How much can we afford to pay for a house?
May 25, 2007 · Print This Article
First time mom! asked:
I know the best answer to this is to contact a professional but we aren’t at that stage yet. I was just wondering if anyone could tell me about how much we can afford to spend on a home if we would like a house payment of about $1100.00. We do not want to put any money down. Thank
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I know the best answer to this is to contact a professional but we aren’t at that stage yet. I was just wondering if anyone could tell me about how much we can afford to spend on a home if we would like a house payment of about $1100.00. We do not want to put any money down. Thank
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Josh Dunaway has been a certfied Realtor in the suburban Chicagoland area for over 20 years. Aside from starting his own real estate company, he also owns a mortgage company as well.
around a $100000- 125000 loan depending on the interest rate
About 125k depending on the interest rate and escrows.
With the housing and mortgage markets the way they are, it is very hard to say what you would be able to afford. Getting a mortgage with no money down is going to be difficult now, which means higher interest rates and more fees. Also, you did not mention if the $1100 includes taxes and insurance.
Why not? It doesn’t cost you anything to find out how much you can afford. If the loan company won’t do that for you, then they aren’t the company for you. But listen to me when I say, don’t use Internet lenders. You should also check into “first time buyers money”. See if you would just talk to the professional and not these “yahoos” on here. You would have a pretty good idea by now.
Oh and the mssmith dude is breaking the Yahoo guidelines, so if he answers your question, watch out, I don’t know what other guidelines he would break as well to get business.
If you look at web sites that figure this out for you they ask several question. Some of them might be.
What is the interest rate?
how many years is the loan amoritized over?
are you including escrows for insurance and taxes in your $1100?
Just a rule of thumb in Texas with our tax rates and insurance rates on a 30 year loan at about 6.5% interest then you can guess at about 1% of your loan balance. So $1100 would be $110,000.
If you mean that you will pay the taxes and insurance seperately or your rates are much cheaper or more expensive than here-then you will come up with a way different answer.
you need to be able to afford your house payment and one half. many people who pay 800 in rent feel they can afford 800 house pymnt, not always true. as a homeowner you are your own maintenance and something will break. how much house you can afford will be based oncredit, debt to income ratio, costs of homes in your market. where im from 1000/ mo will get you about 1300-1600 sq ft. where i live you can get almost double that especially if you ahve good credit and a decent down payment. there are some online mortgage calculators that may be ble to help you more. good luck
The interest right now could reach approximately 6%. For $1,100 (30 yrs term) your loan is $185,000 and you will be paying annually, $13,200 plus tax and insurance which will reach to about $15,500 annually. To be qualified, your total income should be 15,500 X 3 = 46,500/yr with no debt.
I own a home and I think its a great way to use leverage to build equity, HOWEVER, renting makes sense in many ways.
Renting keeps you mobile - You really need to plan on being in the home you buy for at least 5 years, and plan on several months to sell it it you need to move. If you’ve never sold a house, its expensive. Figure around 11% of the sales price to be eaten in realtor fees, and seller paid closing costs. Renting does not have that problem.
Maintenance - I am a very handy guy and can fix nearly anything, but I can’t tell you how many times I wish I could just call the landlord to fix it (that thought is usually on my 2nd trip to Home Depot cuz I got the wrong size whooziewhatsit)
Tax deduction vs interest - Folks always talk about the tax advantages of home ownership. While in general its true, here is another way to look at it. Say you are in the 25% tax bracket. That means for every $1 of interest you can deduct, you get back $.25 in taxes (not exact but for easy math and understanding). Super, but thats still $.75 you flushed down the toilet. Yes, I know, rent is flushed too, all I’m saying is that you don’t buy a house for the tax break. You still need to front the cash to pay the income tax every month so its a actually monthly drain. BUT, once you got your tax refund at the end of the year and if you used it as an annuity to help pay for next years house payments, that would be ideal, but I never met anyone with that much discipline. As a homeowner you end up using it for a new BBQ, TV, spa, etc…you get the point. Its a great idea on paper, but thats about as far as it goes.
Flipping - While I think this notion is dead, its still percieved that real estate is a better investment than the stock market. Well, historically the stock market returns 7-10%, depending on your source of info. Real estate is 6.6% according to the National Association of Realtors. So historically better return in the stock market and you don’t need to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars to participate. Easy choice.
Your house is not an ATM - Now that you have all this equity you built in a home, you want to use some of it, right? Well first of all you will need someone elses permission to do so(ie aply for a loan). Then pay fees to close the loan and interest on the money you borrow. Wrap your head around that…you are paying the Bank interest to use your own equity. Or if you rent and “invest the rest” you can simply withdraw some cash out of your brokerage account. Yes I know there is “opportunity losses” associated with that but I hope you get the point.
I’M ALL FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM, so please do not misunderstand, please buy a house if you are able to. I have just seen way too many lives ruined because someone THOUGHT they could afford a house.
With a 7% interest rate, based on a 40 year mortgage (there are a lot of financial places that will extend it for you) you can afford a $170,000 place, but that’s not including taxes that you may pay for utilities, fees you may have to pay for stratas, and additional monthly costs like phone, internet, electricity etc..
you need to use a mortgage calculator to figure out a estimate amount you can afford.. heres a great site its has everything and even a free mortgage calculator
hope it helps! good luck