

That sounds crazy to me but I’ve learned there are a lot of crazy people in around

If you’re saving $6k/mo plus have equity in your current home, could you come up with a bigger down payment?

Also, would you perhaps consider a less expensive home? There are a lot of nice neighborhoods that you can buy into for $1m instead of $2m

Anonymous wrote:Do you have kids (529s suggest yes)? How old? How old are you? What have you actually saved?

Seems totally nuts to me.

If they have $6k going to non-retirement and 529 savings, their costs must be incredibly low. If that’s the case, this seems doable.

We are at $265k and top of our budget this spring was $900k. Double that is completely insane.

Anonymous wrote:Go for it. pretty soon that house will be worth $3M. Imagine the gain.

Our HHI is about $280K, and our PITI is $2300/month. That leaves us a lot to save. At on point, when our HHI was $350kish, our PITI was $7000, and after maxing out retirement and college savings, other expenses, our disposable income wasn't as high as I would've liked.

Also, the larger the house the more $ to upkeep and heat and cool. So, keep that in mind.

admittedly, I am risk averse, so I would not have $9000/mo mortgage on HHI of $300k, and I'm in my 50s, so I am looking forward to having no mortgage.

this post does not seem entirely serious to me. i have never seen a 6:1 recommendation (although that is maybe about the maximum it is possible to get approved for). why do you need 4000 square feet? imagine the upkeep and furniture expenses etc. that will go with that.

Do you have kids (529s suggest yes)? How old? How old are you? What have you actually saved?

Seems totally nuts to me.

Go for it. pretty soon that house will be worth $3M. Imagine the gain.

I have the same HHI and I can’t fathom $9k a month in mortgage. But if you run the numbers and it works for you (your other monthly costs must be really low), then I guess it’s ok.

We have a 300Kish HHI and am living in a 2000sqft SFH in Fairfax. We think the house is a bit small - ideally, we'd like to be in 4000sqft. Homes that size in our neighborhoods of interest are running $1.6-$2M. With a 20% down payment, I'm calculating monthly PITI payments of around $9K. We're paying $3.5K right now and are saving $6K+ per month, so just from basic accounting, it looks doable. But the 6:1 house price to income ratio seems crazy and out of line with other folks opinions.

Other threads on DCUM are suggesting house price around $1M for our HHI. But we're doing that right now and have $6K left over every month going into measly 1% savings accounts ( we have maxed out 401K, HSA, 529 plans, so this is after all those things). We are debt free (besides current mortgage)

What do you guys think? Should we upgrade and basically dump all of our extra savings into a bigger house? Or is that too much house for our income?