Anonymous
Post 02/27/2012 18:56     Subject: Re:Pls come in if your HHI is 350-400K
$900k
PITI is approx $4k
HHI is approx $350k
Public school
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2012 17:20     Subject: Pls come in if your HHI is 350-400K
HHI a bit less than your parameters ($325K) and bought 1.5 million. Mortgage is for about $800K.
However, we have no childcare costs (one parents stays home and kids are in public school). No other debt.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2012 15:58     Subject: Pls come in if your HHI is 350-400K
HHI slightly higher; $1.05 million in close-in Montgomery County.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2012 15:47     Subject: Re:Pls come in if your HHI is 350-400K
HHI is in the 350k range...we are looking at 1.1-1.3m range but our house will be our only debt.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2012 15:37     Subject: Re:Pls come in if your HHI is 350-400K
With a $200K down payment, I'd say your price range should be around $1M, but no more.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2012 15:33     Subject: Re:Pls come in if your HHI is 350-400K
Anonymous wrote:$1,350,000, but we put a lot down so our actual mortgage is somewhere in the neighborhood of $700,000. You also need to factor in whether you plan on sending your kid(s) to private schools or not. We could not afford a larger mortgage and send both of our kids to private school unless our HHI was a decent amount north of $400K. Conversely, if we weren't doing private school, we could have afforded more house.


We would do public school. (this is OP). Great points, thank you.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2012 15:29     Subject: Pls come in if your HHI is 350-400K
Thanks all, this is helpful. Keep the responses coming. Yes, I am not very money-savvy. I am better at making money than thinking about it, I guess, but your responses are helpful. Credit for both me and DH is upper 700's (excellent). Down payment right now only about 200K.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2012 15:08     Subject: Pls come in if your HHI is 350-400K
we don't make as much as you mentioned but our home is worth 2.3 times our HHI. Althugh I guess that technically/according to bank approval we could have bought a home worth 3.8 times our HHI as we bought our home while still owning our condo.

Either way there is no way we could afford or feel comfortable spending what the bank told us we could.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2012 14:59     Subject: Re:Pls come in if your HHI is 350-400K
Anonymous wrote:$900K. Our monthly PITI will be $4600. HHI is $400K.


Quoted PP again. I should add, we are putting down $180K (20%) so total mortgage (1st trust and a HELOC for the 2nd), after closing costs, will be about $750K. As per a PP, we deliberately kept our mortage to just under 1/3 of our monthly take home pay.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2012 14:56     Subject: Re:Pls come in if your HHI is 350-400K
$900K. Our monthly PITI will be $4600. HHI is $400K.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2012 14:18     Subject: Re:Pls come in if your HHI is 350-400K
$1,350,000, but we put a lot down so our actual mortgage is somewhere in the neighborhood of $700,000. You also need to factor in whether you plan on sending your kid(s) to private schools or not. We could not afford a larger mortgage and send both of our kids to private school unless our HHI was a decent amount north of $400K. Conversely, if we weren't doing private school, we could have afforded more house.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2012 14:14     Subject: Re:Pls come in if your HHI is 350-400K
Our HHI is a little higher - $450k - but we bought a $1M home last year. Also own a $800k home that we rent out (breaks even).
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2012 14:10     Subject: Re:Pls come in if your HHI is 350-400K
Never go above 1/2 of your monthly income.


Thankfully, I think no one is giving loans anymore to buyers who need half their monthly income just to pay PITI.

OP, how much of a down payment do you have? And what is your approximate credit score?
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2012 14:07     Subject: Re:Pls come in if your HHI is 350-400K
Anonymous wrote:$1,325,000 in NWDC.


Did OP ask where? You DC people are such snobs.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2012 14:04     Subject: Re:Pls come in if your HHI is 350-400K
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP, wouldn't you get better information if you asked people what is their mortgage payment? Someone could have bought a house for $1M, but made a 50% downpayment, so they're only carrying a $500k mortgage.


No, I'm specifically interested in list price. What prices should we be looking at? 500K mortgage would be misleading and would tell me to look at houses in the 500K list price range. Significantly less than I can probably afford. Sounds like, from answers thus far, that between 700-1M is our range. I'd love to hear more responses though.


Not really. If you have a $1M downpayment, go ahead and buy a $2M house with that income. What you want to think about is not how much the house costs, but what is a comfortable mortgage to carry with that income. The price of the house will be whatever you can afford with $X downpayment and $X monthly payment.

A good rule of thumb is to make sure that your monthly payment is about 1/3 of your monthly take home pay. We do this and it allows us to have a lot of extra cash for other things/savings left per month. If you want/need less extra, then up the mortgage that you take. Never go above 1/2 of your monthly income.


This. OP, you don't sound very money savvy. Maybe you should let a financial advisor - not a lender - give you guidance on how much house you can afford.