Absolutely...That's why I said 800-900 for them rather than high 900s.

Anonymous wrote:I'd say 800-900k is a good target for you. We have gross income of about $250k give or take depending on annual bonus...not including my stock comp. We just bought in upper 900s, and that was about as high as I wanted to go.

your comp is 25% higher than OP's, that makes a dif

...And I would not put all 300k down if you go in that range. No need...keep the cash when you can still finance at 4%.

I'd say 800-900k is a good target for you. We have gross income of about $250k give or take depending on annual bonus...not including my stock comp. We just bought in upper 900s, and that was about as high as I wanted to go.

Anonymous wrote:I think you could easily do a $1m-$1.1m house.

you have no idea what you're talking about. HHI $200K with 2 young kids. easily? you sir or madam should not comment on things you clearly don't understand

My income is $250K and I'd never go over $500K mortgage. You should also make sure you have 6 months emergency savings (non-retirement), and are you putting away money for your kids college? I max out my 401K, save for 2 kids college and other things (vacation, reno's). If I went over $500K mortgage I couldn't do that. So with $50K less HHI I don't think its wise to go above $800K. You will be house poor unless you aren't truly saving (for college/retirement) and I hope you really have emergency $. Don't drop $300K on DP if you don"t.

I would feel comfortable going into the $900s. It depends on how much work the house needs. We bought a house for $700k but immediately put in $100k worth of work before we moved in - refinish floors, new kitchen and 2.5 bathrooms, paint, widen entryways, etc. If we spent our max, we wouldn't have been able to afford the renovations and in our area, Bethesda, even an $850-900k house can need renovations inside.

I don't know how y'all are so comfortable with so much debt!

How old are you OP? no one ever asks that. How much money do you like to have for saving for college or going on vacations or getting a new car?

Be smart. Live smaller. It's not about what you CAN afford, it's about what you want to afford.

I can afford to go to Ruth's Cris steakhouse every night... but I don't want to go to Ruth's Cris b/c I am quite happy eating at home most nights and going to Noodles and Co sometimes and using my $$ for other things.

Less debt = more options = more freedom = more fun.

Anonymous wrote:I think you could easily do a $1m-$1.1m house.

That's nuts.

800 max

We have similar stats, 230K HHI, and we weren't comfortable taking out more than 500K in mortgage amount. So that would be right at 800K purchase price. We wanted a little breathing room for improvements (actually did a slightly lower down payment to hold back money for updates), tax increases, investing, etc.

Why 300k down?

Anonymous wrote:I think you could easily do a $1m-$1.1m house.

Um? No.

I'd probably max at $850k

I am not particularly conservative about these things--we bought our house with zero down payment back in the go-go days of 2006--but I wouldn't buy a million dollar house if I were you. You can get a cute place in a fine school district for around 800-850k; that's what I'd look at.

I think you could easily do a $1m-$1.1m house.

HHI: 200k (1 fed, 1 beltway contractor, both telecommute a few days/week)
Downpayment: 300k
No student loan, car or CC debt. We rent out our condo in Alexandria for an amount that just covers PITI + condo fees, but there's $100k remaining on that mortgage. It's in a location and condition that we could rent it out for another 20 years with minimal issues though, so we're happy to let it ride.

Children aged 5 and 7, but we're coming home from being overseas for 10 years so no idea what that entails for raising kids in DC area. We expect kids to be our second largest spending category after the house, from education, occupational therapies, extracurriculars, camps, tutors, etc. Preference is for strong well-funded public school district over private school (probably can't afford it but also we went to good public schools).

Online I get ranges from $650k to $1.2 million. Any tips?