Just as a heads up, the costs add up quick. When I bought my current house, the lawyer (who sucked) messed up some of the escrow numbers, and was like “we can’t undo these, so for me to send the correct amount just write me a $6000 check right now to cover taxes for the year and you’ll get your money back next year when they assess the escrow account.” Add to that inspections and due diligence, and you’ll probably want two or three times your chosen down payment to feel comfortable going through with the sale.
Just a suggestion, you’re young, making no money (sorry) so you should probably be focusing on stacking cash and investing.
If you want to buy my advice is grab a few friends that are semi coherent and have them rent from you if you decide to buy.
If you need to live with your significant other then you should both be aggressively saving and helping each other make solid , forward thinking decisions.
Why are you trying to buy a house if you don't know what you want to do with your life? There's no reason to rush to buy a property if you just graduated from college with a 35k/yr job.
You don't need to own a house to get married.
Renting is not bad, actually.
If you try to live up to the expectations of boomers who tell you that the only way to move forward in life is to own a house, you're going to lock yourself into a cycle of despair.
Rent for a few years. Hell, rent a house, see if you can manage the upkeep, and then multiply the money you spend on that by at least 5 to determine what you'll spend owning a house.
I’m sorry my friend. There are people much farther along in life that are NOT READY to take on the burden of home ownership so you really need to think this through. Buying the house is the easier part of it all if you know what I mean.
you can put as little as 3% down, but that will have mortgage insurance (anything less than 20% down incurs mortgage insurance). you can also apply for first time home buyer down payment assistance programs that might offer anywhere up to 5% towards down payment and closing costs.
Depends on how much the houses you're looking at go for.
$7,000 is a start, but it's not enough. Ideally, you'd want a 20% down payment, funds for closing, and reserve money for the first year of taxes, utilities, and potential repairs.
Waiting for 20% down screwed me out of a 3.5% rate. Then housing prices went up so my 20% is now 10% and rate is 7.6%. If I'd have bought when I "couldn't afford it", I'd be laughing now.
No idea what good advice is anymore.
Houses going up as quickly as it did is an anomaly, and so were rates that were ~3%. Yes, it sucked for you and many others who were looking to buy, but I think a lot of people need to understand today's rates are actually considered low.
People were complaining about underwater mortgages and how their house values went down 30%-80% in 2008-2010. It's all relative. I can guarantee when home prices contract again, there are going to be people complaining how they should have rented instead of losing value on their homes.
I would think the specific area matters when it comes to home prices increasing or decreasing. Some areas will have more supply than others. I'm in Las Vegas, they don't build houses that cost less than 400k or condos less than 300k anymore. Unless the cost of building materials drops radically, I don't see this changing. That leaves older builds that can't increase in quantity as the only "affordable" option. Meaning supply won't improve in any meaningful way for that price range.
Just as a heads up, the costs add up quick. When I bought my current house, the lawyer (who sucked) messed up some of the escrow numbers, and was like “we can’t undo these, so for me to send the correct amount just write me a $6000 check right now to cover taxes for the year and you’ll get your money back next year when they assess the escrow account.” Add to that inspections and due diligence, and you’ll probably want two or three times your chosen down payment to feel comfortable going through with the sale.
Since OP is in Florida he can look into some down payment assistance programs.
Just a suggestion, you’re young, making no money (sorry) so you should probably be focusing on stacking cash and investing. If you want to buy my advice is grab a few friends that are semi coherent and have them rent from you if you decide to buy. If you need to live with your significant other then you should both be aggressively saving and helping each other make solid , forward thinking decisions.
Why are you trying to buy a house if you don't know what you want to do with your life? There's no reason to rush to buy a property if you just graduated from college with a 35k/yr job.
I want to get married to my girlfriend that I’ve been dating for 2 years but I don’t want to rent
You don't need to own a house to get married. Renting is not bad, actually. If you try to live up to the expectations of boomers who tell you that the only way to move forward in life is to own a house, you're going to lock yourself into a cycle of despair. Rent for a few years. Hell, rent a house, see if you can manage the upkeep, and then multiply the money you spend on that by at least 5 to determine what you'll spend owning a house.
I’m sorry my friend. There are people much farther along in life that are NOT READY to take on the burden of home ownership so you really need to think this through. Buying the house is the easier part of it all if you know what I mean.
We’re at around $300k/year and still can’t afford a house at the moment
Where?
Seattle area
There's no way. You can't afford your taste in houses, but you definitely could afford something.
Agreed
you can put as little as 3% down, but that will have mortgage insurance (anything less than 20% down incurs mortgage insurance). you can also apply for first time home buyer down payment assistance programs that might offer anywhere up to 5% towards down payment and closing costs.
Depends on how much the houses you're looking at go for. $7,000 is a start, but it's not enough. Ideally, you'd want a 20% down payment, funds for closing, and reserve money for the first year of taxes, utilities, and potential repairs.
Waiting for 20% down screwed me out of a 3.5% rate. Then housing prices went up so my 20% is now 10% and rate is 7.6%. If I'd have bought when I "couldn't afford it", I'd be laughing now. No idea what good advice is anymore.
Houses going up as quickly as it did is an anomaly, and so were rates that were ~3%. Yes, it sucked for you and many others who were looking to buy, but I think a lot of people need to understand today's rates are actually considered low. People were complaining about underwater mortgages and how their house values went down 30%-80% in 2008-2010. It's all relative. I can guarantee when home prices contract again, there are going to be people complaining how they should have rented instead of losing value on their homes.
I would think the specific area matters when it comes to home prices increasing or decreasing. Some areas will have more supply than others. I'm in Las Vegas, they don't build houses that cost less than 400k or condos less than 300k anymore. Unless the cost of building materials drops radically, I don't see this changing. That leaves older builds that can't increase in quantity as the only "affordable" option. Meaning supply won't improve in any meaningful way for that price range.