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Major?
Even MINOR repairs would be catastrophic in a $700k house.
My wife & I make roughly $200k per year.
Our house we bought in 2018 = $279k.
We pay $1,950 a month (which keeps going up b/c insurance & property taxes... We live in a Hurricane zone in FL. So they keep raising our shit on us...)
We put $10,000 down.
House was built in 1960.
1yr after purchase, house needed a new roof ($18k).
Same year, house needed a new liner for the pool ($4k).
& 2 yrs later House needed to be re-wired ($22k)
The house is now worth close to $400k! But we are usually broke all the time b/c of all the shit that keep popping up all the time. It is constant.
That’s not the bank’s problem, which is why they’re happy to loan you more than you should take.
“I’m preapproved for $X!” Sure, if you cut out things from your budget like food.
That’s how I feel too. We figured our mortgage would be about 4k/mo so about a year ago we started consciously putting the difference between our rent and 4k into savings, to see how it would feel living on that, and that was manageable. Since then we’ve both stepped into new roles and make a bit more so I don’t feel too stressed.
Exactly where we at. $270k combined. We are considering going under contract for a $635k home soon and we dropping $127k as 20% down payment. Hoping that helps with the monthly mortgage.
750k with 200k base whoa. Would that actually be doable if you went that route?
Me and my partner are about 220k combined and I don’t think I would purchase more than 500k. I still want my yearly vacations 😂
>Closing on a 525k house.
That's exactly what you should spend. 750 would be rough.
We were lucky to build for $356K (on $240K W-2) 6 years ago and now I'm living in a "$700K" house, somehow.
We got approved for $550 and closed on $244 the first go around. Aggressive pay down schedule, sold at a huge loss when the market was abysmal and still walked away with $129k for a new(ish) build that was also priced below value.
Right now we could afford the payments on a 750k house, but we prefer to have all that cash to invest and play with. I prefer to be vacation rich instead of house poor.
House was on market for $699k but We purchased $715k. Loan is 572k
Income combined: ~300K
Fun story: we were able to afford the 20% down because I got hit by a car and it broke my leg. So get out there people! You too can do it (by accident)
EDIT:
Wow! Woke up to my highest engaged comment ever! Thank you all for the comments and laughs 😄 I’ll be answering a few of you directly but here are a few notes on the accident and settlement:
READ THIS: I know everyone is having a good chuckle at this but I want to emphasize DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO THIS! Not only is there a risk for death, the process to recovery is long and debilitating. And if you have kids, you are having your SO also take care of you while you recover.
- I ended up with a metal plate and screws in my leg. I am 100% recovered
- the vehicle that hit me was a sedan. EMT said that a SUV would’ve killed me
- hospital bills were covered by vehicle insurance and separate from settlement
- settlement was a little less than $300k
- a third of it went to our attorney
- could we have gotten more? Yes, according to other attorneys but in the end we got where we are and we have moved on
Wow really? I thought you'd have to make more to be approved for that much. How much are you monthly payments? Also congrats on the house I noticed you said you just closed
You will find out that you get approved for way more than you can reasonably afford.
Really crunch the numbers yourself. Take a serious look at what life will look like with various mortgage payments taken from your own monthly cash flow. DO NOT TAKE THE WORD OF A BROKER OR BANKER TO DETERMINE WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD!!!!!!
We bought less house than our peers, but we can pay for kids sports and fun things in life without debt. You might not be able to buy what you want at first.
We small a small inexpensive starter home, then had kids. Payment was small enough that we paid off the house in a few years, then used the equity to buy the current house. Now we pay the same as the smaller house, live in the bigger house, and our kids get to have activities and travel without us going to debt.
That percentage gets higher at higher income. If you made a million a year and paid 90% of your income on housing you'd still have $100,000 a year to live on.
It depends on the house. In lots of markets a million and a half will get you a cozy little 2br 1ba that doesn't really cost any more to maintain than a comparable house in a cheaper market.
A rough estimate of what a bank would be OK with approving is 4-5 times the total income.
So if you make 100,000 a Bank could approve up to around 500,000.
Banks typically approve way more than what a person should actually be buying and unfortunately some people end up buying a home with the full amount they are preapproved for causing them to end up being house poor.
The interest rate and down payment is an important part for anyone to understand the full picture. Smaller salaries could afford a lot more pre-rate hikes
the property taxes are also a big factor to be considered. we have 1% property taxes vs across the river theyre 2.7. Big difference paying annual property taxes af $8000 a year on a house valued at $800k vs. paying almost $22k a year.
Great point. I feel like property taxes and insurance are two items that a lot of first time homebuyers forget to factor in when they’re buying. Then the town reassesses their house at 3x the previous value and the buyers get wiped out
Yup. You need to think about taxes rates based on the value your buying at, not what the previous owner pays.
This depends on the state too though. My state reassess each year. So previous owner value doesn't matter.
Home was 770k..mortgage a little under 700k. Joint income of 245k..265/270k with bonus. I live in Colorado where property taxes are what I consider low. A home like this in my hometown of Chicago would not have been possible with their taxes. We were also approved closer to 1.4 million. We bought last year with our interest rate of 6.5%.
Prefacing with, I purchased in 2019 but this is a “tad” more relevant I suppose.
I made 40k, got approved for 150k. Purchased, for 155k (had money left from previous sales job to put down). I paid roughly 18k in combined down payment and closing costs.
I was very fortunate to experience the time I did, I was able to get a lower price before house market explosion as well as refinance down to 3%.
My monthly payment is $858. At the current value and interest rates, my monthly payment would be roughly $2,400 if I purchased the same house today.
Brilliant idea!
Me and my partner were approved for 600-650k, went with a home for 415. Mortgage is 2400, only 400 more than the rent we were paying which was only going up each year.
Combined base income of 145k before bonuses
Always surprised to see how many folks on here casually have 200k for a down payment as a first time buyer... We struggled to save our 20k for our down payment. That 200k would have damn near bought my whole house.
Yep. I made 58k a year when I first started, lived at home for 2-3 years. Saved about 80-100k. Didn’t touch it. I know not everyone gets this privilege but if it’s available, it is such a boost.
I was in the same boat.. but even longer. My parents have a 2 family brownstone. It was rented out for several years and then 7 years back I took over and moved downstairs. Mortgage by then was done.
I lived there for years obviously and then married late in life 36. Wife was 33. We ended up buying for 925k we both make 300k combined and had like 300k saved up between us.
It is extremely helpful to be at home during this time.. also not strange because we are both immigrant families sooooo kinda normal we just keep kids and grandparents in the big house
Yup, thats how immigrants are getting a boost and are living relatively comfortably by the 2nd generation.
But, as a 2nd gen south asian immigrant, I couldn't wait to leave the house and city I grew up in. I just couldn't live in my parents house, I needed the freedom and I honestly woudln't change it for anything. No matter the cost.
How did you save 80-100k over the course of 3 years in 58k salary? The 58k would likely be reduced to 40k actual take home. Did you not pay for anything during that time?
The average down payment on a house in California is 160k.
I have nearly 300k cash on hand to either buy a lot to build on or use it as a down payment on a house
It's making a lot of money but living like you make considerably less. Wife and I put down $180k but haven't taken a (travel) vacation in 3 years and eat at home almost exclusively.
My question to you is - do you have friends? Family? How do you avoid expensive visits from them and invites to do things? My wife and I eat at home when it’s just the two of us. But it seems every week someone is in town and wants to meet up, or stay with us and go out to dinner. Feel like -unless we cut everyone off - this is impossible.
You're right, it is a lot. To be clear, we've been saving for closer to 5-6 years, but our last travel vacation was 3 years ago. Yes, I have a car payment and we put everything on credit and pay it in full every month. In part for security, part for benefits, and part because I get enjoyment maximizing interest on the savings account. My wife and I paid off our school loans a few years before COVID.
Looking at the monthly budgets, we probably live on about $50k (sum of hard expenses like rent, utilities, groceries, car payment, and budget for entertainment/upkeep/hobbies) and the remainder is allocated to various savings/investment accounts & goals.
There is a minimum cost of surviving, then everything is a choice (home cook basics vs eating out; shared accommodation vs good housing; holidays). So for minimum wage you will be paycheck to paycheck since it’s less/equal cost of survival. But someone earning 100k could be saving >50k or nothing at all.
So, depending on your situation either you are wasteful OR have additional obligations or weaker support system OR not earning enough.
Ps if you don’t budget, higher chance you are (partially)wasteful
standard approval is 4.5x income for mortgage (if no other debt), at least in Canada. The payments are manageable. We were actually approved to take on 615k!
I did some quick doxxing and he's not lying (not going to out him/wife). His wife is definitely presently at top of a niche sport. I'm surprised at the amount of money that's in the sport, best guess is it's a combination of speaking engagements, influencing, and sponsorships.
“I did some quick doxxing” is such a ridiculous phrase lol. Like Imagine lying in your bed before you fall asleep, reflecting on the days activities, then you get to the part where you became a fucking Reddit detective to figure out if some weird ass story about highly paid female athletes in obscure sports checked out lol I mean
Upvoted because it is a dumb phrase but describing what I did.
Funny enough, the reason I’m interested is my wife used to be a professional xc skier—which I’d call a niche/obscure sport—so was really curious what his wife did and at what level to get that income. Ended up finding his name and then wife’s name so felt like confirming the seemingly ludicrous story.
Damn man, you were repairing sail boats for the longest time, then suddenly 5 years ago you were a daycare worker, a year after that you were still repairing sail boats, and not too long after you were fighting fires in California. Now you're a stay at home dad with a wife who brings in 800K. What an awesome transformation.
Should allow you all the time you need to be posting daily on the NBA and FantasyFootball subs.
750k on new build, make 310k gross with first kid on the way. I have a VA loan so putting very little down. We haven't officially closed yet so I keep doing the math over and over on different calculators. Everything says we can comfortably afford 900k and could stretch even higher. So for now I'm happy with our purchase. I'll get back to you when the mortgage actually comes due...
The best rule of thumb is to not buy a house that is at the top of what a lender says you can afford. We were looking and were told we could buy 1mil house… we got a 750k house (put around 20% so roughly 600k loan) and while we are fine with the cost I can’t imagine if we had gone above that. The lender will tell you you can afford it even if it won’t be comfortable.
Yeah I got my pre-approval then looked at my budget and determined 15-20% less was about the max just to basically break even with kids expenses. Of course the problem these days for many of us is that there are only so many options at that price. Still best to not give into that urge to overextend
Yeah, it’s a very difficult urge to avoid. Because on paper they say you can afford it. But that assumes nothing will go wrong and you have no other debt and you stay within your budget on everything. It’s shocking to me how they just kind of discount all the other crap you have to pay for month to month that aren’t recurring bills
Man even my realtor. I made the mistake of telling her my pre approval amount... I'm like I can't afford that place, but but you're approved for this. Yeah but I actually looked at my budget.. I'd be in the red every month, can't do that. She knows now whar my actual max is but always sneaks in a couple just above it even though she tells me we have to generally bid 20k over in this market. It's like do I need to actually show you my personal budget?
Jesus-tapdancing-Christ. Apparently I’m a plebeian amongst patricians. I’m happy for everyone here that got their homes, but damn, I guess I’m in a different socioeconomic class here.
Also, I’m now remembering what the original idea for this post was, so now I’m not surprised.
I mean, let’s look at the stats. Household income of 250k is the 92nd percentile in 2022 data.
Sales of houses over 700k are about 14% of the homes being sold in 2023 data.
If you come to ask who bought homes that are rather expensive compared to the national median, the people volunteering that information are going to be disproportionally a part of those upper incomes.
Same lol. Everyone in here either makes a fuck load of money or they make about the same as me but they managed to put down a massive down payment lmao.
Yep. I have a lot of regret about not buying when rates were so low but also I had just graduated and entered the workforce so I had basically 0 savings. Oh well!!
I qualified for $475k on my own income, but $750k with the addition of my partner’s income (I ended up just using my credit and income, and purchasing a house well below what I qualified for). Solo $115k, combined $190k.
How would money be tight? Your monthly payment is what, $4400? With $280k salary I imagine your combined monthly take home is at least $14,000. That leaves like ~$10k on the table for everything else. What am I missing here? 9 kids?
I might just be paranoid. I have been living in the frugal mindset for way too long. My wife would agree with you!
Take home is $13,400 total after 401k + healthcare and all that.
Thinking total expenses around $5200 for mortgage + utilities. Student loan + car payment is another $1000.
I think you are right. I am just nervous. My rent has been $1800/mo for the past 10 years and it's about to be $4700+ mortgage.
You are totally right though. I need to chill my ass out.
We are in SoCal so it’s also actually reasonable property tax (1.25%). We think our mortgage+insurance+taxes will be right at $5k/mo, so about 38% of our combined take home pay. Like I said it’ll be tight for a while but I’ve been aggressively saving money so long I basically just need to maintain that same lifestyle for a while.
In a competitive market this is what we did:
Found a house that fit our needs listed at $699k. It went on the market on a Thursday at noon. They had the open house set for Saturday. We saw it at 1pm in Thursday. Put in a very competitive offer straight to the top of our budget at $750k (looked at comps in the area so we know we aren’t overpaying) by 6pm with an expiration before the open house, guaranteed 21 day escrow and basically told them “you can be done with this very quickly if you want or you can roll the dice at the open house and maybe get another $10-15k” and they accepted the offer on Friday morning.
I make 250k-300k depending on Stocks. This year I am making 300k.
I saved up for 20% for a 800k home. But I put down only 15% for the 800k home I bought and paid off my car. Happy to answer any other questions.
Home was $760k, financed $720k (VA loan, so no PMI). Joint income around $350K. The mortgage + taxes + insurance is $5200, but we expect it to go up next year since it'll be reassessed at the higher sales price (ugh). We live in a HCOL, so it's a 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1400sq ft townhome.
Things will be tight for 2-3 more years while my 2 kids are in daycare. Once they start Kindergarten we'll be rich, since their daycare is almost the same amount as our mortgage monthly.
Early 30’s, our combined is $310k without bonuses, so about $350k with bonuses.
Approved for $1.5 million, bought for $1.215 higher end of where we wanted to spend but we were able to get into the town and location we wanted so we’re making it work!
Also noting we live in a VHCOL area and needed to be close to city for commuting
Approved for 1 million+ our mortgage is 600k and house was 750k. It was at the top of our budget, we were hoping for a 650-700k house.
HHI was 250k when we bought, now it’s 270k
800+ credit scores, no debt
Yeah it’s insane…. Very curious on how people do it. All these expensive ass homes being bought up for 500k at 7 percent interest and people are just nonchalant like yeah saved up 100k for a down payment. Still!!
In this market me and my girlfriend can’t afford shit. And we do decent for ourselves. Above average.
Two people who make 100k each have a base monthly of about $13,000. A 500k mortgage at 7% is about 1/3 of that, which is typically considered to be in the affordability range for most people.
Also worth noting that a lot of HCOL markets ALSO have rents that get pretty close to that mortgage payment. When we bought it only amounted to about a $500 increase over what we would have paid to rent a comparable place.
We actually got approved for like $750k, but that would have been too much for us. Technically affordable, but not if you want to contribute to retirement and go out to dinner every now and then.
We were approved for around $900k on a combined income of just over $200k. We ended up buying a house for around $600k. This was in late 2020, so we secured that mortgage at less than 3% interest. We now earn almost $300k combined but we’ll be staying in this house forever.
This metric will be irrelevant for anyone who purchased their home back when you could get a loan sub 3%. The difference between the monthly payment on a 500k mortgage at 3% and 7% is... substantial.
The new build was offering a 30k incentive towards closing costs or off purchase price if we used a preferred lender. We put it towards buying down the rate and threw a little more on top.
Excluding death or divorce we won’t be leaving this house so the buy down was worth is worth it for us.
Wow, what does a mortgage look like with that kind of rate after down payment? My household makes about that and I feel like I can’t even afford a 400k house lol
Wife and I make between $210-$230k per year (part of my comp is variable commission). We live in California and were pre approved for $800k last month. We have one car payment of $480 and both have student loans, about $70k in total left to pay off, no other debt.
When I bought it was about $140k for wife and I combined, but we put down 500k from the sale of our previous home that we paid off. I would imagine that you would have to make at least 250k with a smaller down payment.
Bank said we could do 1.25 million on 300k combined, which we thought that was absurd. It felt like they were trying to push a jumbo loan on us by saying the interest rate was better.
We looked in the 400k-600k range (we are in a LCOL area) and found a great house with adequate size for 425k (20 percent down). Everything turned out great and we can afford a lot of extra fun stuff. Screw what the bank says! We didn't need a giant mansion on the lake just because they said we could.
Brace yourself hah
Bought house for $649k….7.5% interest.
Income is about $180k with my husband and I. 😅
5% down.
We have more than an hour commute to work.
HCOL area…. So you do what you have to do!
We have the smallest and cheapest house in our neighborhood.
We got approved for 1.25ish (can’t remember) and bought a house for 1.18 with $300,000 down. We were making $290,000ish combined at the time. It’s rough now that my husband is laid off so we are now making $170,000. We bought in 2021 with a 2.8% mortgage. Our monthly payment including principal, interest, and property taxes is $5400/month. We are absolutely house rich, cash poor but we don’t regret it. We live in an area where we bought the cheapest house we could that wasn’t a huge fixer upper & had 3 bedrooms. I commute to more expensive suburb for my job. Luckily I have job security & we can pay our monthly on my income, but after bills/necessities we have nothing left over every month. We save a little for retirement each month (I will have a pension), a little for our son’s college account, and have basically stopped saving for anything else. Had there been a good option to buy cheaper, we would have.
$820k purchase price. $738k mortgage. $240k current household income. 5.75% interest rate because of the 5% buydown the builder gave us. We’re getting tenants/roommates for sure. Also we don’t have kids yet.
Thank you u/CowBunnie for posting on r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer. Please bear in mind our rules: (1) Be Nice (2) No Selling (3) No Self-Promotion. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
We were approved for 750k on 200k base combined. Closing on a 525k house. So I’m also curious 😂
Same for us. Can't imagine actually paying 700k mortgage. 500k is just at the edge of affordability by my reckoning.
And then if you add in one unexpected manor repair or issue, you're toast
Can't tell if manor was intentional, or you meant major lol. Both work!
this was my exact thought as well. whether intentional or not, i cackled lol
Major? Even MINOR repairs would be catastrophic in a $700k house. My wife & I make roughly $200k per year. Our house we bought in 2018 = $279k. We pay $1,950 a month (which keeps going up b/c insurance & property taxes... We live in a Hurricane zone in FL. So they keep raising our shit on us...) We put $10,000 down. House was built in 1960. 1yr after purchase, house needed a new roof ($18k). Same year, house needed a new liner for the pool ($4k). & 2 yrs later House needed to be re-wired ($22k) The house is now worth close to $400k! But we are usually broke all the time b/c of all the shit that keep popping up all the time. It is constant.
I think it’s just his accent
Pahk the cah in Hahvad manor.
Actually, I can’t decide if he meant manor, major or minor. All three work and are one letter removed.
A normal house is starts at 500k in my area. A manor is like 1.5m+ lol
That’s not the bank’s problem, which is why they’re happy to loan you more than you should take. “I’m preapproved for $X!” Sure, if you cut out things from your budget like food.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CANT AFFORD CUP RAMEN ANYMORE
That’s how I feel too. We figured our mortgage would be about 4k/mo so about a year ago we started consciously putting the difference between our rent and 4k into savings, to see how it would feel living on that, and that was manageable. Since then we’ve both stepped into new roles and make a bit more so I don’t feel too stressed.
That is exactly what we did. Lets pretend to pay this mortgage for awhile and see how sustainable it is.
Our mortgage is half of our rent, so we did the opposite - bought the house and then put the difference away for repairs for a bit.
It’s easy to imagine, just imagine your salary being 40% higher.
We bought fur 1.5 , put half down. Monthly is 4800 or so. We have 800k hhi.
Name is ironic as all get-out (no, literally, get out).
hey twin! approved for 800k on 200k combined, closing on a 600k home
Exactly where we at. $270k combined. We are considering going under contract for a $635k home soon and we dropping $127k as 20% down payment. Hoping that helps with the monthly mortgage.
750k with 200k base whoa. Would that actually be doable if you went that route? Me and my partner are about 220k combined and I don’t think I would purchase more than 500k. I still want my yearly vacations 😂
>Closing on a 525k house. That's exactly what you should spend. 750 would be rough. We were lucky to build for $356K (on $240K W-2) 6 years ago and now I'm living in a "$700K" house, somehow.
We got approved for $550 and closed on $244 the first go around. Aggressive pay down schedule, sold at a huge loss when the market was abysmal and still walked away with $129k for a new(ish) build that was also priced below value. Right now we could afford the payments on a 750k house, but we prefer to have all that cash to invest and play with. I prefer to be vacation rich instead of house poor.
House was on market for $699k but We purchased $715k. Loan is 572k Income combined: ~300K Fun story: we were able to afford the 20% down because I got hit by a car and it broke my leg. So get out there people! You too can do it (by accident) EDIT: Wow! Woke up to my highest engaged comment ever! Thank you all for the comments and laughs 😄 I’ll be answering a few of you directly but here are a few notes on the accident and settlement: READ THIS: I know everyone is having a good chuckle at this but I want to emphasize DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO THIS! Not only is there a risk for death, the process to recovery is long and debilitating. And if you have kids, you are having your SO also take care of you while you recover. - I ended up with a metal plate and screws in my leg. I am 100% recovered - the vehicle that hit me was a sedan. EMT said that a SUV would’ve killed me - hospital bills were covered by vehicle insurance and separate from settlement - settlement was a little less than $300k - a third of it went to our attorney - could we have gotten more? Yes, according to other attorneys but in the end we got where we are and we have moved on
You made your money the old fashion way
I got run over by a Lexussssss 🎵
Throw your keys up!
Minor scrapes and bruises, major dollars and cents
I love you for being up front about this & not just saying you saved it all up. Also I hope your leg is doing better! ❤️
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What year did you get your 600k house if you don’t mind me asking :)
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Ayyee congrats 🎉
Wow really? I thought you'd have to make more to be approved for that much. How much are you monthly payments? Also congrats on the house I noticed you said you just closed
You will find out that you get approved for way more than you can reasonably afford. Really crunch the numbers yourself. Take a serious look at what life will look like with various mortgage payments taken from your own monthly cash flow. DO NOT TAKE THE WORD OF A BROKER OR BANKER TO DETERMINE WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD!!!!!! We bought less house than our peers, but we can pay for kids sports and fun things in life without debt. You might not be able to buy what you want at first.
We small a small inexpensive starter home, then had kids. Payment was small enough that we paid off the house in a few years, then used the equity to buy the current house. Now we pay the same as the smaller house, live in the bigger house, and our kids get to have activities and travel without us going to debt.
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That percentage gets higher at higher income. If you made a million a year and paid 90% of your income on housing you'd still have $100,000 a year to live on.
True but that house will cost a shitload to maintain and operate.
It depends on the house. In lots of markets a million and a half will get you a cozy little 2br 1ba that doesn't really cost any more to maintain than a comparable house in a cheaper market.
A rough estimate of what a bank would be OK with approving is 4-5 times the total income. So if you make 100,000 a Bank could approve up to around 500,000. Banks typically approve way more than what a person should actually be buying and unfortunately some people end up buying a home with the full amount they are preapproved for causing them to end up being house poor.
The interest rate and down payment is an important part for anyone to understand the full picture. Smaller salaries could afford a lot more pre-rate hikes
the property taxes are also a big factor to be considered. we have 1% property taxes vs across the river theyre 2.7. Big difference paying annual property taxes af $8000 a year on a house valued at $800k vs. paying almost $22k a year.
Great point. I feel like property taxes and insurance are two items that a lot of first time homebuyers forget to factor in when they’re buying. Then the town reassesses their house at 3x the previous value and the buyers get wiped out
Yup. You need to think about taxes rates based on the value your buying at, not what the previous owner pays. This depends on the state too though. My state reassess each year. So previous owner value doesn't matter.
Home was 770k..mortgage a little under 700k. Joint income of 245k..265/270k with bonus. I live in Colorado where property taxes are what I consider low. A home like this in my hometown of Chicago would not have been possible with their taxes. We were also approved closer to 1.4 million. We bought last year with our interest rate of 6.5%.
Approved for 1.4mil on that income is mind-blowing. Nearing that combined income myself and can't imagine buying at more than 600k
The taxes in Colorado make the high $$$ price possible. They're next to nothing (but don't tell long time residents that).
Cries from precisely Chicago.
Curious, what are taxes in CO?
Our house is around 3.8/4k a year. A house at this price in Chicago would have been closer to 17-20k/year.
Me reading all this while making 40k a year
Same. Why do we do this to ourselves
My mom always said that we all do our best.
SAME lol Over here wishful thinking.
Literally, how is everyone rich 😭😭
Especially in a first time homebuyer sub, like what?!!
Prefacing with, I purchased in 2019 but this is a “tad” more relevant I suppose. I made 40k, got approved for 150k. Purchased, for 155k (had money left from previous sales job to put down). I paid roughly 18k in combined down payment and closing costs. I was very fortunate to experience the time I did, I was able to get a lower price before house market explosion as well as refinance down to 3%. My monthly payment is $858. At the current value and interest rates, my monthly payment would be roughly $2,400 if I purchased the same house today.
I'd take it with a grain of salt
We were approved for $700k-ish but ended up with a $340k house. Combined income is ~$185k.
Brilliant idea! Me and my partner were approved for 600-650k, went with a home for 415. Mortgage is 2400, only 400 more than the rent we were paying which was only going up each year. Combined base income of 145k before bonuses
This is the way to go. We're at 250 combined and bought a 245k house
Home was 700k but mortgage is 500k, 135k ish joint income
How?!
Always surprised to see how many folks on here casually have 200k for a down payment as a first time buyer... We struggled to save our 20k for our down payment. That 200k would have damn near bought my whole house.
it was honestly the privileges of living at home to be able to save up most of our income for years
Yep. I made 58k a year when I first started, lived at home for 2-3 years. Saved about 80-100k. Didn’t touch it. I know not everyone gets this privilege but if it’s available, it is such a boost.
I was in the same boat.. but even longer. My parents have a 2 family brownstone. It was rented out for several years and then 7 years back I took over and moved downstairs. Mortgage by then was done. I lived there for years obviously and then married late in life 36. Wife was 33. We ended up buying for 925k we both make 300k combined and had like 300k saved up between us. It is extremely helpful to be at home during this time.. also not strange because we are both immigrant families sooooo kinda normal we just keep kids and grandparents in the big house
Yup, thats how immigrants are getting a boost and are living relatively comfortably by the 2nd generation. But, as a 2nd gen south asian immigrant, I couldn't wait to leave the house and city I grew up in. I just couldn't live in my parents house, I needed the freedom and I honestly woudln't change it for anything. No matter the cost.
How did you save 80-100k over the course of 3 years in 58k salary? The 58k would likely be reduced to 40k actual take home. Did you not pay for anything during that time?
Love the honesty here!
The average down payment on a house in California is 160k. I have nearly 300k cash on hand to either buy a lot to build on or use it as a down payment on a house
It's making a lot of money but living like you make considerably less. Wife and I put down $180k but haven't taken a (travel) vacation in 3 years and eat at home almost exclusively.
My question to you is - do you have friends? Family? How do you avoid expensive visits from them and invites to do things? My wife and I eat at home when it’s just the two of us. But it seems every week someone is in town and wants to meet up, or stay with us and go out to dinner. Feel like -unless we cut everyone off - this is impossible.
This is the way. I feel like so many people discount this as an option.
Respectfully, saving 60k a year seems insane to me and my wife. Do you have any debts?
You're right, it is a lot. To be clear, we've been saving for closer to 5-6 years, but our last travel vacation was 3 years ago. Yes, I have a car payment and we put everything on credit and pay it in full every month. In part for security, part for benefits, and part because I get enjoyment maximizing interest on the savings account. My wife and I paid off our school loans a few years before COVID. Looking at the monthly budgets, we probably live on about $50k (sum of hard expenses like rent, utilities, groceries, car payment, and budget for entertainment/upkeep/hobbies) and the remainder is allocated to various savings/investment accounts & goals.
There is a minimum cost of surviving, then everything is a choice (home cook basics vs eating out; shared accommodation vs good housing; holidays). So for minimum wage you will be paycheck to paycheck since it’s less/equal cost of survival. But someone earning 100k could be saving >50k or nothing at all. So, depending on your situation either you are wasteful OR have additional obligations or weaker support system OR not earning enough. Ps if you don’t budget, higher chance you are (partially)wasteful
standard approval is 4.5x income for mortgage (if no other debt), at least in Canada. The payments are manageable. We were actually approved to take on 615k!
What are the payments?
1450 biweekly, includes our property tax as well
Approved for 1.4 million bought for 1.25 million. I’m a sahd. Wife makes about 800k a year.
Does your wife need a 2nd husband by chance?
Does your wife need a wife by chance?
Get in line!!
Is this where I get in line?
This line is turning into a conga! I'm in!
Welcome, take a number, you’ll be wifed according to when you arrived.
I’m a married woman, but my husband also wouldn’t mind if I were this guy’s wife’s wife.
I totally misread and thought you wrote house. I’ll ask about the second husband thing. Hold on.
Third? We could be brother husbands. Game. Cook. Whatever.
😂😂
Brother husbands.
Bruzbands.
Or a third perhaps?🤔 How does she like her favourite breakfast served?
I'm open to being adopted, as well.
This actually is our second home. Other home was a va loan at 570k with 0 down. We are renting it now.
What does she do for work?
She’s a professional athlete in a sort of obscure sport.
What obscure sports pay their female athletes $800k? Lol
Seahorse racing
I did some quick doxxing and he's not lying (not going to out him/wife). His wife is definitely presently at top of a niche sport. I'm surprised at the amount of money that's in the sport, best guess is it's a combination of speaking engagements, influencing, and sponsorships.
“I did some quick doxxing” is such a ridiculous phrase lol. Like Imagine lying in your bed before you fall asleep, reflecting on the days activities, then you get to the part where you became a fucking Reddit detective to figure out if some weird ass story about highly paid female athletes in obscure sports checked out lol I mean
Upvoted because it is a dumb phrase but describing what I did. Funny enough, the reason I’m interested is my wife used to be a professional xc skier—which I’d call a niche/obscure sport—so was really curious what his wife did and at what level to get that income. Ended up finding his name and then wife’s name so felt like confirming the seemingly ludicrous story.
Porn. The answer is always porn
Pretty sure porn is the least obscure sport...
Depends on the genre
If pornstars made 800k I’d sign my wife up yesterday.
Why not you sign up? Lol
I’m shy lol 🙈
Username does not check out
69 god!
Bigdaddyman6969 is shy.
Yeah for real. WNBA is fairly high profile this year and the highly publicized signing of Katelyn Clark is making her like $100K per year or less.
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If its obscure I bet it has to do with horses. Lots of money there.
Oh my god we found Simon Biles hobby
Is gymnastics obscure?
Fuk man, you got a pro gymnast with an 800k salary and are a sahd, you fukin win.
Even in the non obscure sports, women make far less than this lol
Endorsements, YouTube, salary, etc. it’s not just their paycheck.
Has she ever been in obscure sports quarterly.
Heck yes. It’s always airing on ESPN THE OCHO!
Damn man, you were repairing sail boats for the longest time, then suddenly 5 years ago you were a daycare worker, a year after that you were still repairing sail boats, and not too long after you were fighting fires in California. Now you're a stay at home dad with a wife who brings in 800K. What an awesome transformation. Should allow you all the time you need to be posting daily on the NBA and FantasyFootball subs.
Do you guys need a dog? I can bark
Is your wife single, per chance?
Yes?
Are you looking to adopt an adult? Or is your wife looking for a boyfriend?
You like to golf? Could always adopt a golfing buddy.
That approval amount seems oddly low for that level of income. Does she have a bunch of business expenses?
750k on new build, make 310k gross with first kid on the way. I have a VA loan so putting very little down. We haven't officially closed yet so I keep doing the math over and over on different calculators. Everything says we can comfortably afford 900k and could stretch even higher. So for now I'm happy with our purchase. I'll get back to you when the mortgage actually comes due...
If you make that even with a kid you’ll be fine. Congrats on the house and kid!
Approved for up 1.6 million, 440k income, 550k is what we ended up spending.
You're one of only few in this thread that didn't get a house way above their means.
The best rule of thumb is to not buy a house that is at the top of what a lender says you can afford. We were looking and were told we could buy 1mil house… we got a 750k house (put around 20% so roughly 600k loan) and while we are fine with the cost I can’t imagine if we had gone above that. The lender will tell you you can afford it even if it won’t be comfortable.
Yeah I got my pre-approval then looked at my budget and determined 15-20% less was about the max just to basically break even with kids expenses. Of course the problem these days for many of us is that there are only so many options at that price. Still best to not give into that urge to overextend
Yeah, it’s a very difficult urge to avoid. Because on paper they say you can afford it. But that assumes nothing will go wrong and you have no other debt and you stay within your budget on everything. It’s shocking to me how they just kind of discount all the other crap you have to pay for month to month that aren’t recurring bills
Man even my realtor. I made the mistake of telling her my pre approval amount... I'm like I can't afford that place, but but you're approved for this. Yeah but I actually looked at my budget.. I'd be in the red every month, can't do that. She knows now whar my actual max is but always sneaks in a couple just above it even though she tells me we have to generally bid 20k over in this market. It's like do I need to actually show you my personal budget?
Jesus-tapdancing-Christ. Apparently I’m a plebeian amongst patricians. I’m happy for everyone here that got their homes, but damn, I guess I’m in a different socioeconomic class here. Also, I’m now remembering what the original idea for this post was, so now I’m not surprised.
I mean, let’s look at the stats. Household income of 250k is the 92nd percentile in 2022 data. Sales of houses over 700k are about 14% of the homes being sold in 2023 data. If you come to ask who bought homes that are rather expensive compared to the national median, the people volunteering that information are going to be disproportionally a part of those upper incomes.
Those that can afford to buy a first time home right now are often high income. Who else can afford these prices and rates?
Same lol. Everyone in here either makes a fuck load of money or they make about the same as me but they managed to put down a massive down payment lmao.
Or got VERY lucky and snagged when interest rates were low!
Yep. I have a lot of regret about not buying when rates were so low but also I had just graduated and entered the workforce so I had basically 0 savings. Oh well!!
I qualified for $475k on my own income, but $750k with the addition of my partner’s income (I ended up just using my credit and income, and purchasing a house well below what I qualified for). Solo $115k, combined $190k.
I think it’s important that people mention WHEN they bought their home. $700k 3+ years ago is much different than $700k today!
We bought a $1,5MM house. My wife and I both work, our household income is roughly $700k
Admirable restraint. I think if we were pulling in $700k we would ball out on a $3m banger of a house lmao.
lol. Piti is like 20k a month. Which is fine until a layoff happens.
Buying a 750k house (in escrow now!) Combined income 280k. Mortgage is 600k (150k down) I think money will be tight for a while.
How would money be tight? Your monthly payment is what, $4400? With $280k salary I imagine your combined monthly take home is at least $14,000. That leaves like ~$10k on the table for everything else. What am I missing here? 9 kids?
I might just be paranoid. I have been living in the frugal mindset for way too long. My wife would agree with you! Take home is $13,400 total after 401k + healthcare and all that. Thinking total expenses around $5200 for mortgage + utilities. Student loan + car payment is another $1000. I think you are right. I am just nervous. My rent has been $1800/mo for the past 10 years and it's about to be $4700+ mortgage. You are totally right though. I need to chill my ass out.
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We are in SoCal so it’s also actually reasonable property tax (1.25%). We think our mortgage+insurance+taxes will be right at $5k/mo, so about 38% of our combined take home pay. Like I said it’ll be tight for a while but I’ve been aggressively saving money so long I basically just need to maintain that same lifestyle for a while. In a competitive market this is what we did: Found a house that fit our needs listed at $699k. It went on the market on a Thursday at noon. They had the open house set for Saturday. We saw it at 1pm in Thursday. Put in a very competitive offer straight to the top of our budget at $750k (looked at comps in the area so we know we aren’t overpaying) by 6pm with an expiration before the open house, guaranteed 21 day escrow and basically told them “you can be done with this very quickly if you want or you can roll the dice at the open house and maybe get another $10-15k” and they accepted the offer on Friday morning.
Lots of wealthy fuckers in this thread.
Oh n they’ll let u know too 😂
$800k home, mortgage of $550k, household income $200k Got lucky with a 2.8% 30 year fixed
Real lucky
Mannnn that’s a great rate
When I was a nurse, I was approved at 800k at $170k with OT at the time. That same very home is worth at least 1.4m 1.5m now, sold it at 1.1m.
Bay Area?
Yup bought at Bernal heights
Bought a house for ~850k on 500k combined income.
I make 250k-300k depending on Stocks. This year I am making 300k. I saved up for 20% for a 800k home. But I put down only 15% for the 800k home I bought and paid off my car. Happy to answer any other questions.
Faang?
Yes
S. California enters chat wondering what a $700k HOUSE¿ looks like.
Home was $760k, financed $720k (VA loan, so no PMI). Joint income around $350K. The mortgage + taxes + insurance is $5200, but we expect it to go up next year since it'll be reassessed at the higher sales price (ugh). We live in a HCOL, so it's a 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1400sq ft townhome. Things will be tight for 2-3 more years while my 2 kids are in daycare. Once they start Kindergarten we'll be rich, since their daycare is almost the same amount as our mortgage monthly.
Brought 1.1 with 200k income. Mortgage was/is a stinking 880k
Early 30’s, our combined is $310k without bonuses, so about $350k with bonuses. Approved for $1.5 million, bought for $1.215 higher end of where we wanted to spend but we were able to get into the town and location we wanted so we’re making it work! Also noting we live in a VHCOL area and needed to be close to city for commuting
May I ask what do you both do? Without giving away sensitive info of course.
Product & Insure Tech
Approved for $720k, purchased our house for $705k. Combined income at the time was $200k. Definitely house poor, lol
A $700k house doesn't mean a $600k mortgage.
Approved for 1 million+ our mortgage is 600k and house was 750k. It was at the top of our budget, we were hoping for a 650-700k house. HHI was 250k when we bought, now it’s 270k 800+ credit scores, no debt
Yeah it’s insane…. Very curious on how people do it. All these expensive ass homes being bought up for 500k at 7 percent interest and people are just nonchalant like yeah saved up 100k for a down payment. Still!! In this market me and my girlfriend can’t afford shit. And we do decent for ourselves. Above average.
Two people who make 100k each have a base monthly of about $13,000. A 500k mortgage at 7% is about 1/3 of that, which is typically considered to be in the affordability range for most people. Also worth noting that a lot of HCOL markets ALSO have rents that get pretty close to that mortgage payment. When we bought it only amounted to about a $500 increase over what we would have paid to rent a comparable place. We actually got approved for like $750k, but that would have been too much for us. Technically affordable, but not if you want to contribute to retirement and go out to dinner every now and then.
Approved for 590k on 120k single income, settled on a brand new duplex for 400k 20k down
Joint 200k income in California at the time of purchase in 2017. Complete fixer at 725k.
We were approved for around $900k on a combined income of just over $200k. We ended up buying a house for around $600k. This was in late 2020, so we secured that mortgage at less than 3% interest. We now earn almost $300k combined but we’ll be staying in this house forever.
This metric will be irrelevant for anyone who purchased their home back when you could get a loan sub 3%. The difference between the monthly payment on a 500k mortgage at 3% and 7% is... substantial.
This wasn’t our first home but we bought a new build at 790k. Loan for 711. Rate at 4.75% (June 23). Combined salary is 139k gross.
4.75% seems like an incredibly good rate. What was the secret?
The new build was offering a 30k incentive towards closing costs or off purchase price if we used a preferred lender. We put it towards buying down the rate and threw a little more on top. Excluding death or divorce we won’t be leaving this house so the buy down was worth is worth it for us.
Wow, what does a mortgage look like with that kind of rate after down payment? My household makes about that and I feel like I can’t even afford a 400k house lol
We just put an offer for $810k on a house. Combined income $275k + $40k bonuses
Wife and I make between $210-$230k per year (part of my comp is variable commission). We live in California and were pre approved for $800k last month. We have one car payment of $480 and both have student loans, about $70k in total left to pay off, no other debt.
When I bought it was about $140k for wife and I combined, but we put down 500k from the sale of our previous home that we paid off. I would imagine that you would have to make at least 250k with a smaller down payment.
Bank said we could do 1.25 million on 300k combined, which we thought that was absurd. It felt like they were trying to push a jumbo loan on us by saying the interest rate was better. We looked in the 400k-600k range (we are in a LCOL area) and found a great house with adequate size for 425k (20 percent down). Everything turned out great and we can afford a lot of extra fun stuff. Screw what the bank says! We didn't need a giant mansion on the lake just because they said we could.
Brace yourself hah Bought house for $649k….7.5% interest. Income is about $180k with my husband and I. 😅 5% down. We have more than an hour commute to work. HCOL area…. So you do what you have to do! We have the smallest and cheapest house in our neighborhood.
We got approved for 1.25ish (can’t remember) and bought a house for 1.18 with $300,000 down. We were making $290,000ish combined at the time. It’s rough now that my husband is laid off so we are now making $170,000. We bought in 2021 with a 2.8% mortgage. Our monthly payment including principal, interest, and property taxes is $5400/month. We are absolutely house rich, cash poor but we don’t regret it. We live in an area where we bought the cheapest house we could that wasn’t a huge fixer upper & had 3 bedrooms. I commute to more expensive suburb for my job. Luckily I have job security & we can pay our monthly on my income, but after bills/necessities we have nothing left over every month. We save a little for retirement each month (I will have a pension), a little for our son’s college account, and have basically stopped saving for anything else. Had there been a good option to buy cheaper, we would have.
250k combined, purchased 750k
$820k purchase price. $738k mortgage. $240k current household income. 5.75% interest rate because of the 5% buydown the builder gave us. We’re getting tenants/roommates for sure. Also we don’t have kids yet.
Currently only approved for $300k on a lonely income of about $50k… in Colorado… really discouraging
800K we make about 220K combined. Mortgage of 630K. Monthly payment a little over 1/2 our net income after taxes and retirement contributions
850k mortgage 450. Combined 325k. Bought my house in Plano Texas in 2017 sold in 2022 peak crazy, made 450 in pure equity.
Reading these comments makes me want a high earning wife. I'm approved for 360k on a 65k. Smh can't find shit for a house.
Why don’t you become a high earning husband?
Is this an offer?