You could buy a home, but it may not be a smart move and for anything reasonably nice you'd have to look in further out suburbs. Probably looking at <300k and you'd need to be able to qualify for an FHA loan.

Look into NACA (Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America) https://www.naca.com/nacaWeb/index_main.aspx

I have a couple of friends that bought their properties through this program and it sounds really good, although there is a lot of legwork in terms of counseling, etc.

My two cents:

I would only consider buying if you have a very realistic idea of what you can afford and resist the temptation to shop for homes that will be too expensive for you. I think 0-5 percent down can be an OK decision, if the loan terms are favorable, but ONLY if you are dead certain you are buying a home that is within your means. The payment should not be a stretch. You must be able to make it even if your income drops a bit, too.

Here's what we did - Husband and I had little savings, but he had a good job. I had just finished my graduate education and gotten a secure job as well. We used a few months of the extra income to save 5 percent down. Then we went onto the market with strict criteria: we would pay a mortgage + tax bill totaling no more per month than our rent. Rationale: we knew we could afford our rent, because we'd been paying it for 3 years on a lower HHI.

We couldn't find much in the area we currenlty lived, but bid on a short sale. Then we decided to consider a different area where we could buy outright on our budget. Found something right away and made an offer. We're very pleased.

Caveat: We were looking at small houses -- condos and rowhouses. If you're family is stopping at four, I humbly suggest that you throw out everything you don't need, invest in good storage, and buy something small. This region is just so expensive, that if you are on any kind of budget you're better off with something very humble that you can afford, near where you want to work or send the kids to school. You can fix the ugly kitchen later.

Most people are more fastidious than we are. Nonetheless, that is my two cents.

If you really love homes that don't fit strictl, sober criteria then I would wait and save. At the very least, you need to save the difference between your rent and the mortgage/tax payments you want to make for a year with no problems.

Call a bank or mortgage company, and ask about their First Time Homebuyers Program. At least you'll know about the qualifications.

Anonymous wrote:Your inability to afford a home is not a moral judgment. It's just numbers. Grow up.

+1

OP: In 1999, DW and I bought our house. Our HHI was about 85K. No kids yet (we were just married), and about 35K in cash (mostly gifts). We were able to buy an older single family home in a good location. Home appreciation would mean that the house could not be bought for what we could afford back then.

But, your limits are probably about 250K assuming your credit is decent. And, today, down payments are required. Largely to reduce the risk to the mortgage holders.

It may be possible to find something in Herndon or Manassas, but nothing in the desireable regions.

OP, where are you moving from? I get the feeling that you don't know much about this area.

Your inability to afford a home is not a moral judgment. It's just numbers. Grow up.

Anonymous wrote:You cannot buy a home, but you can buy a condo. In several years you may be able to sell the condo to buy a home.

.....and when the condo stops suiting your needs you can always do like in did in Chicago...

You cannot buy a home, but you can buy a condo. In several years you may be able to sell the condo to buy a home.

OP, Arlington has free homeownership classes at a community center each month. You are required to do it to get a VHA loan anyway, and they will do one-on-one counseling with you.

Go to one of the classes and then meet with the counselors. The women on this site tend to be very upper class and are not aware of the possibilities out there for those of us who do not make 100K+. I am in your income bracket and you can afford a home. The biggest problem I see is your credit score. You need to fix that first, and you need to rent for a year to take the scope of this area before making such a huge financial commitment.

Good luck to you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who said anything about needing to be close in or in Arlington/McLean or in any sort of "most desirable" area? DH works sorta near Tysons with an easy exit to 495.

If 1000 square feet is working well for us now, I believe we will need no more than 1200 square feet. We would prefer a TH or a neat condo to a run-down SFH. Not new, but maybe 15 years old or so. The idea of old, moldy houses stresses me out.
I'm not trying to buy now, I know that's out and makes no sense anyway. I'm thinking/worried about being able to buy EVER. Or at least within the next five years. DH job is stable and we're pretty sure we will be here.
It just sucks SO MUCH because DH and I lived live poor students early in our marriage to save up a DP, all for naught.

Part of the problem is that there isn't a lot of what we're looking for - smaller, newer, maybe in Fairfax/Burke. Most of the newer stuff being built is big and expensive.

Right, because Tysons is cheap. Fairfax and Burke will be out of your reach also, unless you are ok with a tiny condo. Really, you don't have enough income to support a home purchase.

OP here. I do not want to live anywhere near Tysons - yuck. DH works kind of near to there but not actually in it and does not have to go through the worst part of it. Considering he spent 3 hours a day commuting before this, I don't think a 45-50 min commute is that big of a deal.
1200 square feet will be enough for us for our forever home/condo/TH whatever.
PPs are correct here mostly, we will wait and keep saving, and hope that the evil people who caused the real estate mess will get theirs. However, I don't agree that a 70k income should necessarily preclude a family from owning a very modest home. Most of you already own homes and only want to see the value go up, up, up. High home prices only benefit owners. Wherever there are winners, there are losers. We are paying rent - I disagree that this is throwing money away; we do need a place to live after all. But aside from the issue of the down payment, the way most of you are putting it is that it more expensive to own than to rent a similar home, but then why on earth would anyone buy?

You mean like the financially unprepared and uninformed masses that bought more house than they could afford, thinking that prices would always go up 8% per year and then got bombed out when that changed and they couldn't afford their ridiculous interest-only ARMs? Those evil people?

OP, you come across as immature. You want a house, therefore you think you should have a house. But, you seem to lack the basic understanding of how to afford a house. DH and I saved for 5 years before buying our house. We put 25% down and purchased less than we could afford because because of the unknown.

When we first met, he made about what your DH makes. This was pre-kids and I worked too, so it was a bit different, but still, we had kids and for 2 years my salary didn't even cover daycare. I worked to keep my foot in the door and to put money towards retirement.

Think big picture. Think long term. Don't think about now.

Anonymous wrote:

I will be quiet now, and wait and see what interest rate changes do to all your lovely homes' prices.