Living in Iowa making $80,000(before taxes) how much of a house can we afford?
June 11, 2008 · Print This Article
teamf4 asked:
We will be moving to Iowa and would like any help figuring out how much of a house we can afford there. We are not sure of federal/state taxes so we don’t know how much we will actually be taking home making $80,000(before taxes).
We will be moving to Iowa and would like any help figuring out how much of a house we can afford there. We are not sure of federal/state taxes so we don’t know how much we will actually be taking home making $80,000(before taxes).
Thanks for your help!!!
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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.
Normally 3 times of your gross income is what you should be able to afford to buy the house.
There are some online calculators that can help you. However, I don’t know what area you’re moving to, but all I can say is DANG! $80K a year in IOWA?? You’ll be getting yourself a really nice house about anywhere you go in the state.
Traditionally, it used to be 2.5X your salary but now it’s more like 3X - 4.5X with the rising costs of homes. It also depends on the area that you live in. In Iowa, you may be able to get something 3X your salary, whereas in areas like D.C. you can barely get a nice townhome in a nice area for $400K.
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Yes about 3-5 times your income is what you can afford.
They say in a bull market you should go as high as 5 times, but since we are in a not in a good housing market you should be more like 3-4 times your income. This is assuming you do not have alot of debt and have fairly good credit scores.
Im guessing in Iowa you can get a very nice house for 250-300k. Around where i live you are lucky to get a decent 2 bedroom condo or townhouse for that.
Find out what your payment would be on a particular home (escrow included), and add that to all of your other monthly payments (credit cards, auto loans, student loans - not utilities). That amount should be less than half of your total gross monthly income.
Here are some mortgage figures for you to consider:
$150K, 30-yr fixed @ 5.875% = $887/month
$200K, 30-yr fixed @ 5.875% = $1,183/month
$300K, 30-yr fixed @ 5.875% = $1,774/month
I suggest finding a comfortable payment instead of maxing out your credit.
The more important question is what payments will you be comfortable with? Without knowing more (car loans, CC debt, etc) it is hard to say “what you can afford”.
Some guidelines are total home costs (mortgage, utilities, etc) should usually be less than 33% of your take home pay. Total debt payments (ie Car loans, CCs) should be under 40% of your take home. I’ve, always felt comfortable under 30% and 37% for these.
On $80,000 a year you should be able to afford just about any house in Iowa. It does vary a bit from place to place, but where I live, houses average around $120,000 a year. You can get 2-3 bedroom houses in poor condition for as little as $40,000 and I have even seen one 5 bedroom on the market for $80,000 recently. If you’re looking at something newer/in better shape, you’re probably looking at $100,000-$180,000. for a nice 4 bedroom. It’s obviously going to be more expensive in town vs. outside of town and new vs. old. so you should have quite a range in your pricerange.