How much mortgage is too much? - Page 2

[*Delecia*]

Were looking to buy a new house as well. But the prices are just sky high around here. Goodluck!
Dee

[moms3kids]

Wow this gives me a bigger view as we are thinking of starting to apply for our new home lonan end of this month or next month... We have been using online morgage calulators and are unwilling to let our morgage be more then it is now even though our income has doulbed since our current morgage, we just DON't want to have a huge morgage at all and woudl LOVE to actully have $ left every week to do as we please, for me to be able to go to the store and buy as i please, go shop for clothes where i want not where sales are or at thrift stores! LOL This is our own choice though... we are only going to have a morgage of 10% our income... now our car payment as well is 10% our morgage but that's b/c we financed it for only 3 years and it will be paid off in 2 years from now...
Homes in our area are priced very well compaired to what some have posted, but still a lot more in the town we are looking in compaired to neighboring towns... a 3/4 bedroom about $150K-200K w/ a town lot, acarh homes run $225K-$280K with in about 2-6 miles from town...
Ok i'm starting to ramble a it! LOL

[Kaitnbugsmom]

we qualify for $62,300 right now. Which will actually buy decent property and a decent house around here {Nothing brand-new of course, but still nice and liveable and all} We're considering buying something and making improvements while we're in school and flipping it when we're done...

[chanibell]

I agree that you should never buy more than you can afford, yet I see so many homes for sale in my neighborhood for $700,000! Who can afford these homes? What are THEY doing for a living? I live in Seattle btw. The housing is nuts,but when we think about moving,I wouldnt even think about paying over a half a million for a home.

[wifeandmom]

Our TOTAL debt to income ratio is right at 28%. That means our house payment and all associated costs like taxes, insurance, and such, PLUS all other out-going debt payments like car loan, student loans, any credit cards, etc. total 28% of our total GROSS income.

That is WELL below the high limit of 41% required by the VA for a VA home loan. Honestly though, I cannot *imagine* having 41% of our income going out to debt payments alone. Heck, even 28% means we still must stick fairly close to a budget, although we do have many luxuries in that budget, but it's not like we just run freely spending money all the time.

If you add 28% for debt payments to the 28-36% tax bracket we're in, you're not left with a whole lot percentage wise for net pay. The only way it works for us is DH makes really good money, otherwise I wouldn't be comfortable with even a 28% DTI.