Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So are people guessing large downpayment or mammoth mortgage?

If they put 20% on 1.6mil that's 320k. You realize that's like 2-3 years of bonuses if he's 6-7th yr+ associate right? Sorry you're jealous.

Sure assuming taxes magically don’t exist it’s 2-3 years

Uh you realize some people invest their bonuses right? You realize the market has been up significantly since 2013 including 2 years of 20% gains, right? Do you assume everyone holds their bonuses in 0.1% savings accounts?

Of course it is.

We invested early in certain stocks and they have done well.
That plus the fact that we scrimped and saved for 10 years before landing the nice house in the good school district.

Ofcourse its possible. We could have done it, but now we’re in the burbs so need to spend that kind of money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So are people guessing large downpayment or mammoth mortgage?

If they put 20% on 1.6mil that's 320k. You realize that's like 2-3 years of bonuses if he's 6-7th yr+ associate right? Sorry you're jealous.

Sure assuming taxes magically don’t exist it’s 2-3 years

Anonymous wrote:I'm assuming a senior associate at a large firm and on partner earns similar to my non-lawyer DH did in his late 30s (solidly middle six figures...usually on the high side of that range). I'm not SAH, but I did not earn a lot until after we had bought our current home. We could have afforded $1.6M in our early 30s with our savings that were based mostly on DH's salary.

The reason that family money matters here, though, is debt. We do not have any educational debt, though most lawyers do. This seems less doable with law school debt.

No Senior is making high six figures. That partner from a top boutique who just went into gov disclosed a $650k salary.

When we earned around $300k, we bought a $600k with 40% down. We paid off the house within 3 years. Our HHI increased over the years to over a $1M, and I wanted to buy a $1.4M house. But DH balked because the property tax on the $1.4M house was around $26k while the current house was around $8k. And here we are today still in the first house!

I'm assuming a senior associate at a large firm and on partner earns similar to my non-lawyer DH did in his late 30s (solidly middle six figures...usually on the high side of that range). I'm not SAH, but I did not earn a lot until after we had bought our current home. We could have afforded $1.6M in our early 30s with our savings that were based mostly on DH's salary.

The reason that family money matters here, though, is debt. We do not have any educational debt, though most lawyers do. This seems less doable with law school debt.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So are people guessing large downpayment or mammoth mortgage?

If they put 20% on 1.6mil that's 320k. You realize that's like 2-3 years of bonuses if he's 6-7th yr+ associate right? Sorry you're jealous.

I don’t consider 20% a large downpayment. I would consider $1.28 a large mortgage. I would consider a large downpayment 50%+, making the mortgage “normal” range of $700-800k.

You may not (I don't either honestly) BUT you realize that there are PLENTY of buyers out there including people with $$$ jobs putting down 5-10%. So in the industry, 20% is considered large.

IDK how they sleep at night. Sure he's making great money NOW but partnership is never a guarantee no matter how much of a hot shot you are, no matter how much they tell you they love you and absolutely will promote you. Hell my firm is notorious for making people EQUITY partner and then pushing them out in 5-10 yrs if the executive committee partners aren't pleased; to say nothing of the tons of "stellar" seniors who are pushed out yearly. A 1.3mil mortgage when it could happen next yr or in 3 yrs that you're looking at a 150k inhouse or gov't gig?? Why not wait to buy that kind of home until after partnership if you're a senior associate already!?

Worst case scenario is they sell their house, take the substantial amount of equity 5-10 years later and buy a less expensive housenpossibly in another city.

I’d be more worried about the SAH wife than the large mortgage. Means he’s only saving for retirement on his salary and doesn’t have another income to fall back on if things go south. That’s scary no matter how Small or large the mortgage is.

We live in a HCOL area where $1.6M barely gets you into the market if you want at least a 3/2, so plenty of people buy at that price point with 20% down and the rest in a mortgage at ~$300K HHI. I am guessing late 30s in Big Law makes at least that much, though I could be wrong. People at lower HHIs also often buy at that price point if they have enough equity in a home they're selling to bulk up the downpayment.

A lot of it is about expectations of how much income you're spending on housing vs. other things. It is the reality in our area that most people spend the lion's share of their income on housing, so people just grin and bear it. They'd be spending it to rent too, so might as well be paying down a mortgage.

Years of savings plus the equity/gain on their prior place could give them a down payment of half the price and they could certainly borrow the rest.

Op, get a house cleaner! But I hear you. We are higher income at around 600-650k and I have some house envy around the 2m-2.5m range. I just can’t see it given I’d be worried about the sustainability of this income long term. I think this person in a 1.6m house is extremely overextended without some family help.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So are people guessing large downpayment or mammoth mortgage?

If they put 20% on 1.6mil that's 320k. You realize that's like 2-3 years of bonuses if he's 6-7th yr+ associate right? Sorry you're jealous.

I don’t consider 20% a large downpayment. I would consider $1.28 a large mortgage. I would consider a large downpayment 50%+, making the mortgage “normal” range of $700-800k.

You may not (I don't either honestly) BUT you realize that there are PLENTY of buyers out there including people with $$$ jobs putting down 5-10%. So in the industry, 20% is considered large.

IDK how they sleep at night. Sure he's making great money NOW but partnership is never a guarantee no matter how much of a hot shot you are, no matter how much they tell you they love you and absolutely will promote you. Hell my firm is notorious for making people EQUITY partner and then pushing them out in 5-10 yrs if the executive committee partners aren't pleased; to say nothing of the tons of "stellar" seniors who are pushed out yearly. A 1.3mil mortgage when it could happen next yr or in 3 yrs that you're looking at a 150k inhouse or gov't gig?? Why not wait to buy that kind of home until after partnership if you're a senior associate already!?

Anonymous wrote:Never count people’s money.

so dumb. This entire forum is full of people comparing themselves to others. Rare is the person who doesn’t.

Never count people’s money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So are people guessing large downpayment or mammoth mortgage?

If they put 20% on 1.6mil that's 320k. You realize that's like 2-3 years of bonuses if he's 6-7th yr+ associate right? Sorry you're jealous.

I don’t consider 20% a large downpayment. I would consider $1.28 a large mortgage. I would consider a large downpayment 50%+, making the mortgage “normal” range of $700-800k.