Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you ever owned a home before? Are you first time buyers? Home ownership requires a lot of maintenance costs. It's not so certain from month to month like renting.

This part is really true. So far this year I have spent 3k on tree trimming, 10k on appliances, 4k on plumbing work … these were planned and necessary expenses too, not even surprises or remodeling for sport. And there are always surprises.

Yep we spent $10k on AC and water heater, $1k plumbing, and now a surprise foundation expense (almost $20k). Home ownership is no joke!

OP This forum tends to be really conservative because it skews older and a lot of people here bought pre-2020. Technically if you make $300K and the mortgage is $950K you're still around 3x your HHI which is relatively close to the recommended 2.5x.

At the end of the day, only you know what you can spend/afford. We make over double (with a ton of salary ceiling left) and have a $785K mortgage and that feels comfortable to us, but we work in tech so we wanted to buy closer to 1 income. If we made our HHI as doctors where it's almost impossible to get fired, we'd probably have taken a much larger mortgage.

However, we also have friends who make $250K buying $1.25M houses with 5% down because their job security is so good and they have large inheritances from their great great great aunt or whomever coming their way and mom and dad are paying for their kids childcare and private school tuition so saving isn't a factor for them.

So it really depends on your goals / personal situation /etc.

Anonymous wrote:Have you ever owned a home before? Are you first time buyers? Home ownership requires a lot of maintenance costs. It's not so certain from month to month like renting.

This part is really true. So far this year I have spent 3k on tree trimming, 10k on appliances, 4k on plumbing work … these were planned and necessary expenses too, not even surprises or remodeling for sport. And there are always surprises.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI is $17,500 and PITI would be $7,700 (monthly for both).

No. Hell no.

agree. isn't there a guideline that says what percentage of your money should go to housing.

this seems too high.

Anonymous wrote:Holy heck, no. That is a huge mortgage at that income with today's rates.

and I highly doubt rates will ever go below 4 again in our lifetime. We be lucky to see in the mid fives again.

BTW you should be buying a house on one income not two. You have double the chance of a layoff. I made 360K when I bought my house and I put down a 60 percent down payment to get mortgage down to 575K the conforming limit at time and got a fixed 30 year at my bank where I got a low rate. I was worried I lose my job which guess what 3 years later I did in Covid and was out of work almost one year. I still have house but cant imagine I still would if I had such a large mortgage. I would have also had a hard time refinancing when unemployed even though rates were superlow.

Plus you did not say age. At 55 a 30 year mortgage is done at 85 at it is done at 65 Most people do not stay in home that long.

But my stupid sister bought her dream home and took a huge mortgage at 45 and by 57 her husband lost job and she got cancer and they had to sell in order to retire. Was house she wanted to die in. The live in a much smaller house in a now

They thought two incomes and such be safe He partially lost his job as he was juggling so much with her cancer and three kids and a commute he was first to go when layoffs happen

He is partially why I put down 60 percent and got a fixed rate and bought points I dont want to lose my house in retirement.

No, we bought at 900k with a 700k mortgage at that approximate salary. And we also have a 3.125% mortgage so our monthly payment with insurance and taxes is 4200 and our take home (on 340k) is about 15k, because we are maxing retirement (including over 50 catch up contributions to make up for low earning years in our 30s), college savings, insurance costs, etc. I'd say that we definitely have enough for all kinds of nice things--expensive sleep away camp, some travel, can cover unexpected bills, emergencies--but things would be much tighter if our mortgage was 7k.

I would also wonder what 'extremely stable' jobs really are--even a short period of job loss could happen, or illness, etc. Whatever you do, ensure that you have term life insurance as well. Plus, there are just all kinds of expenses we didn't think about when we bought our house: landscaping and tree removal (a tree fell on our house last year); increased insurance costs; a drainage issue that is going to cost us $$$; general upkeep and repair of systems, etc. We will need a new car in the next few years, and college costs continue to rise.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is your take home so high? Do you have a full pension and/or not contribute to your 401K?

It’s actually $16,800. We don’t pay for health insurance premiums so that helps!

Our takehome is just above $15k on $360k - are you not saving for retirement at all or something? You need to list out all of your expenses and income, because you seem to be starting from a faulty set of assumptions and trying to trick yourself into spending more than you can afford on a house.

Have you ever owned a home before? Are you first time buyers? Home ownership requires a lot of maintenance costs. It's not so certain from month to month like renting.

We have a similar HHI (slightly higher) and about the same take home, at these rates we're only considering taking a $600K max mortgage.

No way. We have PITIFUL at $3200 and make just over $300k and feel like we barely enjoy things. We do save aggressively for retirement and college and just started to travel more with ES kids.

Holy heck, no. That is a huge mortgage at that income with today's rates.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is your take home so high? Do you have a full pension and/or not contribute to your 401K?

It’s actually $16,800. We don’t pay for health insurance premiums so that helps!

Wondering the same as others re: your take home. Our HHI is $350K and also don't pay health insurance premiums. We do pay into a pension but not much. That, plus 6% 401K allocation each and our take home is closer to $11K per month.

We have a 500K mortgage but with interest rates at half of what they are today. It's comfortable but with two kids in ES I wouldn't want to stretch much more.

Anonymous wrote:What jobs are very secure? Healthcare?

For the record, I wouldn’t. Your take home is way too high, you should be saving more. But whatever, I’m not you.

This. Are you maxing 401ks?

What jobs are very secure? Healthcare?

For the record, I wouldn’t. Your take home is way too high, you should be saving more. But whatever, I’m not you.