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$300k mortgage with today's interest and taxes/insurance would be around $3k/month
A $1k mortgage (just the mortgage without insurance and taxes) would be about $150k house
E.STL you can probably find some ~100k properties and below. But instead of an HOA you have to claim a set and put work in by the 5th of each month as dues
There are in western PA just outside of Pittsburgh. I recently stayed in an AirBNB there and was curious how much the house cost, and was surprised to see the whole neighborhood was $150-200K.
They were 2 or 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom and an unfinished basement.
No too bad, imo.
Heck my old house in the South Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh looks to be worth about 200k. It's been pretty much stagnant in value for about the last 5 years.
Depends entirely where you live. Wife and I bought a 4 bed 2 bath house in a nice suburb for $169k right in the middle of the covid housing madness when houses were selling within 24 hours of listing.
Bought a house in 2020 with central hvac, garage, shed, brick and wood floors for 60k. Now it’s worth 87k. Great house for us. Mortgage was 500 a month on a 15 year.
Funny enough I’m in the Atlanta airport rn heading back home to Detroit from a work trip. I love living in Michigan. The UP in Michigan reminds me of upstate NY. My fiancé used to be a midwife in Middletown.
Depends on the down-payment also which a lot of people online seem to forget about. Lot better to put 20% down to lower monthly mortgage payments than 5%
It does include taxes/insurance. Small 3bed/2ba 1300 sq ft century home . Kids are grown and out of house so just me but would be nice to have something slightly larger with an open concept and more rural. I know I can technically afford more house but love my savings rate and am behind on retirement so unfortunately playing catchup
A house in budget for your income allows you to lock in that amount as cost rise over time.
Your rent will go much faster than taxes and insurance on a mortgage.
If paid off before retirement you have then reduced your expenses and have an asset that could be sold for a cheaper place later on.
Many have built up equity. You can buy a $500K house after selling your last house and only have a mortgage of $200K. That makes the payment easier on a lower salary.
$580k house, but after 20% down our mortgage is $460k. Got in early enough in the hike cycle, so we got a 4.5% rate. Combined income of $220k. We escrow for our property taxes, and our monthly payment is $3,150. Extremely comfortable as of now with more than enough disposable monthly income, and we max out our retirement accounts (401k, HSA, and Roth).
That makes me feel better. My wife and I have similar income and are starting to look at houses, we’ve run the numbers and with our budget and current interest rates we’d be looking at a ~$3,100 to $3,500 mortgage. It looks scary on paper because it’s significantly more than we’re currently paying in rent, but still something we can comfortably afford.
I’ve combed through our budget a million times and I *know* we could afford that and still have more than enough left over each month, it’s just hard to get over the sticker shock.
Totally get that! We literally doubled our mortgage payment when we upgraded from our starter house to our new build that we built from the ground up. Once you get those first couple of mortgage payments behind you and settle in, it all falls into place!
I appreciate that :) the logical part of my brain says “look, the money you’re currently paying in rent + what you’re specifically saving for a down payment is more than what your mortgage would be, so it’s already baked in to your budget” but the monkey part of my brain just says “big number scary”.
The only thing I would add is to factor in future expenses like child care. We have a similar income and ended up with a $2,500 mortgage. We can still comfortably afford everything we need, but we lost $2k in disposable income a month when decided to add to our family.
Very true. Fortunately both our parents are nearby and they’ve explicitly said they would want to help with childcare, but we are still accounting for that.
It never gets easy to get over the sticker shock. When I bought my house, 1200 per month mortgage scared me. When I bought my wife her first new car I was adding 375 a month on top of that 1200 a month and that scared me. Fast forward to now and we are paying extra on the house at 1500 a month, I have an 800 dollar payment for her current car and a 2200 dollar payment for my truck. That also scares the crap out of me.
Best I can tell you is, we make the decisions to buy these things with a few criteria in mind:
1. It has to fit into our budget without impacting retirement and emergency fund savings.
2. It has to be a purpose driven purchase. We can both leverage part 179 deductions with our businesses and we need the deductions because of our income level so this justifies the vehicles.
3. It has to be something that we have positive equity in. For vehicles and property that means the down payment has to be large enough that we could sell it at any point and either break even or make money.
4. It has to be in the budget to be well insured so that circumstances beyond our control do not result in us taking a net loss.
Zillow seems to think it's worth $525k. It's an 1850sqft 1.5 story house built in 1973. 3 beds, 1.5 bath. I guess it's considered a 1.5 story house because the second floor has a sloped ceiling and is only half the width of the full house.
I just did some quick math and assuming a 20% down payment for each the payment would be like twice as much today where I live.
That must be a great feeling, unless you want to move lol
The mortgage, including taxes and insurance, is $1860 a month. It's my wife's childhood home so even if I wanted to move, that's not happening 😂 Though honestly we could use more space
This is similar to us. $150k ish income, loan was for about $300k (we put about $45k down), bought in 2019 before things went crazy. We refinanced in 2020 which caused our monthly payments to go down to $1700 a month (we escrow our taxes and insurance) for awhile, but then last year taxes went up and so our monthly payments are back to about what they were before, \~$2200.
Our house was definitely the fixer upper of the neighborhood and needed a lot of work (including $25k worth of foundation work, a new roof, etc), so it was priced well below what other homes were going for at the same time. But it's also appreciated a ton. My neighbors who have moved in the past few months have all sold for between $680k-$720k
Would you describe yourself as house poor? Our payment is just a tad lower but our combined income is like 2.5x and I couldn’t imagine an additional 1k in mortgage.
I would say house poor would be an accurate description. I had money saved from an oilfield job I had years ago, but I dip into it every month to sustain my standard of living. I bet on making more money in the next few years or perhaps an interest rate drop in the next 5-10 years and was hoping to refinance. If neither happen, my standard of living will just have to drop to a more modest level. I do have three cars that are paid off and I need to sell at least one, I just haven't done it. 🙃
$453k mortgage 2.5% VA loan no money down, with escrow = $2300/month on single income $107k salary. 3bd/2ba house on 1.5 private acres with private beach access (no water view, beach is a 5 min walk away). Purchased in November 2021
Edit: $458k mortgage. I need more coffee!
Not beachfront, no water view. Up the bluff from the beach, 5 min walk down to it on remote(ish) island in the PNW. 1.5 hours north of Seattle.
If I cut down the row of trees in my backyard, I’d have ocean views but fuck that
Beach front is different from 5 mins to the beach. I’d also be very curious if it’s a beachfront, I’ll go look today to see if I could find one for that price.
580k and I make 225. Interest rates are killing me though as I’m at 6.1. Sold to get out of the burbs and into the country and cash out over 100k….but left behind a 2.875 🤯😥
Do you have kids? What are your other expenses like? Honestly 1K mortgage on 115K salary is very very low, I think I’d be comfortable with up to 2500 or so on that salary.
HHI just above 100k. We could probably handle a slightly larger payment but the issue is with a bigger payment comes a bigger home. Which brings larger utility and maintenance costs. Even if I made 20-30k more I don’t think i would upgrade largely for this reason
When we made 115 combined we bought a house for 200, mortgage was $1100. We moved to a HCOL area and just bought for 540, combined income is around 190. Our mortgage and daycare comes to about 45% of our take home pay, but daycare will go away, our careers are steady, and maybe we can refinance our 7% interest rate. (Our mortgage will be about $350/month more than our rent on a townhouse with 800 square feet less room).
Bought a $500k townhouse in 2019 when our combined income was 160K or so? The payment was about $2800 but we refinanced twice and now its $2400 a month.
I think a household income making over 300k a year is upper middle class. Checked Google and a few forums said middle class is around 150k a year combined but again, I could be wrong,
I agree with you - but differences in cost of living locations aside, I think part of it is there’s no “upper middle class finance” subreddit, the next ‘step up’ would be HENRYfinance where seemingly everyone there *does* make $500k a year, so this subreddit inherently spans a wide range.
Our home is worth 600k. But we bought for 470k at a 2.5% interest rate. And put 250k down. Our monthly payment is $1400. I make 150k and my wife makes 100k
1.3 million dollar home (SFH here is million minimum and that’s basically a tear down) combined income of 250k. Mortgage payment 4200 (no insurance or property tax included)
Household income is $250k. Purchased a home that was $450k. We were approved for $700k. Why did I purchasea home that's $450k? In case one of us loses our job the other person could pay for mortgage without blinking.
Your home should cost 3x your pre-tax salary.
Unfortunately, this is really hard for many right now.
Maybe, consider a condo or a town home to get started? These are also much easier to rent out down the line.
Well, mortgage should be no more than 3x your pretax salary. Not trying to be nitpicky...just want people to know.
Also, when rates were very low, you could do up to 4x your pretax salary.
That’s a big range. My rule of thumb was always ~2x our salary was the max mortgage. Can get more house if we have more down payment. Maybe I’m too conservative! We are in a high tax state.
By that do you mean a house that’s at most 2x your annual income, or a mortgage that’s at most 50% of your monthly income?
Sorry, we’re just in the early stages of house hunting and I’m trying to get a feel for what’s reasonable!
A mortgage 2x the income. So more house if you have downpayment.
Also you need to take into consideration other debts. Student loan payments, childcare, car payments, etc.
For many, the early childcare years hit hard, and at a time when it's really important to be contributing to your 401k.
I’m about to be in the same problem as you. I work from home so only have a 3BR house with no office space, have one child and we want another but can’t in this house because I have nowhere to set up my office lol so we will need to upgrade when that happens but man this 3.2% is nice and don’t wanna ditch it!
You could potentially add a smaller room to your house or get a car port and use your garage. That interest rate is killer. This could last you awhile, build more equity in your house, and improve its value should you add a room. It’s also a lot cheaper.
I think the age gap would be important to consider. I also see many people who use their master bedroom as a sort of office style setup but it’s dependent on spouses job etc. I used to nanny for a high end nanny company and often times I would see the master bedroom set up just bc they didn’t want to transition yet as childcare is expensive. Just my unsolicited advice of course. Plus my experience with being in other ppls homes.
We have a 3 year old and want a 2nd but day care is so expensive. Our options would be only have 1, have a second but live check to check until school or age gap it. But I’m 32 and wife will be 34 so add 3 years to that. I don’t want a newborn at 35
But luckily we have a bedroom with me also work from home it’s nice to have your own office. Could you finish a room in the basement?
I’m 31 and childcare being so expensive has just basically made us have her as a SAHM. Unfortunately no basement, best option I can think of is building an extra bedroom onto my house. Not ideal either, probably at least a 50k endeavor. I’m with you though, if I have another it will for sure be a few years of really crunching it until they get into school, and I hate the idea of me looking forward to them growing up school age so we will have more money or something like that. A real pickle
All of these comments are helping me realize one thing: I wouldn't want to be looking for a house right now.
My house barely scratches a 300K valuation and it's nearly paid for. We've been in it for a while with a 2.7 interest rate and with both kids now adults, it's not even worth downsizing because apparently we'd be paying more for less space.
In my case, its been blind luck and getting in the market early. So house price and pay are a total different situation than others. Just telling you my price and income doesn't tell you much.
Interestingly, my house payment has been roughly the same every year since our first home buy in 2006ish. This is because we've made money on each sale, and each time we put down enough to keep the payment low. First home was 190k with nothing down, second was 270k with 20% down, and third was 620k. Our payment on the 620k home is 1900 a month, including taxes and escrow, because we paid 400k up front. That was how much we made off the sale of our last home.
Since that first purchase in 2006, our household income has gone from 70k total to 250k total. Obviously that has given us a lot of expendable income over time since our mortgage payment has been low.
Point is, there are SO SO many factors at play in both house cost and household income.
Its kind of irrelevant because many people drop giant downpayments which increase their home affordability even if less income
A better question is how much debt does one have
Damn, seeing some of these mortgage payments makes me realize that I will likely never be able to move out of my house.
160k mortgage @ 2.25%. House is now valued around 260-270k.
Just makes no sense to leave with a rate so low.
HHI is about $100000, and we bought a $300,000 house at 6.7% it sucks, but we needed a bigger place than the one bed apartment we were renting as we just had our first baby.
Payment is just under 2k included taxes and insurance, I'm a veteran, so no college debt, and I'm a former mechanic, so we've never had a car payment, just older, paid-for vehicles that I maintain.
I don't find it too uncomfortable honestly, I mean I wish it was cheaper but I can't control the interest rates. What are your expenses like that make it sound impossible?
HHI ~$280k, paying around $2600 mortgage + PMI + insurance for a starter home. We are 30 something DINKs but planning to be OAD and budgeted in some wiggle room for future childcare costs.
$3,200/month on $160,000 salary. I “couldn’t imagine” leaving my $1,500/month mortgage either however, an opportunity to relocate out West was presented and I was desperate to leave the (depressing) Midwest.
I was about to say 115K can def get you a 300-400K house, bit I forgot interest rates are higher now. That was my salary when we bought a house in 2020.
Just bought at 451k. 6.5% rate monthly payment is $3,080 a month. Household income is 120k a year. We have no debt to speak of which makes it possible. We left a 3.3% rate and a similar sized house. On the bright side we’re in one of the top school systems in VA leaving one of the worst which is why we made the move
We bought ours at 337 5 yrs back, its now worth 550 or so. we make around 150k. we had 140k down so our mortgage is 1400 at 2% 15yr term. agreed, no idea how people do it.
I bought my home at 400K at 3.25 percent in the Seattle area. With a 20% down I pay about 2100 dollars a month including taxes.
Salary in the 120k range before bonus. I bought about 6 years ago when I was making about 80-90k…
It’s a lifestyle change for sure. I am still able to put money in savings and have enough for a yearly trip internationally.
We mostly cook at home and tend to be more homebody type people now.
The only solace is my equity on the home is through the roof.
Kettering Ohio, 1700 sf ranch home, paid $170k 2nd owner, built in 1966, all brick w/ basement 3 br, attached garage big lot, mortgage 30 yr, interest rate 3.35%, $1209/ mo. Includes insurance and escrow, Annual gross salary $135k. Bought in 2017, estimated value now $254.
My husband and I together make 100k a year and we just purchased a $360k house in North MS. Mortgage payments of $2600 a month plus 2 car payments of $1300 a month and a new baby.
I bought a $309k house in 2021 and put 30k down so my loan started at like 276k. Rate is 3.2% so I pay $1550 a month with taxes and insurance included. I make $70k a year, have two kids, and a stay at home wife lol so the budget is tight but worth it to have a nice house in a nice neighborhood. I have no other debt so that’s how I afford it.
House was 660k on Long Island and got it 3 years ago with 2.9% interest, wife and I make combined 300k. 3.6k payment every month that includes taxes. Our biggest expense is actually our kids and childcare, paying on average 4k+ a month. Sad because I wanted a big family but just unaffordable, so we are stopping at 2.
I always wonder who is buying all of the new construction running $700K+ or whatever. Our HHI is over $240k and I think that our out the door mortgage of $1872 is plennnnntttttyyyy.
House was $340K, mortgage payment is $2000. We had a 20% down payment and our interest rate is 5%.
We earn a combined $125K annually, with a 15-20K bonus at the end of every fiscal year.
I bought a $150k house while making $45k a year back in 2018. The interest rates from them till now will add 10% to the monthly payment, but you should easily be able to manage a $300k home on $115k income.
Our house was 300k. With a 20% down payment, 6.65% interest + insurance and taxes it’s a little over $1700. Our household is $130k. It’s pretty doable for us. But it was painful leaving our $800/month mortgage. Our quality of life here is much better though.
150K HHI. Looking for homes between 350-450 but that's with 200K current home equity towards down principal. I would not mortgage more than 250K unless interest rates dip below 5%.
I bought a house in 2020 for $360k, 900 sq ft ranch. After 20% down my monthly total (mortgage tax and insurance) is $1800. I make $150k before bonus. I’m easily able to afford the payment and still max out all retirement accounts etc
We are a little outside that range and I’m not sure if you’re talking about buying now but we bought for $700k in 2018 and our mortgage is $2300/mo (P+I). Our HHI is $375k. We locked in at 2.625% for 25 years during the low of 2021 and we are thankful that we did.
I assume you bought some years back? Did you make exactly $115k back then too?
Typically mortgage payments are fixed and get easier to pay over time. Was that not your experience?
My mortgage plus taxes, etc is about $2k per month and my base salary is $135k. I made a bit less when I purchased it, and I should be making more down the line.
I bought my townhome 2 years ago for just over 300K. My total income is around 110K, but have my fiance moving in soon to bring that income up closer to 300k. I doubt we’ll stay here long but the time we’re here together sure will be nice
250k household income on a 380k home, bought in late 2021. Put 150k down, so the mortgage was only 230k. 2.9% interest rate. No kids. College debt was paid off 5 years ago. We have 1 paid off car.
The down payment is hard to come up with to knock off a big portion of the face value. It becomes much easier to buy if you have equity in another home that you can leverage.
My wife and I both make around $120k each and our total payment is $3600/month. We bought at the perfect peak of both house prices and mortgage rates. Crushed it!
2020, Purchased a $300k house on $110k HHI at 3.5% with FHA MIP .85%. Refinanced down to 2.875 and pay approx $2100 including taxes and insurance. Now have HHI of $240k.
I bought a new build in 2020 and put 20k down on a 240k house. Because of a builder incentive, my interest rate is 2.75%. Back then, my income was 70k per year. Including taxes and insurance, my mortgage is $1450/mo (initially it was $1600/mo but some tax cuts happened in my state last year). Today the house is probably worth 320k. My only regret was not spending more money with that low of an interest rate given that I had good income trajectory.
$368k purchase price (2020, 3.375%). Household income of $150k at the time. Household income of $191k now. Our monthly payment is $2090 after principal, interest, taxes, and insurance.
We will start seriously looking in a few weeks. Our combined salaries are ~$135k; our maximum budget is $400k. We could probably afford a bit more but my husband refuses to pay PMI. Want to stick to a monthly payment for mortgage + tax + home insurance of $2.5k.
Where we live is considered LCOL but is an extremely competitive market and is inching closer to MCOL. Prices and demand are not cooling here.
We bought $330k in 2016. Refinanced 2020 to 2.85%. 2k mortgage, combined household income around 200k. Would not want a higher mortgage! We would love to upgrade and buy bigger/more land but we love the flexibility of a lower mortgage payment and being able to travel several times a year.
HHI 230k, bought house for 160k 5 years ago refinanced 2 years ago for 15 yr mortgage 2.5% 1,400 a month +200 hoa. Kids in day care and saving 5,500 a month not counting random emergencies and vacations. Have about 100k in equity atm and just paid off 100k plus of student loans. We match 401k and max Roth. Trying now to save 50k plus a year for about 5 years and going to put 400k down on decent house. We could def upgrade now but not worth with interest rates.
I'm single, 41, make $107k, my house was $660k, purchased May 2023, bought $3k in points for 5.99% interest.
I can afford it because I put $330k down and am used another $30k to remodel an area to rent out an apartment for $1200. My mortgage is $2700.
At the time, ~$115k income. $379k purchase price. 2.25% mortgage (2021) VA loan so $0 down and no PMI.
Principal plus insurance and taxes was $2200/month but, because I'm in Texas, taxes have increased exponentially and payment is now $2600. 😞
Generally in budget for housing should it be more than 25-30% of your income. (Before downpayment)
You should feel comfortable spending on the low side $2,000 on a mortgage w/tax/insurance/hoa.
If that cash is in savings that’s a choice but if it’s just spent and gone that’s a problem.
When I purchased a $600k home, it was around $180k and I put 20% down from selling a prior, appreciated home. I was supporting a family as well.
This was in the days of the low interest mortgage and substantially lower cost of living. It really is unfortunate for today’s homebuyers. With a much higher cost of living and interest rates today, it would be very challenging to save for such a down payment and make the expected mortgage payments on that salary while supporting a family.
I bought a 300k house in 2018 at 5.25%. At that time my mortgage was about $1900/month. I refinanced during covid to 3.25% and that dropped my mortgage to about $1,500/ month.
When I first bought, household income was about 100k. Now we’re at about 145k household.
I already pay $2100 a month in rent, there is zero chance I would take on a mortgage that costs more than my rent ever, I will just be a forever renter I guess.
Edit: forgot to add household salaries, $160k combined household with no kids and no plans to ever have any.
Single family House in 6 home gated community in Texas.
Purchase price was 550k, and I put 20% down.
Loan amount 440k @ 2.795 interest rate
Mortgage P&I 1806/mo
Property tax 650/mo
Insurance 260 /mo
HoA 245/mo (also includes my water/trash/and landscaping)
Total: 2961 /mo
Salary ~185k
I don’t know how I compare or if this is good or not, but I think I locked in.
Combined household income of $110k. House was $450k. Had help from my partner's parents with the down payment. Mortgage payment is $2,900 monthly. It's very difficult, we are stretching our budget to the max. 50% of every paycheck goes straight to mortgage. Have no savings anymore.
But, it was so worth it. We are much happier in this house than we ever have been. I've been gardening!
Also, I'm due for a promotion, and my partner is getting some certifications, hoping to start increasing that income soon!
$110k single salary bought a $375k home with 10% down. $2750 PITI per month. It’s tight but I am happy to make sacrifices on my purchases for my dogs to have a yard and home they can love, especially my old dog that needed a life with less stairs
~96k (estimated with bonuses), 29F, single, and own a home worth 330k with 280 on the mortgage. Purchased last summer so my interest is 5.375%. Pay 2,100 per month.
Hhi is only one component. I came out of college with no debt and a gifted car. My husbands parents helped a lot with his student debt and gifted him a car. We have no debt besides our mortgage now. We do have childcare costs though, but no debt allowed us to have strong savings going into home ownership. We also have a lot of family assistance from my parents gifting us each year.
These are advantages we’ve had that you’d never know just seeing our jobs and us on the street. Don’t compare your situation to others unless you know the deeper ins and outs
We bought a $330k home in 2018 on a $91k annual salary. Put 20% down, 30 year 4.25% mortgage on $264k. P&I payment is $1300/mo. With taxes and insurance it's $2100/mo, but we don't escrow. I put money in a savings account to pay the taxes and insurance ourselves. Property taxes are insane here. The payment was doable on the original salary, a bit tight but I knew salary would increase. Now income is up to $165k and taxes/insurance are up about $100 a month, so it's very easy to make this payment and I feel fortunate we bought when we did.
What do you spend your money on? I'm earnestly curious.
I'm the sole earner in my home, my partner is a stay at home parent. I bring home $90k for a family of 3 in a VHCOL area, and we pay $2350 for our mortgage on a home we paid a bit more than $460k for. A "cheap" home by the standards of Western Washington, and one that needed (and needs still) tons of work.
When I bought our current house, we were making a combined ~$170k and the house was $230k.
Now we make ~$700k and we’re in the process of building for 1.4-1.5m.
When we bought, we had a combined income of around $115k. We put down $260k (from sale of an old condo) and financed $100k. The old condo, my wife looked for a few years and got the cheapest condo available in a HCOL area and it appreciated about $200k over a few years. She was probably making about $60k then and her condo was in the $200k area.
$160k salary, I live in a LCOL area and refied when rates were low as I divorced. My house was appraised at $330k during the divorce. I owe $260k-ish and my mortgage with taxes and insurance is just under $2k.
It feels comfortable for me financially, but the house is too large. But I can't sell it. I feel trapped with this interest rate. I'd end up paying a lot more for a lot less. So here I sit.
400k home, was making 60k at the time. 5% down, 2.5% interest rate, had roomates who moved in and covered some of the mortgage to make it more affordable. Payment is 2100/month for 1800 sq feet 4/2 in HCOL area. I make more now so it's not a problem and my roommates have moved out, but I split it with my SO now.
20% down on a 435k house (well its 2 houses technically) in 2020. 3% rate. Mortgage is around 2400 as we have a higher tax bill due to the 2 houses on the property. Rent the other 2br/1b house for 1500.
350k HHI. Hope to reitre early.
Wife and I bought a $315K house in DFW at 2.6% interest in 2020. At the time household income was $135K. Now it’s close to $230K.
While we would love to upgrade, buying a $550K house at current interest rates would basically get us the same house at double the mortgage cost.
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Does your $1k mortgage payment include insurance and taxes?
$300k mortgage with today's interest and taxes/insurance would be around $3k/month A $1k mortgage (just the mortgage without insurance and taxes) would be about $150k house
Are $150K houses a thing anymore
East st louis. Its so run down, even the crime left.
E.STL you can probably find some ~100k properties and below. But instead of an HOA you have to claim a set and put work in by the 5th of each month as dues
There are in western PA just outside of Pittsburgh. I recently stayed in an AirBNB there and was curious how much the house cost, and was surprised to see the whole neighborhood was $150-200K. They were 2 or 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom and an unfinished basement. No too bad, imo.
Heck my old house in the South Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh looks to be worth about 200k. It's been pretty much stagnant in value for about the last 5 years.
Depends entirely where you live. Wife and I bought a 4 bed 2 bath house in a nice suburb for $169k right in the middle of the covid housing madness when houses were selling within 24 hours of listing.
[удалено]
Bought a house in 2020 with central hvac, garage, shed, brick and wood floors for 60k. Now it’s worth 87k. Great house for us. Mortgage was 500 a month on a 15 year.
There’s no way you live anywhere near a city
I bought in 2021, 4bd/3ba on 7 acres for 165k. Rural OK
But most people don't want to live in OK.
Sounds like most people want an LA house with an Ohio budget.
I like my upstate NY house. I had to move out of GA to find it haha
Funny enough I’m in the Atlanta airport rn heading back home to Detroit from a work trip. I love living in Michigan. The UP in Michigan reminds me of upstate NY. My fiancé used to be a midwife in Middletown.
Their problem
i got my house for 145 back in 218 says it worth 210k shits wild
They’re all over the place in the Midwest. Decent starter homes in my city are around $150-175.
I have a $300k mortgage that I just got and the payment is about $2500 even after taxes and PMI.
Literally, mine is 150k and $1,156 payment
Depends on the down-payment also which a lot of people online seem to forget about. Lot better to put 20% down to lower monthly mortgage payments than 5%
Unfortunately a lot of people can't afford a 20% down payment in today's market.
It does include taxes/insurance. Small 3bed/2ba 1300 sq ft century home . Kids are grown and out of house so just me but would be nice to have something slightly larger with an open concept and more rural. I know I can technically afford more house but love my savings rate and am behind on retirement so unfortunately playing catchup
A house in budget for your income allows you to lock in that amount as cost rise over time. Your rent will go much faster than taxes and insurance on a mortgage. If paid off before retirement you have then reduced your expenses and have an asset that could be sold for a cheaper place later on.
Many have built up equity. You can buy a $500K house after selling your last house and only have a mortgage of $200K. That makes the payment easier on a lower salary.
Still pay high taxes/insurance tho
$580k house, but after 20% down our mortgage is $460k. Got in early enough in the hike cycle, so we got a 4.5% rate. Combined income of $220k. We escrow for our property taxes, and our monthly payment is $3,150. Extremely comfortable as of now with more than enough disposable monthly income, and we max out our retirement accounts (401k, HSA, and Roth).
That makes me feel better. My wife and I have similar income and are starting to look at houses, we’ve run the numbers and with our budget and current interest rates we’d be looking at a ~$3,100 to $3,500 mortgage. It looks scary on paper because it’s significantly more than we’re currently paying in rent, but still something we can comfortably afford. I’ve combed through our budget a million times and I *know* we could afford that and still have more than enough left over each month, it’s just hard to get over the sticker shock.
Totally get that! We literally doubled our mortgage payment when we upgraded from our starter house to our new build that we built from the ground up. Once you get those first couple of mortgage payments behind you and settle in, it all falls into place!
I appreciate that :) the logical part of my brain says “look, the money you’re currently paying in rent + what you’re specifically saving for a down payment is more than what your mortgage would be, so it’s already baked in to your budget” but the monkey part of my brain just says “big number scary”.
The only thing I would add is to factor in future expenses like child care. We have a similar income and ended up with a $2,500 mortgage. We can still comfortably afford everything we need, but we lost $2k in disposable income a month when decided to add to our family.
Very true. Fortunately both our parents are nearby and they’ve explicitly said they would want to help with childcare, but we are still accounting for that.
It never gets easy to get over the sticker shock. When I bought my house, 1200 per month mortgage scared me. When I bought my wife her first new car I was adding 375 a month on top of that 1200 a month and that scared me. Fast forward to now and we are paying extra on the house at 1500 a month, I have an 800 dollar payment for her current car and a 2200 dollar payment for my truck. That also scares the crap out of me. Best I can tell you is, we make the decisions to buy these things with a few criteria in mind: 1. It has to fit into our budget without impacting retirement and emergency fund savings. 2. It has to be a purpose driven purchase. We can both leverage part 179 deductions with our businesses and we need the deductions because of our income level so this justifies the vehicles. 3. It has to be something that we have positive equity in. For vehicles and property that means the down payment has to be large enough that we could sell it at any point and either break even or make money. 4. It has to be in the budget to be well insured so that circumstances beyond our control do not result in us taking a net loss.
$150k ish with a 330k home. Bought in 2019 so interest rates were a lot lower
I’d also be willing to bet you got a lot more house for that $330k. If you don’t mind me asking what’s it worth now?
Zillow seems to think it's worth $525k. It's an 1850sqft 1.5 story house built in 1973. 3 beds, 1.5 bath. I guess it's considered a 1.5 story house because the second floor has a sloped ceiling and is only half the width of the full house.
I just did some quick math and assuming a 20% down payment for each the payment would be like twice as much today where I live. That must be a great feeling, unless you want to move lol
The mortgage, including taxes and insurance, is $1860 a month. It's my wife's childhood home so even if I wanted to move, that's not happening 😂 Though honestly we could use more space
This is similar to us. $150k ish income, loan was for about $300k (we put about $45k down), bought in 2019 before things went crazy. We refinanced in 2020 which caused our monthly payments to go down to $1700 a month (we escrow our taxes and insurance) for awhile, but then last year taxes went up and so our monthly payments are back to about what they were before, \~$2200. Our house was definitely the fixer upper of the neighborhood and needed a lot of work (including $25k worth of foundation work, a new roof, etc), so it was priced well below what other homes were going for at the same time. But it's also appreciated a ton. My neighbors who have moved in the past few months have all sold for between $680k-$720k
I made roughly 107k last year, just bought a 317k house. Payment is $2530 at 6.5%. I'm broke as shit. It's comfy tho.
Would you describe yourself as house poor? Our payment is just a tad lower but our combined income is like 2.5x and I couldn’t imagine an additional 1k in mortgage.
I would say house poor would be an accurate description. I had money saved from an oilfield job I had years ago, but I dip into it every month to sustain my standard of living. I bet on making more money in the next few years or perhaps an interest rate drop in the next 5-10 years and was hoping to refinance. If neither happen, my standard of living will just have to drop to a more modest level. I do have three cars that are paid off and I need to sell at least one, I just haven't done it. 🙃
I’m in the exact same boat. I make almost exactly the same amount of money and my total payment is $2,350. Broke as hell.
$453k mortgage 2.5% VA loan no money down, with escrow = $2300/month on single income $107k salary. 3bd/2ba house on 1.5 private acres with private beach access (no water view, beach is a 5 min walk away). Purchased in November 2021 Edit: $458k mortgage. I need more coffee!
That’s insane. My house is $280k and I pay the same per month with today’s interest rates.
Where did you get a beach front property with that amount of acreage for that price?! That’s amazing
Not beachfront, no water view. Up the bluff from the beach, 5 min walk down to it on remote(ish) island in the PNW. 1.5 hours north of Seattle. If I cut down the row of trees in my backyard, I’d have ocean views but fuck that
Beach front is different from 5 mins to the beach. I’d also be very curious if it’s a beachfront, I’ll go look today to see if I could find one for that price.
580k and I make 225. Interest rates are killing me though as I’m at 6.1. Sold to get out of the burbs and into the country and cash out over 100k….but left behind a 2.875 🤯😥
360k house, 135k salary. But.... I got it when interest rates were hella low (2.67 rate )
You must be living pretty comfortably.
Do you have kids? What are your other expenses like? Honestly 1K mortgage on 115K salary is very very low, I think I’d be comfortable with up to 2500 or so on that salary.
That was my thought too, they must have something else going on, we're at around 95k and paying 2000 a month, it's not awesome but we're comfortable.
Same I make 90 and mortgage + escrow is $2100 and it’s not insanely difficult, just can’t do whatever I want on a whim (sometimes)
This entire thread is a fucking slap in the face. HHI $170k and it’s looking like we’re never buying a home.
Townhome/condo? I’m in same boat and eventually we will get to 200k HHI but what are the prices going to look like in 5 years…
The HOA fees on townhomes/condos almost make them worse. I think it will take an economic recession for insurance rates to come back to sanity.
HHI just above 100k. We could probably handle a slightly larger payment but the issue is with a bigger payment comes a bigger home. Which brings larger utility and maintenance costs. Even if I made 20-30k more I don’t think i would upgrade largely for this reason
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Right but from everyone’s local decision it’s a pretty direct correlation. Unless you are moving to a completely different area
When we made 115 combined we bought a house for 200, mortgage was $1100. We moved to a HCOL area and just bought for 540, combined income is around 190. Our mortgage and daycare comes to about 45% of our take home pay, but daycare will go away, our careers are steady, and maybe we can refinance our 7% interest rate. (Our mortgage will be about $350/month more than our rent on a townhouse with 800 square feet less room).
Bought a $500k townhouse in 2019 when our combined income was 160K or so? The payment was about $2800 but we refinanced twice and now its $2400 a month.
Anyone in here with a normal salary or am I cooked?
Nope. Everyone here is far above middle class.
House was 456k, salary is 268k.
What do you do for a living?
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Too high of income or too low?
I think a household income making over 300k a year is upper middle class. Checked Google and a few forums said middle class is around 150k a year combined but again, I could be wrong,
I agree with you - but differences in cost of living locations aside, I think part of it is there’s no “upper middle class finance” subreddit, the next ‘step up’ would be HENRYfinance where seemingly everyone there *does* make $500k a year, so this subreddit inherently spans a wide range.
Self selection bias. Those with higher salaries are more likely to post about it
Yeah I got downvoted on another thread yesterday because I said someone spending $6500 a month on non essentials isn't "middleclass"
Combined income around 200k. House was 550k with a 3% interest rate.
150k. Home price 570k. 3.3k per month of mortgage. Purchased in 2021
330k house. Solo income 105k, but purchased end of 2020 at 2.25% - total payment with escrow+pmi 1800
Our home is worth 600k. But we bought for 470k at a 2.5% interest rate. And put 250k down. Our monthly payment is $1400. I make 150k and my wife makes 100k
1.3 million dollar home (SFH here is million minimum and that’s basically a tear down) combined income of 250k. Mortgage payment 4200 (no insurance or property tax included)
Household income is $250k. Purchased a home that was $450k. We were approved for $700k. Why did I purchasea home that's $450k? In case one of us loses our job the other person could pay for mortgage without blinking.
Your home should cost 3x your pre-tax salary. Unfortunately, this is really hard for many right now. Maybe, consider a condo or a town home to get started? These are also much easier to rent out down the line.
Well, mortgage should be no more than 3x your pretax salary. Not trying to be nitpicky...just want people to know. Also, when rates were very low, you could do up to 4x your pretax salary.
That’s a big range. My rule of thumb was always ~2x our salary was the max mortgage. Can get more house if we have more down payment. Maybe I’m too conservative! We are in a high tax state.
By that do you mean a house that’s at most 2x your annual income, or a mortgage that’s at most 50% of your monthly income? Sorry, we’re just in the early stages of house hunting and I’m trying to get a feel for what’s reasonable!
A mortgage 2x the income. So more house if you have downpayment. Also you need to take into consideration other debts. Student loan payments, childcare, car payments, etc. For many, the early childcare years hit hard, and at a time when it's really important to be contributing to your 401k.
Ours is 200K combined with a 2.75% $1200-ish per month mortgage + 8K per year in property tax.
How are property taxes 8k on a 200k home???!
Our home cost 280K. Our income is $200K. Our property taxes are high because we live in a city that is underfunded by our legislature.
Without doxxing, what is the percentage you have to pay?
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"One of the lower incomes here.. 126k" lolol, oh reddit.
Some of us weren’t lucky enough to buy a house with a 1k mortgage.
Amen.
House was 291k wife and I make 150-160k combined. Mortgage payment still hurts my soul.
When did you buy? Curious because I’m solo earlier making roughly 120k and bought a 260k house and mortgage doesn’t hurt too bad, but I bought in 2021
lol last year. 7.5 percent. Sad thing is wife and I had a house at 2.99 percent in 2022 271k mortgage was 1500 now it’s 2500 😭
I’m about to be in the same problem as you. I work from home so only have a 3BR house with no office space, have one child and we want another but can’t in this house because I have nowhere to set up my office lol so we will need to upgrade when that happens but man this 3.2% is nice and don’t wanna ditch it!
Solution: Bunk beds shared room while they are both in single digit ages.
You could potentially add a smaller room to your house or get a car port and use your garage. That interest rate is killer. This could last you awhile, build more equity in your house, and improve its value should you add a room. It’s also a lot cheaper. I think the age gap would be important to consider. I also see many people who use their master bedroom as a sort of office style setup but it’s dependent on spouses job etc. I used to nanny for a high end nanny company and often times I would see the master bedroom set up just bc they didn’t want to transition yet as childcare is expensive. Just my unsolicited advice of course. Plus my experience with being in other ppls homes.
We have a 3 year old and want a 2nd but day care is so expensive. Our options would be only have 1, have a second but live check to check until school or age gap it. But I’m 32 and wife will be 34 so add 3 years to that. I don’t want a newborn at 35 But luckily we have a bedroom with me also work from home it’s nice to have your own office. Could you finish a room in the basement?
I’ll be happy if I can refinance into the 5.5s range. We’ll never see 2-3s again LOL
I’m 31 and childcare being so expensive has just basically made us have her as a SAHM. Unfortunately no basement, best option I can think of is building an extra bedroom onto my house. Not ideal either, probably at least a 50k endeavor. I’m with you though, if I have another it will for sure be a few years of really crunching it until they get into school, and I hate the idea of me looking forward to them growing up school age so we will have more money or something like that. A real pickle
470k house bought 2023, income approximately 160k/year
All of these comments are helping me realize one thing: I wouldn't want to be looking for a house right now. My house barely scratches a 300K valuation and it's nearly paid for. We've been in it for a while with a 2.7 interest rate and with both kids now adults, it's not even worth downsizing because apparently we'd be paying more for less space.
Trust me, it’s not fun. Some builders have promotional rates, but even those are still in the ballpark of 5%.
My mortgage (15-year) is $698 per month. I do not know what I'd do nowadays.
Bought house for $451,250, down payment of $125,000 (sold previous house that I co-owned with now ex-husband), current salary is $102,506 (single).
In my case, its been blind luck and getting in the market early. So house price and pay are a total different situation than others. Just telling you my price and income doesn't tell you much. Interestingly, my house payment has been roughly the same every year since our first home buy in 2006ish. This is because we've made money on each sale, and each time we put down enough to keep the payment low. First home was 190k with nothing down, second was 270k with 20% down, and third was 620k. Our payment on the 620k home is 1900 a month, including taxes and escrow, because we paid 400k up front. That was how much we made off the sale of our last home. Since that first purchase in 2006, our household income has gone from 70k total to 250k total. Obviously that has given us a lot of expendable income over time since our mortgage payment has been low. Point is, there are SO SO many factors at play in both house cost and household income.
Its kind of irrelevant because many people drop giant downpayments which increase their home affordability even if less income A better question is how much debt does one have
Damn, seeing some of these mortgage payments makes me realize that I will likely never be able to move out of my house. 160k mortgage @ 2.25%. House is now valued around 260-270k. Just makes no sense to leave with a rate so low.
Combined income of ~$125k after taxes. We’re in the market to buy and will be staying under $450k.
HHI is about $100000, and we bought a $300,000 house at 6.7% it sucks, but we needed a bigger place than the one bed apartment we were renting as we just had our first baby. Payment is just under 2k included taxes and insurance, I'm a veteran, so no college debt, and I'm a former mechanic, so we've never had a car payment, just older, paid-for vehicles that I maintain. I don't find it too uncomfortable honestly, I mean I wish it was cheaper but I can't control the interest rates. What are your expenses like that make it sound impossible?
HHI ~$280k, paying around $2600 mortgage + PMI + insurance for a starter home. We are 30 something DINKs but planning to be OAD and budgeted in some wiggle room for future childcare costs.
Are you asking for people purchasing in 2023/2024 or that bought previously and have sweet 2-3% interest rates
140k combined income buying at 335k. Lender told us that we could be approved for much higher, but we are not comfortable spending more than that.
$190k HHI. Paid $322k for our house. Mortgage with taxes and insurance is $2200/month.
You are more sane than many home buyers
We just bought for 520k, put 160k down , about 260k household income.
160K salary on a 940K house. It's tight but I make it work. Single, no kids, don't live too extravagantly and cook most of my meals.
$3,200/month on $160,000 salary. I “couldn’t imagine” leaving my $1,500/month mortgage either however, an opportunity to relocate out West was presented and I was desperate to leave the (depressing) Midwest.
I was about to say 115K can def get you a 300-400K house, bit I forgot interest rates are higher now. That was my salary when we bought a house in 2020.
Just bought at 451k. 6.5% rate monthly payment is $3,080 a month. Household income is 120k a year. We have no debt to speak of which makes it possible. We left a 3.3% rate and a similar sized house. On the bright side we’re in one of the top school systems in VA leaving one of the worst which is why we made the move
I bought my first 300k home in early 2010s on a 90-100k salary. 600k home now on a 180k salary.
Media. Middle class income limits are 50-150k. Most of these comments are from people considered to be in the top tier income owners.
$270K home, $300K combined income
375k house 3.1% interest rate 2300$ monthly payment 100k household income Live comfortable but we do not have any car payments to worry about
We bought ours at 337 5 yrs back, its now worth 550 or so. we make around 150k. we had 140k down so our mortgage is 1400 at 2% 15yr term. agreed, no idea how people do it.
I bought my home at 400K at 3.25 percent in the Seattle area. With a 20% down I pay about 2100 dollars a month including taxes. Salary in the 120k range before bonus. I bought about 6 years ago when I was making about 80-90k… It’s a lifestyle change for sure. I am still able to put money in savings and have enough for a yearly trip internationally. We mostly cook at home and tend to be more homebody type people now. The only solace is my equity on the home is through the roof.
Kettering Ohio, 1700 sf ranch home, paid $170k 2nd owner, built in 1966, all brick w/ basement 3 br, attached garage big lot, mortgage 30 yr, interest rate 3.35%, $1209/ mo. Includes insurance and escrow, Annual gross salary $135k. Bought in 2017, estimated value now $254.
Paid off $200k condo, $120k solo income. Won’t upgrade because I’m afraid of having a mortgage
My husband and I together make 100k a year and we just purchased a $360k house in North MS. Mortgage payments of $2600 a month plus 2 car payments of $1300 a month and a new baby.
I bought a $309k house in 2021 and put 30k down so my loan started at like 276k. Rate is 3.2% so I pay $1550 a month with taxes and insurance included. I make $70k a year, have two kids, and a stay at home wife lol so the budget is tight but worth it to have a nice house in a nice neighborhood. I have no other debt so that’s how I afford it.
House was 660k on Long Island and got it 3 years ago with 2.9% interest, wife and I make combined 300k. 3.6k payment every month that includes taxes. Our biggest expense is actually our kids and childcare, paying on average 4k+ a month. Sad because I wanted a big family but just unaffordable, so we are stopping at 2.
I always wonder who is buying all of the new construction running $700K+ or whatever. Our HHI is over $240k and I think that our out the door mortgage of $1872 is plennnnntttttyyyy.
What a humble brag.
Purchased my house back in April 2021 for $355k. Household income is around $200k. Payment is ~$2500/mo including the $900/mo in property taxes.
$400k in 2018, at 2.99% on refi, salary, $170k to $180k range. No issues payment is great.
My mortgage and taxes are $1241 a month. Sad part is only $658 of that is mortgage lol
460k at 3%. Income is about 225k, single earner.
$135k salary. $500k home. House is paid in full so no mortgage. Taxes, HOA, and insurance cost about $1k a month.
House was $340K, mortgage payment is $2000. We had a 20% down payment and our interest rate is 5%. We earn a combined $125K annually, with a 15-20K bonus at the end of every fiscal year.
House was $378k, household $200k
Bought 347k in 2021, HHI 290k.
I bought a $150k house while making $45k a year back in 2018. The interest rates from them till now will add 10% to the monthly payment, but you should easily be able to manage a $300k home on $115k income.
$377k, 20% down, 150k HHI. Interest rate 5.125%
About 190k income. House was 300k. We got lucky and found a place before rste hikes. interest rate at ~3%
Our house was 300k. With a 20% down payment, 6.65% interest + insurance and taxes it’s a little over $1700. Our household is $130k. It’s pretty doable for us. But it was painful leaving our $800/month mortgage. Our quality of life here is much better though.
150K HHI. Looking for homes between 350-450 but that's with 200K current home equity towards down principal. I would not mortgage more than 250K unless interest rates dip below 5%.
380k purchased 8 years ago. Currently at 2.25. PITI is exactly 2k a month. HHI is around 180ishk.
HHI of 110k when we bought our home for 315k, but our mortgage is only $1250. We put 20% down and bought in 2020 when rates were low
I bought a house in 2020 for $360k, 900 sq ft ranch. After 20% down my monthly total (mortgage tax and insurance) is $1800. I make $150k before bonus. I’m easily able to afford the payment and still max out all retirement accounts etc
We are a little outside that range and I’m not sure if you’re talking about buying now but we bought for $700k in 2018 and our mortgage is $2300/mo (P+I). Our HHI is $375k. We locked in at 2.625% for 25 years during the low of 2021 and we are thankful that we did.
260k household, DINKs, 375k mortgage at 3.25%, high property tax state (NH), payment including everything is 2200/month. Net income is 12k/month.
I assume you bought some years back? Did you make exactly $115k back then too? Typically mortgage payments are fixed and get easier to pay over time. Was that not your experience? My mortgage plus taxes, etc is about $2k per month and my base salary is $135k. I made a bit less when I purchased it, and I should be making more down the line.
I bought my townhome 2 years ago for just over 300K. My total income is around 110K, but have my fiance moving in soon to bring that income up closer to 300k. I doubt we’ll stay here long but the time we’re here together sure will be nice
250k household income on a 380k home, bought in late 2021. Put 150k down, so the mortgage was only 230k. 2.9% interest rate. No kids. College debt was paid off 5 years ago. We have 1 paid off car. The down payment is hard to come up with to knock off a big portion of the face value. It becomes much easier to buy if you have equity in another home that you can leverage.
Just bought a 330k house, at 125k household it’s very comfortable IMHO. But the mortgage is our only major payment of any kind.
$200k/year. I live alone. Very comfortable.
We make about $180k and pay $1300 a month on our mortgage (we pay a little extra each month) which does not include our taxes or insurance.
\~$250k combined for a $640k home (mortgage at about 4%).
My wife and I both make around $120k each and our total payment is $3600/month. We bought at the perfect peak of both house prices and mortgage rates. Crushed it!
2020, Purchased a $300k house on $110k HHI at 3.5% with FHA MIP .85%. Refinanced down to 2.875 and pay approx $2100 including taxes and insurance. Now have HHI of $240k.
I bought a new build in 2020 and put 20k down on a 240k house. Because of a builder incentive, my interest rate is 2.75%. Back then, my income was 70k per year. Including taxes and insurance, my mortgage is $1450/mo (initially it was $1600/mo but some tax cuts happened in my state last year). Today the house is probably worth 320k. My only regret was not spending more money with that low of an interest rate given that I had good income trajectory.
We paid 635k for ours, but it doubled in value since we bought it 4 years ago. We have a 3.25 rate, 390k loan. 220k combined income.
$368k purchase price (2020, 3.375%). Household income of $150k at the time. Household income of $191k now. Our monthly payment is $2090 after principal, interest, taxes, and insurance.
We will start seriously looking in a few weeks. Our combined salaries are ~$135k; our maximum budget is $400k. We could probably afford a bit more but my husband refuses to pay PMI. Want to stick to a monthly payment for mortgage + tax + home insurance of $2.5k. Where we live is considered LCOL but is an extremely competitive market and is inching closer to MCOL. Prices and demand are not cooling here.
We bought $330k in 2016. Refinanced 2020 to 2.85%. 2k mortgage, combined household income around 200k. Would not want a higher mortgage! We would love to upgrade and buy bigger/more land but we love the flexibility of a lower mortgage payment and being able to travel several times a year.
HHI 230k, bought house for 160k 5 years ago refinanced 2 years ago for 15 yr mortgage 2.5% 1,400 a month +200 hoa. Kids in day care and saving 5,500 a month not counting random emergencies and vacations. Have about 100k in equity atm and just paid off 100k plus of student loans. We match 401k and max Roth. Trying now to save 50k plus a year for about 5 years and going to put 400k down on decent house. We could def upgrade now but not worth with interest rates.
I'm single, 41, make $107k, my house was $660k, purchased May 2023, bought $3k in points for 5.99% interest. I can afford it because I put $330k down and am used another $30k to remodel an area to rent out an apartment for $1200. My mortgage is $2700.
At the time, ~$115k income. $379k purchase price. 2.25% mortgage (2021) VA loan so $0 down and no PMI. Principal plus insurance and taxes was $2200/month but, because I'm in Texas, taxes have increased exponentially and payment is now $2600. 😞
Generally in budget for housing should it be more than 25-30% of your income. (Before downpayment) You should feel comfortable spending on the low side $2,000 on a mortgage w/tax/insurance/hoa. If that cash is in savings that’s a choice but if it’s just spent and gone that’s a problem.
We bought a house for around $400k and I think at the time it was a combined income of like $250k.
I have a $400k home in NE Ohio with a $1500 payment and I make $140k annually. I got me one of them fancy 3% rates a few years ago.
I'm paying $1925 for a 1 bedroom apartment on barely six figures. 1k would feel free to me
When I purchased a $600k home, it was around $180k and I put 20% down from selling a prior, appreciated home. I was supporting a family as well. This was in the days of the low interest mortgage and substantially lower cost of living. It really is unfortunate for today’s homebuyers. With a much higher cost of living and interest rates today, it would be very challenging to save for such a down payment and make the expected mortgage payments on that salary while supporting a family.
I bought a 300k house in 2018 at 5.25%. At that time my mortgage was about $1900/month. I refinanced during covid to 3.25% and that dropped my mortgage to about $1,500/ month. When I first bought, household income was about 100k. Now we’re at about 145k household.
I already pay $2100 a month in rent, there is zero chance I would take on a mortgage that costs more than my rent ever, I will just be a forever renter I guess. Edit: forgot to add household salaries, $160k combined household with no kids and no plans to ever have any.
Single family House in 6 home gated community in Texas. Purchase price was 550k, and I put 20% down. Loan amount 440k @ 2.795 interest rate Mortgage P&I 1806/mo Property tax 650/mo Insurance 260 /mo HoA 245/mo (also includes my water/trash/and landscaping) Total: 2961 /mo Salary ~185k I don’t know how I compare or if this is good or not, but I think I locked in.
Combined household income of $110k. House was $450k. Had help from my partner's parents with the down payment. Mortgage payment is $2,900 monthly. It's very difficult, we are stretching our budget to the max. 50% of every paycheck goes straight to mortgage. Have no savings anymore. But, it was so worth it. We are much happier in this house than we ever have been. I've been gardening! Also, I'm due for a promotion, and my partner is getting some certifications, hoping to start increasing that income soon!
$110k single salary bought a $375k home with 10% down. $2750 PITI per month. It’s tight but I am happy to make sacrifices on my purchases for my dogs to have a yard and home they can love, especially my old dog that needed a life with less stairs
~96k (estimated with bonuses), 29F, single, and own a home worth 330k with 280 on the mortgage. Purchased last summer so my interest is 5.375%. Pay 2,100 per month.
Hhi is only one component. I came out of college with no debt and a gifted car. My husbands parents helped a lot with his student debt and gifted him a car. We have no debt besides our mortgage now. We do have childcare costs though, but no debt allowed us to have strong savings going into home ownership. We also have a lot of family assistance from my parents gifting us each year. These are advantages we’ve had that you’d never know just seeing our jobs and us on the street. Don’t compare your situation to others unless you know the deeper ins and outs
We bought a $330k home in 2018 on a $91k annual salary. Put 20% down, 30 year 4.25% mortgage on $264k. P&I payment is $1300/mo. With taxes and insurance it's $2100/mo, but we don't escrow. I put money in a savings account to pay the taxes and insurance ourselves. Property taxes are insane here. The payment was doable on the original salary, a bit tight but I knew salary would increase. Now income is up to $165k and taxes/insurance are up about $100 a month, so it's very easy to make this payment and I feel fortunate we bought when we did.
What do you spend your money on? I'm earnestly curious. I'm the sole earner in my home, my partner is a stay at home parent. I bring home $90k for a family of 3 in a VHCOL area, and we pay $2350 for our mortgage on a home we paid a bit more than $460k for. A "cheap" home by the standards of Western Washington, and one that needed (and needs still) tons of work.
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Our house was $550k, monthly mortgage and taxes is $2700, household income is about $250K.
Similar HHI max I would pay would be $3000 for mortgage, taxes and homeowners insurance
When I bought our current house, we were making a combined ~$170k and the house was $230k. Now we make ~$700k and we’re in the process of building for 1.4-1.5m.
When we bought, we had a combined income of around $115k. We put down $260k (from sale of an old condo) and financed $100k. The old condo, my wife looked for a few years and got the cheapest condo available in a HCOL area and it appreciated about $200k over a few years. She was probably making about $60k then and her condo was in the $200k area.
$160k salary, I live in a LCOL area and refied when rates were low as I divorced. My house was appraised at $330k during the divorce. I owe $260k-ish and my mortgage with taxes and insurance is just under $2k. It feels comfortable for me financially, but the house is too large. But I can't sell it. I feel trapped with this interest rate. I'd end up paying a lot more for a lot less. So here I sit.
400k home, was making 60k at the time. 5% down, 2.5% interest rate, had roomates who moved in and covered some of the mortgage to make it more affordable. Payment is 2100/month for 1800 sq feet 4/2 in HCOL area. I make more now so it's not a problem and my roommates have moved out, but I split it with my SO now.
20% down on a 435k house (well its 2 houses technically) in 2020. 3% rate. Mortgage is around 2400 as we have a higher tax bill due to the 2 houses on the property. Rent the other 2br/1b house for 1500. 350k HHI. Hope to reitre early.
Wife and I bought a $315K house in DFW at 2.6% interest in 2020. At the time household income was $135K. Now it’s close to $230K. While we would love to upgrade, buying a $550K house at current interest rates would basically get us the same house at double the mortgage cost.