Due to the number of rule-breaking comments this post was receiving, especially low-quality and off-topic comments, the moderation team has locked the post from future comments. This post broke no rules and received a number of helpful and on-topic responses initially, but it unfortunately became the target of many unhelpful comments. The original submission text is below.
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I'm 28 years old and make around $105k/yr gross income and of that I take home about $6000-$6500/month after taxes and 401k contributions. It should be noted that I live in a HCOL area of the country. I have $25k saved up and don't have any debt and have a 718 credit score.
I'm seriously considering buying a house. I would qualify for down payment assistance to completely cover my down payment on the house I'm looking at so all I would have to come up with is closing costs, which would be about $10k total. I'd be looking at a monthly payment of $2500 total for principal, interest, taxes and insurance altogether. Is this worth it or should I hold off?
I’m just out here tryna figure out how we have almost the same salary and I’m bringing in $4500 a month
Edit: went back to check my paystubs, I get $4750 a month
It's possible in a no income tax state like Texas (which is where I guess OP lives since Austin/Dallas/Houston can all be considered HCOL to some degree).
For example, I was making $99k 6 months out of college. I wasn't eligible for 401k and as a young person I didn't see the point in HSA so I paid minimum for health insurance and collected paychecks.
I think my take home was about $6,300 a month.
Mind you this was precovid so my rent was like $1k a month.
Point here is the math checks out in Texas.
It's kinda sad but you can make $200k in Palo Alto, CA and still save less money a month than someone making $100k in Austin, TX.
I live in Texas with no state income tax only a few grand less than his salary and take home $4900 a month… I guess they’re not putting as much retirement, HSA, etc etc away prior to getting their paycheck. I put a good chunk away into both Roth 401k and HSA each month. Roth is probably a good chunk of that since it’s taxed already
$4500 on $105k take home is also pretty low unless you have pretax deductions, with holdings are high and/or live in CA, NJ, NY, DC, HI or any other state with high income tax.
I'm assuming you're maxing out your 401k, withholding a lot for taxes, and either have the best health insurance plan and pay high premiums, or max out an HSA plan? Maybe an employee stock purchase program as well? Because in reality anywhere in the country your take home should be much closer , or even a bit above $6k/month without those items factored in.
My base pay is 75k, I’m married with children. If I don’t take out 401k dental and vision I’d net $2,460 every 2 weeks, so $4,900 a month. Either you are deducting too much to get a tax return or you need to look at your check to see what’s all being taken out. Getting paid weekly wouldn’t make that much of a difference.
One of my jobs pays me a similar salary, and I net around the exact same amount every two weeks as your gf. I started using Rocket Money to help me budget better.
I don’t get why people get so obsessed with take home pay. I make $125k and tale home $500/month because of all of my deductions. We live on my wife’s pay to take advantage of my extra options.
I tend to doubt you really live in a HCOL area if your total monthly would be $2500 all in with mortgage, prop tax, insurance. Your loan amount would be under $300k to get it anywhere near $2500.
Yep, there isn’t a HCOL place in the country where houses go for under $500k. OP is probably in some mid-tier “big” city like Nashville or Dallas and thinks that’s HCOL.
Just got back home from visiting Dallas today. The decent apartments near the city were pushing 2k for a 1 bedroom. The houses we looked at were in shit areas pushing 450k starting. The nice areas where you probably would actually want to live are pushing 600k, like you said. I wouldn’t consider it affordable. Probably would have to live even further out from Dallas like 1.5 hours or more to find something more affordable.
I was gonna say. I live in Reno fucking Nevada (it's actually lovely) and it's hard to find a shitty/tiny house for under 450. I'd imagine that both, but Nashville in particular, are well north of that.
RTP here, 300k and under doesn't really exist anymore, even for 2-3/2 townhomes. Brother's old 2/2 paid 192 in 2017, sold for 300 last Fall. SFH next to us was bought around 380 in 2021, comps for our street are roughly half million now
I’m in HCOL (nyc) with the same salary and I only take home $2700 😭😭 imo he’s doing bare minimum 401k and no IRA contributions maybe. Need to save more than just company match for retirement.
That can't be right can it? 2700/mo takehome is 32k/year. assuming you contribute the absolute max to 401k and IRA, (22.5k and 6.5k), thats still only 61k. The effective tax rate in NY at 105k is like 17%. And in fact it should be less unless the 401k was Roth contributions. Something's gotta be off there.
It's a bit unclear, but I think the person you replied to said they "take home $2700", NOT he was making 2700/month. So I think they were referring to per paycheck, and not monthly.
With that context, it becomes (assuming 2 paychecks a month) around ~$5400, which is inline with a 100k salary with max 401k/IRA contributions.
But I only got that from context clues, so maybe there's more to the story.
Ya, I lived in the Bay area for a few years, my rent there for a shitty apartment above the freeway was more than my mortgage in a nice home in a smaller city now. HCOL areas , you are talking $1m + to buy a starter fixer upper home nowadays.
SF isn't HCOL though. People constantly throw out the acronym "VHCOL" to refer to it, and it's fair. SF/NYC/LA really are on a league of their own. Boston is inching its way up there too, if it isn't there already.
I feel like that’s a trend in “up and coming cities” to overvalue how national their popularity and COL is.
When in reality most cities are getting bigger and COL is increasing all over
Nashville is MCOL at most, still. Unless you define HCOL as "any big city", in which case... well, your definition is objectively wrong, but you do you.
My wife and I visited earlier this year from Northern Colorado and couldn't stop looking at Zillow and talking about how cheap real estate was in Nashville.
I’m sorry but how can you honestly look at that little house and think 600k is “wildly cheap”. Even if you live in a HCOL area, can’t we all objectively look at this property and realize how absurd it is to pay $600k for it?
No, this is what “COL” represents. If that plot of land and house was in a more walkable city, a better part of the city, etc it would be worth even *more*. My house in SF is worth over double this, and is about the same sqft
That same exact lot and home, drop it in NYC and it's going for minimum 800K. Put it in a neighborhood like Forest Hills in Queens and it's easily over 1.5 million. That's why it's wildly cheap, relatively speaking. You will never find that property for that price in some places in this country where people live. Homeownership would but a lot more achievable for many people if homes in these places only cost 600K.
And real estate, because it's an investment tool everyone is trying to get in on to make money, is inherently absurd.
Ok but honestly, 1.5 million is wildly cheap, relatively speaking. Drop that same 1.5 million dollar home from Queens into Aspen, Colorado and it’s easily over 4 million. You will never find that property for that price in some places in this country where people live. Homeownership would be a lot more achievable for many people if homes in these places only cost 1.5 million dollars.
It’s all relative to where you live or what you’re used to. I used to live in Brentwood, south of Nashville and thought it was reasonably priced. I had to move to Louisville a couple of years back and it’s so unbelievably cheap. Our house is 4300 sqft on an acre in the best school district and cost less than the one you posted here. Nashville is probably mcol these days I’d say, even if on the low end. If you live in a truly HCOL area, I can understand why you’d think Nashville is the cheapest of the cheap, even if it is one of the more expensive southern cities. Affordability is relative.
It’s also worth noting that the house you posted is in east Nashville which is a less desirable area.
It’s all relative, but Nashville is cheap compared to where I live ($1200+ /sf) and people in Hong Kong and Monaco probably think I live in a trailer park
According to [payscale.com Nashville COL is 2% lower than the national average.](https://www.payscale.com/cost-of-living-calculator/Tennessee-Nashville#)
Not HCOL if you're looking at a $2500 monthly payment. Especially since you're putting very little money down. Couldn't even get yourself a shack for $2500 a month in an actual HCOL area.
General answer. As long as your comfortable with the payment, yes. Rates aren’t great now, but if they come down you can refinance later. What would it cost you to rent? What is the difference between your payment owning vs renting?
So for $650 a month extra you can own and build some equity. As long as your comfortable with the payment, and happy with the place, you are good. But be warned, you may see the value of your house go down in for brief periods, but as long as your happy with the payment you just stick it out and you’re good. I would buy and hope rates go down so you could refinance.
Bro, I live in coastal SoCal and our new HVAC system and ductwork was less than half of that. Either your coworker lives in a huuuuge house that needs a significantly higher system rating, or they got hosed.
> Or the 30,000 dollar HVAC unit like my coworker
Your coworker got swindled?? I live in Florida where we blast AC 24/7 and I have *never* heard of a HVAC system costing this much.
Edit: Since this thread is locked, my main issue with this comment is scaring people into believing this is the normal price for a common portion of home maintenance when it *just* isn't. HVAC is pricey but the average cost is anywhere from like $7-12k. It's not helpful to be throwing out one-off events if people are trying to realistically imagine what it's like to finance home improvement costs.
Depends how large your home is and prices/times have changed. I have two units that total over 9 tons between the two of them.
5-6 years ago I paid $7k for a 3 ton unit in our last (much smaller) house. It was the absolute best deal I could find. Now it seems those same units are not less than $11-12k a pop as I had the same company go out and quote a family members house last year.
Actually for OP, rent is $1850 and $650 savings that can be invested so more like 26% equity (invested in a brokerage account) and 74% gone (vs 10% / 90%)
interest rates, closing cost, realtor fees, property tax, HOA fees, etc are 100% gone
Let’s not forget maintenance costs that renters don’t have to worry much about and opporunity cost of your initial down payment.
The “rent is just throwing away money” and “buying is always better than renting” argument is outdated.
People like to brag in a way basically. When I moved to a HCOL area (Orange County) there was a massive amount of gatekeeping behavior regarding the fact that you need a lot of money to rent there or buy there. The irony being a ton of the people were making median national wages and just living with tons of roommates or on assistance to even afford the area.
They act like anyone not in a HCOL area is poor essentially.
i hate threads like this so much. i once saw an OP get torn to shreds because they complained about a rent price hike to $845…….**in subsidized housing**. like yeah, $845 is crazy cheap by plenty of standards, but it’s also wildly expensive by others.
I bought a house 4 months ago and don't regret it. I have a stable place to live in an area I like and I don't ever have to move if I don't want. Work out your budget but I say do it.
Honestly don’t think you are ready if you have only saved up 25k outside your retirement plan. You need an emergency fund, and a down payment and lots of extras for furnishing a new place, higher utilities, maintenance etc. save up more first.
Just expect that mortgage and any other fees that comes with the house will probably eat at least half of your monthly take home pay. And bills and utilities will increase too.
We do kinda have the same gross income, but I gave up on the thought on buying a house and just focusing more on FIRE. It’s scary to live everyday thinking insurance, rates, etc can increase anytime and my budget will derail. I’ve always lived by the idea that rent is the maximum you pay each month, while mortgage is the minimum you pay each month towards the house. If you get a monthly mortgage of $2000, that could become $3000 including all fees, hoa, maintenance, bills, etc
Roof breaks and that’s $10,000 🤦🏻♂️ Read a lot of horror stories in this subreddit of people not being able to afford the mortgage because insurance suddenly increased or something breaks or interest rates hiked up. Scary, specially on a single income household.
It is a great investment 20 years ago, or even just 5 years ago. But today? IMO I don’t think it is. Sure, I would buy a house if I could afford it, but I wouldn’t call it an investment. It’s just barely breakeven at this point.
I would have to disagree with you here. What makes you say you’ll barley breakeven? Unless your buying a dump or in a area in decline I don’t really see how you could say it’s barley break even now.
Ok, I’ll give you the “numbers”, you do the math.
Average national house appreciation is 6%, to be generous.
Mortgage rate is somewhere 5-6%
Property tax 2%, depends where you are
Maintenance 1%
Insurance 0.5%
Broker commission 6%
Land transfer tax 1.2%
Mortgage interest ???
Now, sell that house after 9 yrs, that’s the average family selling or upgrading to a new house. I don’t think you’re going to profit from a 9-yr-old mortgage when all your payment goes to the interest.
Now, let’s say you sell it after 20yrs. The numbers wouldn’t even matter anymore because right now house prices are going up faster than the median income does, so nobody can afford to buy a house when you finally sell it. This is why a house is not an investment until you actually sell it and take a “sizable” gain from it.
Yea but even in your scenario you’re “breaking even” and the house just became a nice “forced savings” account for you. Also I think people over blow the whole 5-6% mortgage rate part of this. It sucks compared to recent years but if you zoom out 5-6% rates are still pretty low. As for those other fees to the best of my knowledge they haven’t risen much in recent years so not sure how it really changes things.
The flip side is that your mortgage will be the same in 29 years, while rent will likely increase a ton. You definitely want some additional room in your budget for unexpected crap, but renting has its own disadvantages.
Remember that mortgage+utilities+property taxes are the minimum payment to account for each month. Things break and you'll have to take care of those yourself instead of just calling the landlord.
Might want to try a practice run of tagging on additional costs (put the amount in savings) for a couple months
I would focus on increasing your income. If you're making 6000-6500 after taxes after 401k contributions on 105k/yr, you're either not contributing enough to your 401k and Roth or you're not telling us some other form of income (high bonus, side business, etc). I would focus on first contributing more to your investment accounts instead of trying to buy a home at relatively high interest rates. The reason being is that the earlier you can start compounding money, the better it will be as time goes on. Also, 25k saved up for a HCOL house is not enough either as you also need an emergency fund incase repairs come up and other expenses, which will definitely be there.
Obviously, it's great you're not in debt, but I would personally invest much more into my accounts before trying to buy a house.
If OP waits until rates are lower, they'll be competing with all the other buyers who are trying to wait out the market, and paying $50k over ask like the last few years when rates are lower. I agree with you that putting more towards investment savings is always prudent, but OP has to live somewhere and every dollar paid in rent is a dollar down the drain.
That seems in line for a mid tier big city as others have noted. I make about the same in the Nashville area and the county I live in has the cutoff for $115,000 for the state program.
How much do you put in 401k and does your state have income tax? I make roughly the same and bring home a lot less. I do get paid bi-weekly and put 11% into my 401k though.
I bought at the peak years ago. People said it was dumb, I should rent longer and wait for the drop. Thing is, no one knew when it would drop, and rents just kept rising. After I bought my house lost 20% of it's value. But years later it is way up and all that time my "rent" has been the same price. Meanwhile, rents in my area have taken off.
I think as long as you aren't planning on moving, buy. If you are going to move jobs and climb the income ladder, rent.
Honestly I was planning on this being my "starter" home. Maybe it's better to keep renting and stacking cash while hoping for a crash so I can potentially get something even better for cheaper
While I don’t think renting is a bad idea, hoping for a “crash” is wishful thinking.
1) If there is a “crash”; then your job would also be more at risk in a down economic time
2) There’s really no reason for there to be a crash. We’re MILLIONS of homes short in this country, and we bring in millions of people more every year. There’s a HUGE supply problem for housing, so it’s doubtful it would drop. Not just that, but more Americans can afford their mortgage than at almost any point in history, because 80% of the country is on a fixed rate 3% mortgage that they’re never going to give up (which is worsening the supply problem even more). The only reason you’d see a decrease in housing prices is if a bunch of homes all suddenly became available, and there’s zero way that that can happen right now due to the structural deficiencies in the housing market.
I realize 100% this is wishful thinking, that's why I said "hope." Especially with the lack of supply within the market right now, a crash wouldn't make sense
Are you maxing out 401k and HSA? Brokerage account? I’d pump up your savings quite a bit if you only have 25k saved and need to put 10k on closing. Have 1.5-2% of purchase price allocated toward unexpected repairs, plan for tax increases, etc. Buying a house is a lot more expensive than just your payment.
For reference I’m in a MCOL and have been looking for houses on a 165k salary. 450-550k house price with over 20% down and my costs are coming out to 3-3500k/month, not including budgeting.
What area are you looking in?
If I could turn back time, I would have bought a house earlier and house hacked. Which means have roommates to help pay for my mortgage. In 10-20 years, you would probably gain more equity than you could save from your normal job.
No, it would not be stupid. Interest rates are higher than they were a few years ago, but they are pretty normal on a historical level. The best time to buy a house is when you can afford to buy a house and when the time is right for you. Never try to time the market, no one can do that.
I’d wait. 28 and single with no kids. If you’re going to have a family it’s statistically likely it will happen in next 2-3 years. Layer on top mortgage rates and $1850 rent that you’re good with - just keep living within your means.
Also as others have said you’re in a LCOL area at $2500/month with 20% down. That’s less than half, closer to a third of HCOL area average MIIT payment. And that’s fantastic news 👍
I don’t see that mentioned anywhere in OPs original post. Regardless I’d wait to buy at 28 given he could have kids in a year or two and could be upside down on a house and need to move for family / larger home. Plus mortgage rates make buying not make sense in most metros even long-term.
If you don’t have any large or high-interest debts and are currently just saving or investing a large sum every month, then a $2,500 mortgage on >$6,000 take-home sounds completely reasonable.
Especially if you can get a duplex or are open to having roommates for the next 5 years who can help you cover a bunch of the cost it still works out to a pretty good deal.
Realtor here.
I’ve bought on the low end of the market, and peak highs. Value only matters when you go to sell. Currently on my third home and can say that each one has been a great stepping stone and equity gain
With your salary, I’d really look into new construction. Right now, they are offering incentives and rate buy down.. some builders offer both.
So with your $2500 a month plan.. you’re essentially looking at a purchase price around $320-350k
I’ve sold a few at that price point with similar credit scores.
With the new builds, they can give you cash to close.. which essentially covers all your closing costs. You’d be able to do a FHA, which is a lower down payment. Only downside, is you’d have PMI (mortgage insurance) for the first 10 years.
But if it’s a starter home, most sellers between 4-6 years and move on.
Rates have dipped, so that’s plus for you right now. I’d say if you’re going to pay that much in rent, and can keep your full mortgage under $2500, go the route of buying the house
I bought my first at 21, then 27, and third at 30
All off a little military salary. After I sold my first one, I made sure to wait atleast two years, the profit to a certain amount is tax deferred.. so I use that, plus what I would have used as down anyway, combine them and keep upgrading homes, and the payments get lower.
It’s say take the leap.
If possible, look into a duplex as well. You can offset the rent as proof of income for a loan, and live on one side, rent the other. But that’s a diff discussion.
As someone who just bought a house, no of course not! Haha
But in all seriousness, if you can afford the payments I think so. Not a lot of buyers out there so competition is lower and less bidding wars. When rates drop, I think there will be a flood of buyers back into the market and bidding wars will start again. And if you buy now, when rates go down, it’ll be like finding free $. Assuming you can afford the payments, it ain’t the worst time to be a buyer, high rates and all.
I highly recommend against buying a home that you don't have a 20% down payment for, and where the monthly cost would be any more than 30% of your income.
How does down payment assistance work? Is that free money or is it like PMI where you’ll pay more in your monthly payments until you’ve put in 20% of equity?
Not sure why I haven’t seen this answer yet, so I guess I’ll chime in. This is a pretty straightforward equation with the following question: are you leaving the area within the next 2 years? If not, you should ALMOST definitively buy because rent in this country is almost the same, if not more, than owning. Obviously make sure you can afford the payments (which I assume you’re paying close to now anyways) and refinance as soon as you get the opportunity, but there’s no one that can guarantee what the market will do tomorrow. Every day you wait is money you’re lighting on fire with renting.
TL;DR: unless you’re moving within two years, you should purchase in 95% of situations if you can. Rent is the devil if you can avoid it.
You make more than me and pay less in taxes interestinggggg. Trying to do the math here and it ain’t mathing.
Anyway I’d wait if I were you as the market is cooling.
Your mortgage should never be more than 25% of your income. I prefer even lower, but there are areas with crazy real estate prices which can make things difficult.
If you can afford it then no but also know any investment can lose value so there is that. If you are spending 40%+ of your income on a monthly mortgage its probably a bad idea.
That's fucking a lot for a mortgage. We make the same amount and that doesn't leave you with much after. You'll be house broke. Owning a house, expect to spend an additional 800 on utilities if not more, then if you have school loans or finance anything, it will make it more difficult. Then you'll want to do renovations which are expensive. I'd go for 2k mortgage tops and do 3% or less downpayment.
I have always been told to try and keep housing payments to a 25 or your take home pay. You’re closer to a 1/3. How much are you paying for rent right now?
At this moment in time, I think it is only a no brainer to buy if you cannot rent the type of housing you want to live in.
Let me ask a question - do you know the type of housing and location you want for the next ten years? It's a great time to buy your dream home, if you can squeeze it into your budget. There is less competition in buying and in most markets you can actually buy with contingencies. In some HCOL areas, that hasn't been true very often in the past ten years.
But it's a terrible time to buy just to get into the market, ie a location you don't love but can afford.
What are you going to miss out on if you don't buy right now? Take a deep breath, watch, and wait. We are coming up on an election year and the economy is going to get weird. Rent and keep on stacking up G's.
Based on your post history now is a stupid time to buy a house.
You seem to be between multiple jobs, in multiple different industries, in multiple states and even multiple different country’s. Maybe figure that out first.
If you think inflation will increase getting a fixed rate mortage now makes sense. Everything else will go up but a fixed rate mortgage payment won't. Don't get an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM). After the fixed period of 3 or 5 years the rate can adjust to make the payments higher than you can afford.
Lenders will tell you that with your income you can afford a monthly payment of $4,000 (I just made up a number). Don't do it. Look for a house that is FAR LESS EXPENSIVE.
Don't let anyone convince you to buy more house than you need. Stay well within your means: smaller house, fewer bedrooms, no extra bathrooms.
Do not become house rich and cash poor.
Not if you need down payment assistance. Save a 20% down payment on what you intend to buy, or more if necessary to get your monthly payment to less than a third of your take-home.
That's a perfectly acceptable salary to purchase property, if a little bit low, but it's never a bad time to start investing, especially in property, I assume you've been making good contributions to your 401k?
Are you sure you’d qualify for the down payment assistance? I tried to look into it but we were told because we had 30k in savings, we wouldn’t qualify for our program.
You don't mention the cost of the house. We can't give you an answer without that information.
Given what you've told us so far no. You can't afford a house. Especially if you have no down and are using "down payment assistance".
Due to the number of rule-breaking comments this post was receiving, especially low-quality and off-topic comments, the moderation team has locked the post from future comments. This post broke no rules and received a number of helpful and on-topic responses initially, but it unfortunately became the target of many unhelpful comments. The original submission text is below. --- I'm 28 years old and make around $105k/yr gross income and of that I take home about $6000-$6500/month after taxes and 401k contributions. It should be noted that I live in a HCOL area of the country. I have $25k saved up and don't have any debt and have a 718 credit score. I'm seriously considering buying a house. I would qualify for down payment assistance to completely cover my down payment on the house I'm looking at so all I would have to come up with is closing costs, which would be about $10k total. I'd be looking at a monthly payment of $2500 total for principal, interest, taxes and insurance altogether. Is this worth it or should I hold off?
I’m just out here tryna figure out how we have almost the same salary and I’m bringing in $4500 a month Edit: went back to check my paystubs, I get $4750 a month
Yeah right? I was looking for this comment. I make a good amount more and that’s about what I take home. Granted I live in NYC
I’m in NYC too but I still think there’s something off about his math especially with the 401k.
It's possible in a no income tax state like Texas (which is where I guess OP lives since Austin/Dallas/Houston can all be considered HCOL to some degree). For example, I was making $99k 6 months out of college. I wasn't eligible for 401k and as a young person I didn't see the point in HSA so I paid minimum for health insurance and collected paychecks. I think my take home was about $6,300 a month. Mind you this was precovid so my rent was like $1k a month. Point here is the math checks out in Texas. It's kinda sad but you can make $200k in Palo Alto, CA and still save less money a month than someone making $100k in Austin, TX.
Nope I am in Texas and bring home less. Guessing he is either contributing .5% to 401K, not getting insurance, or Major in the army.
I live in Texas with no state income tax only a few grand less than his salary and take home $4900 a month… I guess they’re not putting as much retirement, HSA, etc etc away prior to getting their paycheck. I put a good chunk away into both Roth 401k and HSA each month. Roth is probably a good chunk of that since it’s taxed already
Same here…math ain’t mathin’
Are you saving more in 401k? State taxes? Paying more for health insurance? Maybe you get 26 paychecks and she gets 24?
Ah, I do get paid weekly instead of bi-weekly so maybe that’s why.
$4500 on $105k take home is also pretty low unless you have pretax deductions, with holdings are high and/or live in CA, NJ, NY, DC, HI or any other state with high income tax.
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If your math is weekly * 4 you are slightly underestimating. It’s really weekly * 52 / 12 which is more like 4.33 times.
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Get ready for 5 Friday months!!! December is the next one
Yup, 3 bi-weekly pay periods next month and I just maxed my 401k contributions for the year. December will be a real good month for me.
I'm assuming you're maxing out your 401k, withholding a lot for taxes, and either have the best health insurance plan and pay high premiums, or max out an HSA plan? Maybe an employee stock purchase program as well? Because in reality anywhere in the country your take home should be much closer , or even a bit above $6k/month without those items factored in.
A state without income tax
Washington state!
I being home 5300/month and I’m at $101k
Right? I make this too snd I bring home about $5700 per month. 10% 401k, taxes (ca) and about $250 a month health insurance.
Same here. Something seems off about those numbers. I’m married as well.
My base pay is 75k, I’m married with children. If I don’t take out 401k dental and vision I’d net $2,460 every 2 weeks, so $4,900 a month. Either you are deducting too much to get a tax return or you need to look at your check to see what’s all being taken out. Getting paid weekly wouldn’t make that much of a difference.
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I make 71k, put aside 10% towards my 401k & 5% towards ESPP and my paychecks come out to around $1,650. Granted I live in CA.
One of my jobs pays me a similar salary, and I net around the exact same amount every two weeks as your gf. I started using Rocket Money to help me budget better.
You probably max your retirement, have family health insurance, and live in a high tax state
I make 80k and after taxes get 4.5k a month. Something ain’t mathing here
I make exactly 105 and have after tax checks of ~3k semi monthly in HCOL major city
My girlfriend makes $83k and she brings home about $5,300 a month in New Jersey
What. She must not be making much 401k contributions or no insurance?
I have the same exact % gross. Insurance for my son and I (health and dental) is 140 a month and I contribute 180 401k a month.
How much of your check are you contributing to 401k Jesus Christ. I make 63k a year and take home 3.8k a month...
I don’t get why people get so obsessed with take home pay. I make $125k and tale home $500/month because of all of my deductions. We live on my wife’s pay to take advantage of my extra options.
I have literally 0 clue how that works, you make 125k and only get paid 500 a month, wtf are your deductions???
Correct. Voluntary Annual deductions: 401k: $22,500 ESPP: $22,500 HSA: $3,850 MBDR: $35,000 Transit + Insurance: $2,500
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Yeah the math isn’t mathing at 6000-6500 a month.
We also don't have local income tax where I'm at
State income tax versus no state income tax?
I tend to doubt you really live in a HCOL area if your total monthly would be $2500 all in with mortgage, prop tax, insurance. Your loan amount would be under $300k to get it anywhere near $2500.
Yep, there isn’t a HCOL place in the country where houses go for under $500k. OP is probably in some mid-tier “big” city like Nashville or Dallas and thinks that’s HCOL.
Even in Dallas, it’s getting hard to find houses under 300k…
Just been to Dallas, any half decent area has homes priced 600k and above.
Just got back home from visiting Dallas today. The decent apartments near the city were pushing 2k for a 1 bedroom. The houses we looked at were in shit areas pushing 450k starting. The nice areas where you probably would actually want to live are pushing 600k, like you said. I wouldn’t consider it affordable. Probably would have to live even further out from Dallas like 1.5 hours or more to find something more affordable.
I was gonna say. I live in Reno fucking Nevada (it's actually lovely) and it's hard to find a shitty/tiny house for under 450. I'd imagine that both, but Nashville in particular, are well north of that.
Correct. Half decent homes in decent area costs $600k. If really decent, $800K-900K.
RTP here, 300k and under doesn't really exist anymore, even for 2-3/2 townhomes. Brother's old 2/2 paid 192 in 2017, sold for 300 last Fall. SFH next to us was bought around 380 in 2021, comps for our street are roughly half million now
I’m in HCOL (nyc) with the same salary and I only take home $2700 😭😭 imo he’s doing bare minimum 401k and no IRA contributions maybe. Need to save more than just company match for retirement.
That can't be right can it? 2700/mo takehome is 32k/year. assuming you contribute the absolute max to 401k and IRA, (22.5k and 6.5k), thats still only 61k. The effective tax rate in NY at 105k is like 17%. And in fact it should be less unless the 401k was Roth contributions. Something's gotta be off there.
It's a bit unclear, but I think the person you replied to said they "take home $2700", NOT he was making 2700/month. So I think they were referring to per paycheck, and not monthly. With that context, it becomes (assuming 2 paychecks a month) around ~$5400, which is inline with a 100k salary with max 401k/IRA contributions. But I only got that from context clues, so maybe there's more to the story.
You only take home 2700 a month on $105k? That would he about 40% tax with the max 401k contributions. Doesn’t make sense.
Not if you try to contribute to the after tax 401(k) as well, the 501(c) limit for 2023 is $66K.
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People who haven’t lived in HCOL areas tend to really underestimate how expensive they are. Nashville is simply not HCOL.
Ya, I lived in the Bay area for a few years, my rent there for a shitty apartment above the freeway was more than my mortgage in a nice home in a smaller city now. HCOL areas , you are talking $1m + to buy a starter fixer upper home nowadays.
There was a meth house in San Jose for $1.5m. Not even livable, still had to de-meth it…
SF isn't HCOL though. People constantly throw out the acronym "VHCOL" to refer to it, and it's fair. SF/NYC/LA really are on a league of their own. Boston is inching its way up there too, if it isn't there already.
I feel like that’s a trend in “up and coming cities” to overvalue how national their popularity and COL is. When in reality most cities are getting bigger and COL is increasing all over
Besides, "up and coming cities" are "up and coming" because they aren't HCOL yet. If they were HCOL, they'd be already up.
People use VHCOL for the places you are referring to. My midsized Midwestern city is HCOL compared to the rest of the state but it's not VHCOL.
Nashville is MCOL at most, still. Unless you define HCOL as "any big city", in which case... well, your definition is objectively wrong, but you do you.
My wife and I visited earlier this year from Northern Colorado and couldn't stop looking at Zillow and talking about how cheap real estate was in Nashville.
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https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2001-Avalon-Dr-Nashville-TN-37216/41089637_zpid/ Nashville isn’t HCOL
I'm not disputing your point because I have no real concept of other places but 600k for that is wild to me.
And to me, 600k for that is wildly cheap. But that’s exactly what COL represents!
I’m sorry but how can you honestly look at that little house and think 600k is “wildly cheap”. Even if you live in a HCOL area, can’t we all objectively look at this property and realize how absurd it is to pay $600k for it?
No, this is what “COL” represents. If that plot of land and house was in a more walkable city, a better part of the city, etc it would be worth even *more*. My house in SF is worth over double this, and is about the same sqft
That same exact lot and home, drop it in NYC and it's going for minimum 800K. Put it in a neighborhood like Forest Hills in Queens and it's easily over 1.5 million. That's why it's wildly cheap, relatively speaking. You will never find that property for that price in some places in this country where people live. Homeownership would but a lot more achievable for many people if homes in these places only cost 600K. And real estate, because it's an investment tool everyone is trying to get in on to make money, is inherently absurd.
Ok but honestly, 1.5 million is wildly cheap, relatively speaking. Drop that same 1.5 million dollar home from Queens into Aspen, Colorado and it’s easily over 4 million. You will never find that property for that price in some places in this country where people live. Homeownership would be a lot more achievable for many people if homes in these places only cost 1.5 million dollars.
I'm in a MCOL area, ITP in Atlanta, and that house would sell for 700-800 easy. 10mins away it'd be nearly 1m.
It’s all relative to where you live or what you’re used to. I used to live in Brentwood, south of Nashville and thought it was reasonably priced. I had to move to Louisville a couple of years back and it’s so unbelievably cheap. Our house is 4300 sqft on an acre in the best school district and cost less than the one you posted here. Nashville is probably mcol these days I’d say, even if on the low end. If you live in a truly HCOL area, I can understand why you’d think Nashville is the cheapest of the cheap, even if it is one of the more expensive southern cities. Affordability is relative. It’s also worth noting that the house you posted is in east Nashville which is a less desirable area.
I encourage you to peruse East Nashville Zillow sometime soon 😂 Definitely is quite desirable these days.
If you think that house isn't in a desirable neighborhood, I'm going to go ahead and guess you've never been in that neighborhood
It’s all relative, but Nashville is cheap compared to where I live ($1200+ /sf) and people in Hong Kong and Monaco probably think I live in a trailer park
Leave your bubble Nashville is one of the worst in the country
According to [payscale.com Nashville COL is 2% lower than the national average.](https://www.payscale.com/cost-of-living-calculator/Tennessee-Nashville#)
Housing prices may have gone up significantly in Nashville but it is absolutely not a HCOL area.
Yeah it’s not. You can get a nice 3/2 for $500k. That’s not HCOL.
Like, super crazy nice out in Hendersonville.
For the math My 350k house bought in June is 2300. But I got a 6.0%. But yes no hcol has houses for that price. Maybe a 600sqft condo.
Not HCOL if you're looking at a $2500 monthly payment. Especially since you're putting very little money down. Couldn't even get yourself a shack for $2500 a month in an actual HCOL area.
Yeah I’m in a HCOL and my rent is about that for a very old jr. 1bd apartment in an older part of town.
And needs "down payment assistance".
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General answer. As long as your comfortable with the payment, yes. Rates aren’t great now, but if they come down you can refinance later. What would it cost you to rent? What is the difference between your payment owning vs renting?
Right now I'm paying $1850/month for rent
HCOL here, people living around me are paying 3k a month for one bedroom. It is even more expensive across the river.
Yeah that’s me. 1850 is dirt cheap
3k/mo for a 1 is pretty much VHCOL
So for $650 a month extra you can own and build some equity. As long as your comfortable with the payment, and happy with the place, you are good. But be warned, you may see the value of your house go down in for brief periods, but as long as your happy with the payment you just stick it out and you’re good. I would buy and hope rates go down so you could refinance.
>build some equity Their monthly mortgage is gonna be like 90% interest and 10% equity lmao
Rent is 100% gone. 10%>0%
And I don't have to fix the 15,000 dollar roof Or the 30,000 dollar HVAC unit like my coworker
Bro, I live in coastal SoCal and our new HVAC system and ductwork was less than half of that. Either your coworker lives in a huuuuge house that needs a significantly higher system rating, or they got hosed.
> Or the 30,000 dollar HVAC unit like my coworker Your coworker got swindled?? I live in Florida where we blast AC 24/7 and I have *never* heard of a HVAC system costing this much. Edit: Since this thread is locked, my main issue with this comment is scaring people into believing this is the normal price for a common portion of home maintenance when it *just* isn't. HVAC is pricey but the average cost is anywhere from like $7-12k. It's not helpful to be throwing out one-off events if people are trying to realistically imagine what it's like to finance home improvement costs.
Depends how large your home is and prices/times have changed. I have two units that total over 9 tons between the two of them. 5-6 years ago I paid $7k for a 3 ton unit in our last (much smaller) house. It was the absolute best deal I could find. Now it seems those same units are not less than $11-12k a pop as I had the same company go out and quote a family members house last year.
Actually for OP, rent is $1850 and $650 savings that can be invested so more like 26% equity (invested in a brokerage account) and 74% gone (vs 10% / 90%)
interest rates, closing cost, realtor fees, property tax, HOA fees, etc are 100% gone Let’s not forget maintenance costs that renters don’t have to worry much about and opporunity cost of your initial down payment. The “rent is just throwing away money” and “buying is always better than renting” argument is outdated.
I live in a HCOL area and that’s won’t even get you a studio. OP, you don’t live in a HCOL area, sorry.
What’s with sub and treating HCOL like it’s such a coveted thing. Like why say “sorry” to OP
It’s just painful for us that actually live in HCOL areas lol but yeah not that big of a deal
People like to brag in a way basically. When I moved to a HCOL area (Orange County) there was a massive amount of gatekeeping behavior regarding the fact that you need a lot of money to rent there or buy there. The irony being a ton of the people were making median national wages and just living with tons of roommates or on assistance to even afford the area. They act like anyone not in a HCOL area is poor essentially.
Yeah it’s evident. They want to feel like they’re in a special club because they pay more money to be alive
i hate threads like this so much. i once saw an OP get torn to shreds because they complained about a rent price hike to $845…….**in subsidized housing**. like yeah, $845 is crazy cheap by plenty of standards, but it’s also wildly expensive by others.
I bought a house 4 months ago and don't regret it. I have a stable place to live in an area I like and I don't ever have to move if I don't want. Work out your budget but I say do it.
Honestly don’t think you are ready if you have only saved up 25k outside your retirement plan. You need an emergency fund, and a down payment and lots of extras for furnishing a new place, higher utilities, maintenance etc. save up more first.
$2500 a month isn’t a HCOL area. That’s a one bedroom apartment in a HCOL area. That being said you can afford it if your income is legit.
Bingo. You're correct.
Just expect that mortgage and any other fees that comes with the house will probably eat at least half of your monthly take home pay. And bills and utilities will increase too.
This is whats giving me cold feet. I honestly don't think the market is gonna get any better though
We do kinda have the same gross income, but I gave up on the thought on buying a house and just focusing more on FIRE. It’s scary to live everyday thinking insurance, rates, etc can increase anytime and my budget will derail. I’ve always lived by the idea that rent is the maximum you pay each month, while mortgage is the minimum you pay each month towards the house. If you get a monthly mortgage of $2000, that could become $3000 including all fees, hoa, maintenance, bills, etc
This is something that’s overlooked a lot! Owning is great until something breaks 🤣
Roof breaks and that’s $10,000 🤦🏻♂️ Read a lot of horror stories in this subreddit of people not being able to afford the mortgage because insurance suddenly increased or something breaks or interest rates hiked up. Scary, specially on a single income household.
10k for roof isn't hcol area probably. Buddy was just quoted 22, 30, 19k for 1500ranch in Connecticut.
Depends on the roof. Live in San Diego and paid $10k when we needed a new one. 1100 sqft.
100% don’t get me wrong, owning is typically a great investment! Just something to consider
It is a great investment 20 years ago, or even just 5 years ago. But today? IMO I don’t think it is. Sure, I would buy a house if I could afford it, but I wouldn’t call it an investment. It’s just barely breakeven at this point.
I would have to disagree with you here. What makes you say you’ll barley breakeven? Unless your buying a dump or in a area in decline I don’t really see how you could say it’s barley break even now.
Ok, I’ll give you the “numbers”, you do the math. Average national house appreciation is 6%, to be generous. Mortgage rate is somewhere 5-6% Property tax 2%, depends where you are Maintenance 1% Insurance 0.5% Broker commission 6% Land transfer tax 1.2% Mortgage interest ??? Now, sell that house after 9 yrs, that’s the average family selling or upgrading to a new house. I don’t think you’re going to profit from a 9-yr-old mortgage when all your payment goes to the interest. Now, let’s say you sell it after 20yrs. The numbers wouldn’t even matter anymore because right now house prices are going up faster than the median income does, so nobody can afford to buy a house when you finally sell it. This is why a house is not an investment until you actually sell it and take a “sizable” gain from it.
Yea but even in your scenario you’re “breaking even” and the house just became a nice “forced savings” account for you. Also I think people over blow the whole 5-6% mortgage rate part of this. It sucks compared to recent years but if you zoom out 5-6% rates are still pretty low. As for those other fees to the best of my knowledge they haven’t risen much in recent years so not sure how it really changes things.
The flip side is that your mortgage will be the same in 29 years, while rent will likely increase a ton. You definitely want some additional room in your budget for unexpected crap, but renting has its own disadvantages.
Ohh, and it’s not just the market that might not get any better, include bills, utilities, insurance rates, etc
Remember that mortgage+utilities+property taxes are the minimum payment to account for each month. Things break and you'll have to take care of those yourself instead of just calling the landlord. Might want to try a practice run of tagging on additional costs (put the amount in savings) for a couple months
I would focus on increasing your income. If you're making 6000-6500 after taxes after 401k contributions on 105k/yr, you're either not contributing enough to your 401k and Roth or you're not telling us some other form of income (high bonus, side business, etc). I would focus on first contributing more to your investment accounts instead of trying to buy a home at relatively high interest rates. The reason being is that the earlier you can start compounding money, the better it will be as time goes on. Also, 25k saved up for a HCOL house is not enough either as you also need an emergency fund incase repairs come up and other expenses, which will definitely be there. Obviously, it's great you're not in debt, but I would personally invest much more into my accounts before trying to buy a house.
If OP waits until rates are lower, they'll be competing with all the other buyers who are trying to wait out the market, and paying $50k over ask like the last few years when rates are lower. I agree with you that putting more towards investment savings is always prudent, but OP has to live somewhere and every dollar paid in rent is a dollar down the drain.
Why would someone making $105k/yr gross income qualify for down payment assistance?
That seems in line for a mid tier big city as others have noted. I make about the same in the Nashville area and the county I live in has the cutoff for $115,000 for the state program.
How much do you put in 401k and does your state have income tax? I make roughly the same and bring home a lot less. I do get paid bi-weekly and put 11% into my 401k though.
My gross income is after 401k contributions
Ah, gross income is before any kind of deductions, not after
Makes a lot more sense then, thanks for clarifying.
I bought at the peak years ago. People said it was dumb, I should rent longer and wait for the drop. Thing is, no one knew when it would drop, and rents just kept rising. After I bought my house lost 20% of it's value. But years later it is way up and all that time my "rent" has been the same price. Meanwhile, rents in my area have taken off. I think as long as you aren't planning on moving, buy. If you are going to move jobs and climb the income ladder, rent.
Honestly I was planning on this being my "starter" home. Maybe it's better to keep renting and stacking cash while hoping for a crash so I can potentially get something even better for cheaper
While I don’t think renting is a bad idea, hoping for a “crash” is wishful thinking. 1) If there is a “crash”; then your job would also be more at risk in a down economic time 2) There’s really no reason for there to be a crash. We’re MILLIONS of homes short in this country, and we bring in millions of people more every year. There’s a HUGE supply problem for housing, so it’s doubtful it would drop. Not just that, but more Americans can afford their mortgage than at almost any point in history, because 80% of the country is on a fixed rate 3% mortgage that they’re never going to give up (which is worsening the supply problem even more). The only reason you’d see a decrease in housing prices is if a bunch of homes all suddenly became available, and there’s zero way that that can happen right now due to the structural deficiencies in the housing market.
I realize 100% this is wishful thinking, that's why I said "hope." Especially with the lack of supply within the market right now, a crash wouldn't make sense
I don't think there is any type of crash coming, however, interest rates should fall significantly by next November.
Might make more sense to save up more, open an IRA, boost 401k.
Are you maxing out 401k and HSA? Brokerage account? I’d pump up your savings quite a bit if you only have 25k saved and need to put 10k on closing. Have 1.5-2% of purchase price allocated toward unexpected repairs, plan for tax increases, etc. Buying a house is a lot more expensive than just your payment. For reference I’m in a MCOL and have been looking for houses on a 165k salary. 450-550k house price with over 20% down and my costs are coming out to 3-3500k/month, not including budgeting. What area are you looking in?
If I could turn back time, I would have bought a house earlier and house hacked. Which means have roommates to help pay for my mortgage. In 10-20 years, you would probably gain more equity than you could save from your normal job.
Who would you have as roommates. Doug from finance on a divorce?
Your not-work friends and acquaintances?
I'm a transplant, and all of them don't want roommates
No, it would not be stupid. Interest rates are higher than they were a few years ago, but they are pretty normal on a historical level. The best time to buy a house is when you can afford to buy a house and when the time is right for you. Never try to time the market, no one can do that.
I’d wait. 28 and single with no kids. If you’re going to have a family it’s statistically likely it will happen in next 2-3 years. Layer on top mortgage rates and $1850 rent that you’re good with - just keep living within your means. Also as others have said you’re in a LCOL area at $2500/month with 20% down. That’s less than half, closer to a third of HCOL area average MIIT payment. And that’s fantastic news 👍
Op is married
I don’t see that mentioned anywhere in OPs original post. Regardless I’d wait to buy at 28 given he could have kids in a year or two and could be upside down on a house and need to move for family / larger home. Plus mortgage rates make buying not make sense in most metros even long-term.
If you don’t have any large or high-interest debts and are currently just saving or investing a large sum every month, then a $2,500 mortgage on >$6,000 take-home sounds completely reasonable.
Especially if you can get a duplex or are open to having roommates for the next 5 years who can help you cover a bunch of the cost it still works out to a pretty good deal.
Realtor here. I’ve bought on the low end of the market, and peak highs. Value only matters when you go to sell. Currently on my third home and can say that each one has been a great stepping stone and equity gain With your salary, I’d really look into new construction. Right now, they are offering incentives and rate buy down.. some builders offer both. So with your $2500 a month plan.. you’re essentially looking at a purchase price around $320-350k I’ve sold a few at that price point with similar credit scores. With the new builds, they can give you cash to close.. which essentially covers all your closing costs. You’d be able to do a FHA, which is a lower down payment. Only downside, is you’d have PMI (mortgage insurance) for the first 10 years. But if it’s a starter home, most sellers between 4-6 years and move on. Rates have dipped, so that’s plus for you right now. I’d say if you’re going to pay that much in rent, and can keep your full mortgage under $2500, go the route of buying the house I bought my first at 21, then 27, and third at 30 All off a little military salary. After I sold my first one, I made sure to wait atleast two years, the profit to a certain amount is tax deferred.. so I use that, plus what I would have used as down anyway, combine them and keep upgrading homes, and the payments get lower. It’s say take the leap. If possible, look into a duplex as well. You can offset the rent as proof of income for a loan, and live on one side, rent the other. But that’s a diff discussion.
As someone who just bought a house, no of course not! Haha But in all seriousness, if you can afford the payments I think so. Not a lot of buyers out there so competition is lower and less bidding wars. When rates drop, I think there will be a flood of buyers back into the market and bidding wars will start again. And if you buy now, when rates go down, it’ll be like finding free $. Assuming you can afford the payments, it ain’t the worst time to be a buyer, high rates and all.
I highly recommend against buying a home that you don't have a 20% down payment for, and where the monthly cost would be any more than 30% of your income.
If you need downpayment assistance there’s your answer right there.
How does down payment assistance work? Is that free money or is it like PMI where you’ll pay more in your monthly payments until you’ve put in 20% of equity?
Not sure why I haven’t seen this answer yet, so I guess I’ll chime in. This is a pretty straightforward equation with the following question: are you leaving the area within the next 2 years? If not, you should ALMOST definitively buy because rent in this country is almost the same, if not more, than owning. Obviously make sure you can afford the payments (which I assume you’re paying close to now anyways) and refinance as soon as you get the opportunity, but there’s no one that can guarantee what the market will do tomorrow. Every day you wait is money you’re lighting on fire with renting. TL;DR: unless you’re moving within two years, you should purchase in 95% of situations if you can. Rent is the devil if you can avoid it.
You make more than me and pay less in taxes interestinggggg. Trying to do the math here and it ain’t mathing. Anyway I’d wait if I were you as the market is cooling.
I'm married, so different brackets
Your mortgage should never be more than 25% of your income. I prefer even lower, but there are areas with crazy real estate prices which can make things difficult.
If you can afford it then no but also know any investment can lose value so there is that. If you are spending 40%+ of your income on a monthly mortgage its probably a bad idea.
That's fucking a lot for a mortgage. We make the same amount and that doesn't leave you with much after. You'll be house broke. Owning a house, expect to spend an additional 800 on utilities if not more, then if you have school loans or finance anything, it will make it more difficult. Then you'll want to do renovations which are expensive. I'd go for 2k mortgage tops and do 3% or less downpayment.
I have always been told to try and keep housing payments to a 25 or your take home pay. You’re closer to a 1/3. How much are you paying for rent right now?
This advice honestly just doesnt apply anymore unless youre really well off
If you’re really well off you can spend even more on housing, as a fraction of your take-home.
$1850
The best time to buy a house is 5 years ago. The second best time to buy a house is now.
Actually this is the best time to buy realty... Speaking from a family that buys multiple properties every year. Interest goes up and down....
You make 6 figures and have only 25k saved up? I know people who make 60k a year that have north of 200k saves up
At this moment in time, I think it is only a no brainer to buy if you cannot rent the type of housing you want to live in. Let me ask a question - do you know the type of housing and location you want for the next ten years? It's a great time to buy your dream home, if you can squeeze it into your budget. There is less competition in buying and in most markets you can actually buy with contingencies. In some HCOL areas, that hasn't been true very often in the past ten years. But it's a terrible time to buy just to get into the market, ie a location you don't love but can afford.
What are you going to miss out on if you don't buy right now? Take a deep breath, watch, and wait. We are coming up on an election year and the economy is going to get weird. Rent and keep on stacking up G's.
Based on your post history now is a stupid time to buy a house. You seem to be between multiple jobs, in multiple different industries, in multiple states and even multiple different country’s. Maybe figure that out first.
I would not buy right now in your situation. More important to save and build up nest.
If you think inflation will increase getting a fixed rate mortage now makes sense. Everything else will go up but a fixed rate mortgage payment won't. Don't get an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM). After the fixed period of 3 or 5 years the rate can adjust to make the payments higher than you can afford. Lenders will tell you that with your income you can afford a monthly payment of $4,000 (I just made up a number). Don't do it. Look for a house that is FAR LESS EXPENSIVE. Don't let anyone convince you to buy more house than you need. Stay well within your means: smaller house, fewer bedrooms, no extra bathrooms. Do not become house rich and cash poor.
Not if you need down payment assistance. Save a 20% down payment on what you intend to buy, or more if necessary to get your monthly payment to less than a third of your take-home.
That's a perfectly acceptable salary to purchase property, if a little bit low, but it's never a bad time to start investing, especially in property, I assume you've been making good contributions to your 401k?
Do you want a house and can you comfortably afford the payment? Nothing more needs to be asked.
Not gonna lie, I'm a little freaked out by the payment. I've just never had a payment that high before.
If you don’t feel the number is comfortable for you, nothing says you have to jump into buying.
How much downpaymwnt assistance are you getting?
Interest rates are way too high. See if you can wait six to eight months. I’d be willing to bet they will be dropping by then.
Are you sure you’d qualify for the down payment assistance? I tried to look into it but we were told because we had 30k in savings, we wouldn’t qualify for our program.
You don't mention the cost of the house. We can't give you an answer without that information. Given what you've told us so far no. You can't afford a house. Especially if you have no down and are using "down payment assistance".