re: House = (x)household income

quote:

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25-28% of take home pay...no longer than 15 years.

Thats just my personal method.

If you have zero debt other than mortgage...I see no reason why you cant stretch it a little if you find something you really like.

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I am assuming that you mean property tax is included in you 25-28% figure...

Just doing some rough calculations- let's assume you take home $7500/month between two salaries. 25% of $7500=$1875. Let's assume $500 of that is property/school tax (roughly 6000/year yeah NY sucks). At $1375/month, for 15 years, with 3.5% interest, that comes out to a Present Value of $192,339. With a 20% down payment, that means you'll be able to buy a roughly $230k house with a take home pay of $7500/month.

I am all for buying low and saving money in the long run, but that buying capacity figure seems low to me. Did I miss something?