Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you plan to move in 5 years, is there a reason you aren't interested in renting anymore? It's a perfectly valid choice for all the reasons you listed. If you don't have college savings I'm not sure I'd want to tie up all your liquid funds in a down payment and mortgage bills.

I just want a freaking house and I know we can afford one.

DH wants an AMAZING house if we buy at all. I want any house that's fine.

I like our neighborhood and house and everything quite well, and it's a good financial spot to be in, but it's just feels emotionally wrong to me. Which is not rational I know. I also feel a little embarrassed about renting, but I'm not sure why when we make so much and are saving so much.

Don't be embarrassed about renting! You would not believe how many Realtors are out there acting like they know everything about homeownership and they are renting. If it works for you, it works for you!

I wouldn't do the amazing house, I'm with you. First of all, you have a goal which is to move in 5-6 years. Don't buy something that may derail that goal, i.e. we love this house and now we're worried about leaving. But get something that checks most of the boxes so you can settle down in the way you envision. Second, you don't want to stretch for something when you've been living so comfortably for all these years. You will hate feeling like 3x your money goes to the house after the past.

To answer the first question about affordability, you'll likely get approved for up to 4x your income. With one child, you can do a 3 bedroom house without issue most likely and stay below $1M.

At the beginning of this madness, people were doing Adjustable Rates again, with terms that it won't change for 5 years. Now the ARMS aren't as good, so just shop around and see what you can get for an interest rate, and lock it in.

OP we're around the same income $420K, with today's rates no way would I want to stretch to $1.2M. We actually purchased a home in 2020 for $1.2M - our monthly is $5100 (clearly at a much lower rate). Today that same payment is $7400. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night, but that's me and you're asking for feedback.

For my personal comfort, I would need to stay under $950K.

OP here. This thread is unexpectedly encouraging.

I suppose the best course is to get our ducks in a row, keep saving, and if the right house comes along we are primed to jump. If not, we're in a good place. I feel better.

900K probably won’t get you an amazing house. Knowing you plan to move, I think now is a bad time to buy. Given that your reasons for buying are emotional rather than practical, why not spend a little bit of money on a therapist to work through the emotions and save the money you would spend on closing costs, home maintenance, high monthly mortgage payments compared to your current rent costs, etc and call it a day. Houses are money pits in general, and it often only seems worth it if you plan to stay. Buying isn’t right for everyone and you seem like a prime example of that fact.

Anonymous wrote:You can afford it so why not just make you and your husband both happy?

Because they are buying due to social pressure. They are in an excellent financial position while renting, yet are planning to buy in a high interest environment with a plan to move. Don’t buy unless you actually want to be landlords. Don’t become landlords to justify buying.

You can afford it so why not just make you and your husband both happy?

Anonymous wrote:If you plan to move in 5 years, is there a reason you aren't interested in renting anymore? It's a perfectly valid choice for all the reasons you listed. If you don't have college savings I'm not sure I'd want to tie up all your liquid funds in a down payment and mortgage bills.

I just want a freaking house and I know we can afford one.

DH wants an AMAZING house if we buy at all. I want any house that's fine.

I like our neighborhood and house and everything quite well, and it's a good financial spot to be in, but it's just feels emotionally wrong to me. Which is not rational I know. I also feel a little embarrassed about renting, but I'm not sure why when we make so much and are saving so much.

If you plan to move in 5 years, is there a reason you aren't interested in renting anymore? It's a perfectly valid choice for all the reasons you listed. If you don't have college savings I'm not sure I'd want to tie up all your liquid funds in a down payment and mortgage bills.

Money you save can be invested and used for kid's elite education, your travel, hobbies, old age. If you quickly pay off your house, you'll be debt free.

Anonymous wrote:We are in our early 40s with a middle schooler and have never bought a house (not interested in opinions on that).

We make 400K and have no debt at all (nor will we incur any before college, because we have no childcare expenses, no student loans, no consumer debt, and we buy reasonable cars in cash). We have fairly good savings but have not set aside money specifically for college (about 750K and about 350 of that is liquid for a DP). We have moved quite a bit and started making a lot of money in the past 5 years and one of our salaries keeps rising.

We were hoping to buy a 1.2M house but now with rates what they are I feel like we shouldn't go above 900K. DH thinks we can stretch and refinance when rates come down (but will they?).

What monthly payment would you be comfortable with?

You don't need a big house, a big payment or a big property tax bill. Your kid will leave for college in 5-6 years making you empty nesters. I say buy a small home or condo in a fun area where you can live for long time and have no worries about mortgage or huge property tax/maintenance burden.

Anonymous wrote:If there are only 3 of you I would think 900k can get you a nice house in a nice neighborhood? You’ll be empty nesters in 5/6 years assuming your kid goes to college or whatever. I’d save money on a house and use extra funds for travel and other things personally.

The thing is in 5-6 years we want to move somewhere else. So we'd either rent our house to someone else and buy a 2nd or sell it. Part of why we have not bought is because we've moved a lot, part is because we have had a goal to get to another specific place but haven't been able to do that and now we want stability for DC, and part is because we've never paid more than $2500 in rent for some really amazing houses with great schools (which makes taxes and closing costs and interest and improvements hard to stomach if it gives up flexibility). So our upcoming purchase is not a forever home, most likely. Also why I lean toward 900K.

1.8M

If there are only 3 of you I would think 900k can get you a nice house in a nice neighborhood? You’ll be empty nesters in 5/6 years assuming your kid goes to college or whatever. I’d save money on a house and use extra funds for travel and other things personally.

You can afford a 1.2 house

We are in our early 40s with a middle schooler and have never bought a house (not interested in opinions on that).

We make 400K and have no debt at all (nor will we incur any before college, because we have no childcare expenses, no student loans, no consumer debt, and we buy reasonable cars in cash). We have fairly good savings but have not set aside money specifically for college (about 750K and about 350 of that is liquid for a DP). We have moved quite a bit and started making a lot of money in the past 5 years and one of our salaries keeps rising.

We were hoping to buy a 1.2M house but now with rates what they are I feel like we shouldn't go above 900K. DH thinks we can stretch and refinance when rates come down (but will they?).

What monthly payment would you be comfortable with?