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Started By
Message
re: How Much House Can We Afford?
Posted on 7/19/25 at 5:59 pm to notsince98
Posted on 7/19/25 at 5:59 pm to notsince98
Many different views on the matter. Personally my mortgage, taxes, and insurance come to 15% of my take home. My best friend mortgage, taxes, and insurance is around 45% of his take home. Same job and same salary. I can do what I want whenever I want to. I never look at prices of anything and buy whatever I want. I also have a nice savings, invest weekly, travel, etc… We both bought in the similar neighborhoods 10ish years ago. My neighborhood actually is considered nicer than his by others. I bought a house that needed work he bought a house that was newly renovated. I have updated my house over time. His newly renovated house was done awful and he has had to update everything to. He has nothing invested, can’t travel, and has trouble keeping up with his savings account.
To each their own but why be house poor? I love having a house that I renovated myself with sweat equity. I also will never be worried about money now or retirement. That alone is worth it
So how much can you afford to me
Whatever will make your monthly mortgage, insurance, taxes 20% or less than your take home. But that’s a choice you must decide
To each their own but why be house poor? I love having a house that I renovated myself with sweat equity. I also will never be worried about money now or retirement. That alone is worth it
So how much can you afford to me
Whatever will make your monthly mortgage, insurance, taxes 20% or less than your take home. But that’s a choice you must decide
1
Posted on 7/19/25 at 6:13 pm to tigerbacon
Our all in is 17% of take home. Anything higher and I would feel uncomfortable. With three young kids your costs will skyrocket the next 10 years.
Posted on 7/19/25 at 6:25 pm to HarveyBanger
Max price comfortably is 600K
Posted on 7/19/25 at 6:27 pm to Boss
quote:
Our all in is 17% of take home. Anything higher and I would feel uncomfortable. With three young kids your costs will skyrocket the next 10 years.
Mine is 22% and it used to be 10% to 12% when I lived in LA. Big difference.
Posted on 7/19/25 at 6:31 pm to 98eagle
quote:
Without considering your larger than normal down payment, with a $230,000 combined salary, you could potentially afford a house priced between $700,000 and $900,000. Talk to your bank's loan officer to see what max price they would approve you for.
900k would be miserable. With today’s rates and 200k down that shite would freak me out paying a mortgage on 700k, taxes, and insurance.
Posted on 7/19/25 at 6:57 pm to TheOcean
lol that’s it?
10k net and you act like that’s not enough….
wtf are you guys spending money on??
10k net and you act like that’s not enough….
wtf are you guys spending money on??
Posted on 7/19/25 at 8:09 pm to xBirdx
Why are people downvoting my OP? Genuinely curious
Posted on 7/19/25 at 8:10 pm to Rize
quote:
900k would be miserable. With today’s rates and 200k down that shite would freak me out paying a mortgage on 700k, taxes, and insurance
Without a doubt. 600k looks to be the number that gets us what we want with some wiggle room.
Posted on 7/19/25 at 8:17 pm to HarveyBanger
Don’t even try the $700-$900,000 range you will be miserable.
Posted on 7/19/25 at 8:22 pm to lsuconnman
quote:
2.8mil…
^ so true, I laughed.
Posted on 7/19/25 at 10:07 pm to makersmark1
Totally out of left field question.
What is your contribution to the total and what is hers?
The reason I ask is we were in the same situation 20ish years ago and hindsight being what it is, if she brings in less than 25% of that total, I'd strongly recommend having her stay home with the kids and raise / school your own kids.
TRUST ME, it would be worth it, and you won't regret it.
Just my .02!
What is your contribution to the total and what is hers?
The reason I ask is we were in the same situation 20ish years ago and hindsight being what it is, if she brings in less than 25% of that total, I'd strongly recommend having her stay home with the kids and raise / school your own kids.
TRUST ME, it would be worth it, and you won't regret it.
Just my .02!
Posted on 7/19/25 at 10:12 pm to makersmark1
My wife and I have bought 3 houses and built the one we live in.We were never comfortable buying/ building what we couldn’t afford on 1 salary.Never know when some bad shite might happen,in fact she was widowed at 25 her first marriage.
We built our house for about 1/3 of what we qualified for combined salaries.We both would have liked a little bigger(it’s 2050 sq ft.heated) and a little fancier.We’re 74 and 72 and in very good shape financially.We’re,both in good health and have had very minimal health care expenses,so we’ve been very lucky.
No one would be blown away to see our house but we like it fine,suits our needs.
We built our house for about 1/3 of what we qualified for combined salaries.We both would have liked a little bigger(it’s 2050 sq ft.heated) and a little fancier.We’re 74 and 72 and in very good shape financially.We’re,both in good health and have had very minimal health care expenses,so we’ve been very lucky.
No one would be blown away to see our house but we like it fine,suits our needs.
Posted on 7/19/25 at 11:41 pm to HarveyBanger
It would help to know what area you're in and what comps are for what you're looking for. Also, what are state taxes, etc? Does your wife make a lot or could she be a stay at home instead? I'd try and stay around $500k-$600k (max), but again without knowing your area and what comps are its hard to say. I would 100% plan some sweat equity and get the size you want. I would put exactly 20% down and not a penny more so $100k-120k and keep the other $80k for shite that's going to come up. Put most it in a HYSA and earn ~4% and maybe even invest some.
Posted on 7/20/25 at 6:20 am to Sho Nuff
Totally agree it’s state dependent too. Florida taxes on a house is insane. A 450k house in Florida with 100k down will be around 4K a month for everything but only 3k a month in Louisiana
Posted on 7/20/25 at 8:26 am to tigerbacon
quote:
Florida taxes on a house is insane.
Texas is even higher.
Posted on 7/20/25 at 9:13 am to Paul Allen
quote:
Texas is even higher.
You have to know where to buy in Texas and do a lot of research. 1 neighborhood over from mine and my property taxes would have been 3.4% vs 1.59%.
Posted on 7/20/25 at 9:17 am to HarveyBanger
quote:
Why are people downvoting my OP? Genuinely curious
Because other people giving you percentages isn't going to get you to the answer that is right for you. You need to do a calc:
1) Start with your salaries
2) Remove retirement savings/benefits/taxes/etc. and determine your take home pay
3) Remove additional savings required if applicable like IRAs or brokerage savings contribtions
4) Remove monthly food budget (groceries and eating out)
5) Remove monthly costs for cars (car payment, fuel, insurance, repairs, maintenance)
6) Remove monthly costs for having a family (clothes, cleaners, toilet paper, etc.)
7) Remove monthly costs for kids (education, activities/sports, etc.)
8) Remove monthly costs for travel (this is a big one people will miss)
9) Remove how much disposable income you want each month to cover unepexted expenses or just spend however you want.
10) Remove monthly costs for luxuries you will not compromise on like internet service, cell phones, netflix, etc.
11) At this point, what you have left is the amount of monthly income you can spend on mortgage, home insurance, HOA fees, property taxes, utilities and home maintenace.
Item #11 is obviously important. You have to consider all those expenses as part of owning a home. Bigger homes wont just have higher mortgages, everything else will be more expensive, too. So you need to sit your butt down with your wife and make sure you remove ALL expenses you refuse (or cant) eliminate and find the comfortable monthly costs of owning a home that works for you.
Everyone is different. In my scenario, we dont travel a lot so we wanted to spend more on a house since we spend most of our time there. We have friends that make more than us but live in a lower cost house because the make yearly trips to europe and spend a crap ton on watches, clothes, cars, etc. Both of us live comfortably and happy.
This post was edited on 7/20/25 at 9:21 am
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