Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shocked by how many people think this is ok. We make $380k and our mortgage is $3,900/month and I def would not be comfortable with it being any higher than that.

+1. Same. I blown away by how many people are fine with nearly a $1M loan. WTF? We are at $550HHI and got house for $600K. It's insane to me. I must assume that everyone has a) no student loans; b) inheritance; c) grandparents paying for everything. Otherwise, how do you justify that spending on an house?

Clearly you’re not in the DC area if you bought an entire house for 600k. That doesn’t even get you a rundown old townhouse in many desirable areas around here. People near DC aren’t paying for the house itself. They’re paying for somewhere to live with with good schools, a short commute, and close to amenities. Also, many jobs here (including federal ones) offer student loan repayment so loans aren’t an issue for everyone. In our case, living close-in next to a metro station and walkable to many places means we don’t need a second car (many people don’t have a car at all). So that saves a good bit of money when you’re not also paying car taxes, gas, insurance, repairs, etc. Yes there is a good bit of family help too I’d be willing to bet. But 600k doesn’t even buy a 7,500 sq ft piece of land in my neighborhood, so it’s just really not comparable to wherever you live where a house costs 600k.

We have a $3,700 mortgage on a 250k income and it’s fine because we have no student loans, 1 paid off car, a small house that doesn’t require tons of upkeep expenses. We can walk everywhere, get into the city easily, and our home value has gone up over 200k in 3 years. I would chose this so many times over living in some meddling car dependent area where we have to drive everywhere, need weekly house cleaners to maintain our home, farther from city amenities, and less room for home values to go up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know plenty of 300-400 HHI getting 1.5mn mortgage. This is the price to pay for a livable house in this area in today’s market. Stop shaming people for prioritizing good public schools and a house suitable for two working from home parents and often virtual learning kids

Good luck keeping up with those Joneses.

That's not keeping up with the Joneses at all. 1.5m mortgage is very reasonable, just do the math.

And PP is correct, that is what is needed for a LIVABLE house. You don't want to be making $400k but live in a run down, old, smelly, ugly, small house do you? Plus, real estate is a great investment.

Anonymous wrote:I know plenty of 300-400 HHI getting 1.5mn mortgage. This is the price to pay for a livable house in this area in today’s market. Stop shaming people for prioritizing good public schools and a house suitable for two working from home parents and often virtual learning kids

Good luck keeping up with those Joneses.

New to the thread, OP can 100% comfortably afford this amount and still save plenty, even with kids.

I am shocked at how many people are saying stuff like "I make $500k and only buy 600k houses" etc. Sure, if you live in a super low COL place and 600k can get you a nice house, then why not. But in the DMV, 1.5m house is almost near tear down condition. You have to pay if you want a decent house to live in.

OP, you can easily afford it, this is not a stretch by any means. Sure, you won't be dining at Michelin restaurants very often, or have fancy overseas trips that much, or buy designer items at Tysons Galleria, but you can afford a comfortable life with a 900k mortgage and that HHI.

I know plenty of 300-400 HHI getting 1.5mn mortgage. This is the price to pay for a livable house in this area in today’s market. Stop shaming people for prioritizing good public schools and a house suitable for two working from home parents and often virtual learning kids

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a $1.2M mortgage and around $250k HHI (2 kids no private)

Are you maxing out your kids’ 529s and your 401ks each month?

529s are almost fully funded (don't want to overfund). For 401K, maxing to match level. Don't want too much in those due to restrictions. I'm not saying it's even with the $1.2M but it's manageable.

That's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. You need a remedial course in money management.

It's called planning. I've made assumptions that say I want to fund to 80% of future cost of 4 year private plus grad school (adjusting for things like partial scholarship, in-state school, doesn't go to grad school, etc). Well, if I grossly overfund, I can either:
* Give money to potential grandkids or relatives
* Withdraw it with penalty

So I effectively lose use of the funds if I overfund. For 401k, earliest penalty free withdrawl is 59 1/2. I'm retiring at 53 so 6 1/2 years where I can't use those funds. So I need funds NOT in a retirement account to retire. Sure, get max matching to get 100% return the first year, but don't over fund. If you just max 401K to live large in retirement and don't retire early, there's nothing wrong with that but neither is there something wrong with planning to have funds before 59 1/2.

This is absolutely not true.

Please add facts to support your response.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a $1.2M mortgage and around $250k HHI (2 kids no private)

Are you maxing out your kids’ 529s and your 401ks each month?

529s are almost fully funded (don't want to overfund). For 401K, maxing to match level. Don't want too much in those due to restrictions. I'm not saying it's even with the $1.2M but it's manageable.

That's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. You need a remedial course in money management.

It's called planning. I've made assumptions that say I want to fund to 80% of future cost of 4 year private plus grad school (adjusting for things like partial scholarship, in-state school, doesn't go to grad school, etc). Well, if I grossly overfund, I can either:
* Give money to potential grandkids or relatives
* Withdraw it with penalty

So I effectively lose use of the funds if I overfund. For 401k, earliest penalty free withdrawl is 59 1/2. I'm retiring at 53 so 6 1/2 years where I can't use those funds. So I need funds NOT in a retirement account to retire. Sure, get max matching to get 100% return the first year, but don't over fund. If you just max 401K to live large in retirement and don't retire early, there's nothing wrong with that but neither is there something wrong with planning to have funds before 59 1/2.

With your stats, you must have family money to be contemplating early retirement. Which is fine, but you should include that in your first post, where you’re saying that a 1.2 million mortgage is just fine on a 250k HHI.

Absolutely.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a $1.2M mortgage and around $250k HHI (2 kids no private)

Are you maxing out your kids’ 529s and your 401ks each month?

529s are almost fully funded (don't want to overfund). For 401K, maxing to match level. Don't want too much in those due to restrictions. I'm not saying it's even with the $1.2M but it's manageable.

That's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. You need a remedial course in money management.

It's called planning. I've made assumptions that say I want to fund to 80% of future cost of 4 year private plus grad school (adjusting for things like partial scholarship, in-state school, doesn't go to grad school, etc). Well, if I grossly overfund, I can either:
* Give money to potential grandkids or relatives
* Withdraw it with penalty

So I effectively lose use of the funds if I overfund. For 401k, earliest penalty free withdrawl is 59 1/2. I'm retiring at 53 so 6 1/2 years where I can't use those funds. So I need funds NOT in a retirement account to retire. Sure, get max matching to get 100% return the first year, but don't over fund. If you just max 401K to live large in retirement and don't retire early, there's nothing wrong with that but neither is there something wrong with planning to have funds before 59 1/2.

This is absolutely not true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shocked by how many people think this is ok. We make $380k and our mortgage is $3,900/month and I def would not be comfortable with it being any higher than that.

+1. Same. I blown away by how many people are fine with nearly a $1M loan. WTF? We are at $550HHI and got house for $600K. It's insane to me. I must assume that everyone has a) no student loans; b) inheritance; c) grandparents paying for everything. Otherwise, how do you justify that spending on an house?

Of course it’s grandparents helping. Welcome to dc . Home of enablers

The main thing having an inheritance and no student loans enabled for me was that I didn’t feel the need to go into law or finance or something where I’d have made three or four times what I’m making in media/partner is making in nonprofit health care work. (We used some of the inheritance to pay off my spouse’s student loans.) Not sure why it would have been better for anyone if I hadn’t been “enabled” to do something for a living where the money wasn’t the main consideration.

Anonymous wrote:It's so interesting seeing everyone's threshold and where they place value. We wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole because we place value on other things, so with a 325 HHI, we paid 480 for a TH (TBF-2014 so not current market prices & a 15 year loan), have both cars paid off, max out 401k's and college savings, then spend elsewhere.

As long you're comfortable with the ramifications of what you choose, you do you.

I share your view (actually we are even more conservative, paid $500k with a HHI of $500k at the time, which is now $700k) but we both will probably have a lower HHI as a result.

It's so interesting seeing everyone's threshold and where they place value. We wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole because we place value on other things, so with a 325 HHI, we paid 480 for a TH (TBF-2014 so not current market prices & a 15 year loan), have both cars paid off, max out 401k's and college savings, then spend elsewhere.

As long you're comfortable with the ramifications of what you choose, you do you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shocked by how many people think this is ok. We make $380k and our mortgage is $3,900/month and I def would not be comfortable with it being any higher than that.

+1. Same. I blown away by how many people are fine with nearly a $1M loan. WTF? We are at $550HHI and got house for $600K. It's insane to me. I must assume that everyone has a) no student loans; b) inheritance; c) grandparents paying for everything. Otherwise, how do you justify that spending on an house?

+2

We are at 425k and mortgage is 740k in a low tax state, so PITI is 3800
I def would never go higher than that

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shocked by how many people think this is ok. We make $380k and our mortgage is $3,900/month and I def would not be comfortable with it being any higher than that.

+1. Same. I blown away by how many people are fine with nearly a $1M loan. WTF? We are at $550HHI and got house for $600K. It's insane to me. I must assume that everyone has a) no student loans; b) inheritance; c) grandparents paying for everything. Otherwise, how do you justify that spending on an house?

Of course it’s grandparents helping. Welcome to dc . Home of enablers

Anonymous wrote:Shocked by how many people think this is ok. We make $380k and our mortgage is $3,900/month and I def would not be comfortable with it being any higher than that.

+1. Same. I blown away by how many people are fine with nearly a $1M loan. WTF? We are at $550HHI and got house for $600K. It's insane to me. I must assume that everyone has a) no student loans; b) inheritance; c) grandparents paying for everything. Otherwise, how do you justify that spending on an house?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a $1.2M mortgage and around $250k HHI (2 kids no private)

Are you maxing out your kids’ 529s and your 401ks each month?

529s are almost fully funded (don't want to overfund). For 401K, maxing to match level. Don't want too much in those due to restrictions. I'm not saying it's even with the $1.2M but it's manageable.

That's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. You need a remedial course in money management.

It's called planning. I've made assumptions that say I want to fund to 80% of future cost of 4 year private plus grad school (adjusting for things like partial scholarship, in-state school, doesn't go to grad school, etc). Well, if I grossly overfund, I can either:
* Give money to potential grandkids or relatives
* Withdraw it with penalty

So I effectively lose use of the funds if I overfund. For 401k, earliest penalty free withdrawl is 59 1/2. I'm retiring at 53 so 6 1/2 years where I can't use those funds. So I need funds NOT in a retirement account to retire. Sure, get max matching to get 100% return the first year, but don't over fund. If you just max 401K to live large in retirement and don't retire early, there's nothing wrong with that but neither is there something wrong with planning to have funds before 59 1/2.

With your stats, you must have family money to be contemplating early retirement. Which is fine, but you should include that in your first post, where you’re saying that a 1.2 million mortgage is just fine on a 250k HHI.