House?

We may earn a small commission from affiliate links and paid advertisements. Terms

options were how my dad was able to retire at 58
 
Is it inching up due to Escrow? Otherwise it shouldn't go up.

Yes. Escrow. My property taxes alone are $3800+ per year. School levies, rate increases, and now yearly assessments can all essentially increase my tax liability.

You need to make more money each year to compensate for inflation. Power rates, water rates, garbage service, sewer rates; Everything goes up. There were a few years when the economy took a dump that my wife and I were losing ground. My job cut cost of living increases due to hard times. This is like getting a small pay cut each year. I bought my house with 0 down, and very little savings. My house is now worth roughly the same as what I owe.

Having a house payment over $1700, and been through what I have, I strongly advise that you listen to what the others are telling you. Save a nice nest egg. Don't get caught up in the price of your house. It is important, however, keep in mind that $325 worth of principle goes toward my balance. $1400+ is taxes, interest, PMI, fees, etc. Now, extrapolate how much a $1000 down payment would mean for me...... 3 months worth of principle is roughly $1000. Three months of payments =$5200. Subract $1000 for property taxes I'd have to pay anyway. $4200 for $1000 down payment. You just quadrupled your money.

Save your money, live in B's basement. Buy a trailer and stay at a KOA. Do what you know you should, not what you want right now.
 
as further proof.
20,400 reduction in principle(paydown) up front saved me $120 a month in PMI and $45k in mortgage interest (4.5%) over the term of my 30 year mortgage and cut my 30 year mortgage down to a 23 year note since the payments stayed consistent.
the 45k savings in interest was startling to see in black and white.
 
The other side of the coin is that as property values are starting to go back up, it's not a bad time to buy now. We were fortunate and bought low. Not at the absolute bottom of the market but pretty damn close. Sitting in a pretty good position right now. The equity we have is about half the balance of the mortgage.

Not saying to NOT wait. Until you have a down payment and some savings it's best to hold off. It's just not a terrible time to buy.
 
the bottom of the market was almost 4 years ago in seattle. we're due for a downturn in a year or two.
 
Rates probably won't get any lower, ever.
Housing prices here are just about bottomed it seems (been low and not moving for a while now), but still the housing market is dead IMO. Probably more a liberal run state thing than anything else though (everyone is leaving ct en masse)

It IS a good time to buy an assume a loan.

But you still have to be able to afford to do it.
 
the bottom of the market was almost 4 years ago in seattle. we're due for a downturn in a year or two.
I'm definitely hoping there is a downturn...... HOPING....

I am noticing that inventory is sitting longer outside of seattle now than it used to. Last summer people were buying like 5-10% over List price. Completely crazy if you ask me. I've seen some dream homes come and go for decent prices lately but I wasn't quite in the position to buy yet.

Also there are other programs that get out of PMI, etc, using 2nd mortgages for dp, etc. They're a bit higher interest but work well with lower out of pocket expenses. It all depends on what programs are offered. I believe the one that I was looking at doing was a washington state program for first time buyers.
 
I'm definitely hoping there is a downturn...... HOPING....

I am noticing that inventory is sitting longer outside of seattle now than it used to. Last summer people were buying like 5-10% over List price. Completely crazy if you ask me. I've seen some dream homes come and go for decent prices lately but I wasn't quite in the position to buy yet.
there have been 5 houses sold in my neighborhood in the last 6 months. All sold in less than a week for full asking price. The house across the street from me was listed friday and had a pending sign up on monday. Im hoping I have the same luck. We have one of 4 ramblers in our place and the only one on a corner lot...fingers crossed
 
A lot of stuff is selling over list price right now. Mostly around $10k more than list. I don't think prices are going down for a while. Especially with 4% lending.
 
Now that we're married we want to buy a house. Interest rates are low. I'm only going to continue making more as I progress up the pay scale in the next five years.

Where should we start? Would like to spend at most $1200 a month.

What ever you do, don't buy a fucking condo...please please please listen from someone who owns currently two condos. They are nothing but nightmares.

I'm pretty sure you're going to need a FHA loan which means you need a 3.5% down payment plus which is about $7,000 on a $200,000 house. Your also going to need a FICO score of 580 or more as well as good credit scores. I suggest signing up for Credit Karma asap and see whats going on with your credit profile.

Then you have to worry about Taxes, Home Owners insurance and PMI being added to that Mortgage Payment. So a $200,000 home is about what you are looking at if you want around a $1200 a month mortgage.

Read here:

http://www.fha.com/fha_loan_requirements

Find out what you can afford, Be smart and use your take home pay not gross to get real affordability

http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/mortgages/new-house-calculator.aspx
 
Lol

I'm glad I don't live in the rich bitch portions of the country like you guys do. It must suck to have to make 70k a year to be considered middle class.

My mortgage is a little over a third of his budgeted amount and my house is 2700 sq ft and my garage is 1000 Sq ft.

It's all about how you live your life though. My wife and I have a house hold income of around $166,000(it was $181,600 but lost renter)but we also have a shit load of expenses. We live in a nice house and drive new cars and have nice things. Things aren't perfect though. We have struggles at times. When we first bought the house in 2012 and rented out her condo, her condo air conditioner/heat pump went. That was a $6000 job. Then our house air conditioner needed service 3 months later, that was $1500, than later that same month my dog had a neck problem, that was $1000 at the vet. So with in 6 months of living in our new house we spent $8500 which came from our savings. Then I put in a $5100 pellet stove, a $3000 sprinkler system. There is another $8100 out of savings. Then, we had to evict her renter 12/2014 which cost us $2500. So she decided she no longer wants to rent the condo and now it's up for short sale because its not worth anything. Condo goes up for short sale, and then the Condo Association just slapped on a $2500 Assessment for some project, that came out of savings. So basically in 2.5 years we gulped up about 20k of our savings. Its also costing $250/m to heat an empty condo on top of the $380/m condo fee she has to pay and we are no longer getting that $1300/m rent.

Could my wife and I have moved into a 1200SQ foot house in Waterbury, CT and have a $1000/m mortgage and drive 2001 Honda civics and not have any car payments and live way below our means, YEAP, We could have done that. We would be loaded. But that's how the Poor live, accept, they don't have to work, pay taxes and they get everything for free. So i mine as well quit my job, work at home depot, pay no taxes, get food stamps and get state/fed assistance and have no cares or no worries about anything.

Also the middle class has been dying for 30 years. The middle class for the most part can't save money, doesn't have much of a retirement and lives paycheck to paycheck. Only the Rich and the Poor really have no worries.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tab
Could my wife and I have moved into a 1200SQ foot house in Waterbury, CT and have a $1000/m mortgage and drive 2001 Honda civics and not have any car payments and live way below our means, YEAP, We could have done that. We would be loaded. But that's how the Poor live
its funny that you basically summed up my life, with the goal to be semi retired at 50...
life isn't so bad living like a poor person.
do you own your things, or do your things own you?
 
its funny that you basically summed up my life, with the goal to be semi retired at 50...
life isn't so bad living like a poor person.
do you own your things, or do your things own you?

I'm talking living, literally, like a poor person -$8-$10/h part time jobs or no job at all. Popping out 2-3 kids. And your right, it isn't so bad because you don't have to work hard a life. Stuff is just given to you. There is no incentive to do better at life.

I like my life just fine. We both are on par for a regular retirement and i am just fine with that. There is no guarantee I'm even going to make it to 65 giving my Dad died of cancer at 60 and his sister died of cancer at 40 and his mother died of Cancer at 67. I'm not going to live like an Obamacare recipient to hope and pray i live long enough to enjoy it.
 
You guys are always such a wealth of information.

My fico scores currently range from 690 to 725 the last time I checked. My average credit age sucks because I only started building credit a few years ago.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tab
You guys are always such a wealth of information.

My fico scores currently range from 690 to 725 the last time I checked. My average credit age sucks because I only started building credit a few years ago.

That really isnt' too bad. Is that score from a free site online or from the bank? Until I applied for a loan, I had no idea the banks use a different set of scores. It's still a "fico" score, but the grading is different. I was like, "what the fuck is this shit?". I literally had my score in my hand from printing it off that week and the bank score was a good 40 points lower.
 
I usually pull one of my scores yearly from myfico.com. They run $15. How that compares to a bank score I'm not sure.
 
My wife worked at a bank. There is a Fico just for mortgage lending. A trusted mortgage broker can help, but your credit score goes down a little every time another lender pulls your credit, so don't get any credit cards or any extra credit checks right before getting a loan. Checking your own credit does not sing you the same way.
 
Back
Top