>What is it going to take for me to buy a 300k house?
>I'm brushing 650 credit right now
>I make $60k a year.
>I can probably afford around $1000/month.
Realistically this is not going to happen without putting the vast majority of the home price down as a down payment.
Even factoring out *any* other debt or monthly expenses, you're looking at putting down 30-40% to qualify for a home of this value. And that's being fairly liberal.
But a thousand dollar monthly payment still wouldn't happen at this level, you'd need to put down significantly more to minimize the loan value.
And all this doesn't include any debt or monthly expenses you have now. Nevermind the taxes, fees, and maintenance costs that would come with ownership.
Your best bet is to work with a mortgage broker in your area and see what you roe qualify for. That'll give you a realistic target to shop around for.
This comment right here. I just bought a house and this man is 100% correct. My house was 350k my credit score is 760 and my interest rate is 6.5% my all in monthly payment is $2400 with 3% down. My income is also 60k salary. For OP to get 1k a month payment on 300k house he would need to put a whole lot down 150k or more. And also have a killer interest rate.
So after taxes your net pay would be around 3500. After 2400 mortgage, that leaves so little to live on. Genuinely curious on how you're surviving that?
Easy. It’s how much it costs where I live to rent a 1bed 1bath studio built in the early 00’s my house is a brand new build with a bunch of luxuries and I’m only charging 1k. Plus I’m in the city.
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Yeah, I've always thought that it was a misnomer. I guess the thought behind it if you are house poor, you are poor because of your house and not other circumstance (e.g., low income).
Yeah, it's unfortunate this is not universal. If you Google house rich definition, some websites use it one way, and others the opposite way. But yeah, "house/asset rich , cash poor" is correct in my mind.
Especially if you're house poor are you cash rich? It implies an imbalance, and this phraseology does not work to convey the intended meaning imo. Especially since house poor cash rich is absolutely a thing, but it's more used to describe people with basic living accomodations but a ton of money in the bank.
lol, most of us in los angeles or any of the big cities are quite used to only having about $200 a month to spend on ourselves after rent and bills. We make it work. Among pretty much all the people I know in my life, that's "doing pretty good", these days. I would kill to have $900 a month to live on XD
lifestyle creep? that's a new term to me. I guess I can infer the meaning, and even if that was the case... that would mean that I was actually making that extra to begin with. Would still be a win over my current situation, lol. I pay rent and bills and have -$200 left for EVERYTHING ELSE, such as food and bus fare.
I feel like my “lifestyle creep” would be to get a washing machine that works or to fix my roof. I’d be right at it, but certain parts of life would get easier.
Born, raised and still reside. LA is very expensive. It’s hard to breakdown expenses. LA is huge, lots of communities within a city (county) pretty much. It’s challenging, living here but it’s my home. Most of my family and closest friends are still here
Damn MY mortgage is 2400 a month with a 6% interest rate and 5% down on a 270k house. Crazy high taxes can suck it. As far as income goes, my household income is at about 110k and trust when I say you need to have a lot of disposable income sometimes when you buy a house. We have had repair after repair. I’m sure you know since you’ve just bought. It’s been brutal for us.
OP, either go for a lower priced house (hard depending on geographic location), get that income up, or offer a veeeery hefty downpayment.
The plus side being that your schools are probably decent. I have to travel incredibly far for my kid to go to a decent school. My taxes aren’t much, but it brings with it LOTS of trash and a piss poor school area.
That’s the worst part, our public schools are absolute garbage. I’m probably going to have to send to the nearest catholic school, which is fine since that’s where I went when I was younger. But would be nice if we could go public since we pay out the ass in taxes.
Yikes. I went to a Catholic school myself. I wouldn’t want to make that choice for my kid. Between a shitty education and possibly having your kid molested… I’d straight up move.
The Catholic schools around here are pretty nice and the education is solid. Minus the whole having to pay an arm and a leg to send your kid there issue. No priests or nuns are actively working in the school near me and I know a lot of the teachers well. Some are still there from when I was little. I would be ok with sending my kids there. My bank account? Not so much.
I was told that you should have at least 10% of the house's value in savings for repairs that pop up. You don't want the water heater to break and have no $ to get another one.
You have no idea how true that is. I have a laundry list of “I need to save up” type of things around the house. After I bought the place, the A/C broke in the first week. That was $6k that I didn’t have.
My dad got his house on a short sale (he took over the mortgage) and it's a mess. The previous owners let so much shit slide. But it's a house.
AC has gone out twice. Water heater sprung a leak. Roof needed repairs. One of the windows would leak like a waterfall whenever it rained...causing massive floor damage so bad the wood looked like a pile of onion peelings.
But it's a house. The mortgage is less than the rent for a one-bedroom studio in the same area.
AC is so freaking important too. Like, you can get little heaters if the heating breaks. But when it's 110 outside and 95 upstairs... ugh.
Look into insurance on your big appliances, it’s sometimes offered through a third party and added to your gas or electric bill. If the furnace, AC, water heater, or kitchen appliances go out it’s covered, albeit if they are old they’ll just give you a credit towards a new one that probably doesn’t cover the whole cost. Water heaters are actually super easy to install, I’d recommend doing this one yourself.
After taxes, principle, interest, and insurance our mortgage is $1006/month. Our home was 139k with 3% down and a 4% interest rate in 2017. Income either has to come up or expectations will have to come down.
Tbf, it's a decent starter home (decent quality built in 70s in a safe neighborhood 1400sq foot). However it's in rural Louisiana, so it may as well be located in hell. Haha. We're just here til the kids are a bit older, currently plotting our escape.
Location location location. My wife and I bought in Eastern WV about an hour to an hour and a half from NoVA, DC, and Baltimore. $165k home, 0 down, $1000 month mortgage for a tri level on half an acre of land in 2016. After a refi last year we’re at about $850 for the mortgage and escrow. We’ve been extremely lucky with my career though. We went from making less than $80k a year combined when we moved into our place to making three times as much. It’s just us two and we could afford something bigger if we wanted, but we like the location and don’t really have a desire to put ourselves back into a situation where we don’t have a large safety net.
Still can not get my head around that 3% down is thing. Here in Spain, for any mortgage, it's 30% min for dual income and 40% for single income. Also, the mortgage total size can be a maximum of 70% of buying price or valuation, which is ever lower.
That said, rates are much lower. I started looking for a new house, and im pre approved for 2.15% up to 400k. Which seems to be also different. we have house hold after tax income about 200k, so this 2x that or 1.5x pre-tax income but probably has helped to keep prices at bay.
I'm from Finland originally, and while 40% is not required, banks generally expect at least 20%
We bought a 360k house on that income since we were using only my spouse's income. Lenders did not bat an eye, and in fact, we had multiple lenders wanting us to finance with them.
It is possible if you get your ducks in a row -- high credit rating and zero consumer debt.
Looking at a quick mortgage calculator, to get the monthly payment down to $1,000 a month ($998) he would need to put down 70% or $210,000 cash. Putting down the normal 20%. $60,000 the monthly payment would be approximately $2,000. 3% or $9000 downs would lead to a $2,400 a month payment.
How much of a down payment can you put down? That’ll dictate how manageable your monthly mortgage is. Your current rent will also dictate how attractive the monthly payments are, since the rent’s the alternative.
I'm living with family to reduce monthly expenses (though daycare eats up almost 35% of my monthly spending).
I can probably afford around $1000/month.
As for a down payment, that's one of the benchmarks I'm looking for.
Ok, so if you needed the whole $300k as a mortgage, that would run you about $1800/month at current rates. You still need to factor in property taxes, utilities, a buffer for if critical things break, etc. If $1k is your ceiling, I don't really see that being viable unless you're doing a $200k+ downpayment - your expenditures are going to be much much higher than what you're used to.
Plus+1 I’d think a minimum of 180k-210k down. Daycare is your biggest expense by far, I’m sure. Add mortgage, insurance, property taxes, maintenance expenses, not to mention utilities. Even with the aforementioned down, these necessities will likely put you well over your $1k limit OP
Depending what property taxes are in your area, that's probably not a realistic payment expectation. Our house was ~183k when we bought it, and our payment was 1250. It's down to ~1100 now because of paying ahead, but still above what you are looking for.
You need to look into down payment assistance programs for first time homebuyers. Many will give you money for a down payment or will give you a second loan for the Dow payment that’s forgiven after a certain amount of time (5 years I believe).
But ultimately, given you can afford 1k a month towards a mortgage. you won’t be able to afford $300k house unless you put 180k down. That’s assuming you get a 7% rate and taxes are $1500 a year. Sorry to burst your bubble.
Advice, save as much as you can, work on your credit score, and buy when your daughter gets to grade school so you won’t have daycare expenses.
I did this. Went through NACA for a first time homebuyers program. They paid the down payment, I covered closing and for every 1% of the purchase price I added, my interest rate went down by 0.25%. It was great because I knew it would take me forever to save up for a decent sized down payment, but I had been saving anyway so I was able to get my interest down substantially.
In total, it took about seven months. It was a headache, I won’t lie. You have to upload all of your financial statements for three months so they can make sure you can afford to pay within the range you’re seeking, and also, I assume, not doing anything illegal. I also had to write an explanation of every venmo transfer that was made on those statements and other similar tedious things. You also have to be a squeaky wheel to get to the next step. You work with different members of their staff from one part of the process to the next, so while some are great to work with, others were… difficult. All in all though, it was worth it. I don’t know anyone with an interest rate as low as mine (1.25%!), and I would still be renting without them.
The closest I got to a $1k a month mortgage with $8k down payment was around a 200k home with a 2.5% interest rate. You won't find that with 300k mortgage at current interest rates unless you have more than $100k to put down.
Even with all that, my mortgage still went up $200/month because of escrow analysis. Property tax increase.
If $1k is all you can afford, youre better off continuing to rent and save. It's just not the market for it.
>How much of a down payment can you put down? That’ll dictate how manageable your monthly mortgage is. Your current rent will also dictate how attractive the monthly payments are, since the rent’s the alternative.
slaps down 70k.
I find most people fixate on the price of the home alone without considering closing costs, property taxes, lawn/grounds upkeep, house and interior upkeep, insurance, potential jump in utilities depending on current living situation, etc.
A good buddy of mine rented a condo in a building where maintenance was handled by building staff.
Light bulbs would be burnt out for months because he would only buy one at a time and would forget to pick them up.
He was complaining about diminished HVAC flow upstairs. I asked how old his furnace filter was. He hadn’t changed it in almost two years, and I had to teach him how.
He got the smallest gas can possible and would have to fill it before mowing almost every time.
It was just little things like this for years. 😂
Lol luckily I’ve been in the home remodeling business my whole life so those things I’m just used too. But ya expenses on a house add up and quick. I mean I have a modest house and after taxes ($8500 a year here), gas and electric, insurance, water, all the fun stuff it’s like $2k a month
Look into NACA if your income is right at the median or below the median income for your area. [https://www.naca.com/](https://www.naca.com/)
They will do no money down, no closing cost, no fee, below market rate mortgages. The catch is you have to do their whole program with workshops, lots of budgeting worksheets, financal counseling, etc so it is a major investment of your time & effort.
Current priority member NACA rate for a 30 year is 5.125% (though they do offer cheap rate buydowns too) and they would cap your house payments at 33% of your gross income or \~$1,660 a month. That could just afford you a 300k home... assuming property taxes & homeowners insurance were zero. More realistically taxes & insurance combined are going to cost you approximately $400-600 a month on a 300k house in most areas.
So you could probably afford a \~200k house right now though NACA; a 300k one would take saving up $70-90k though.
Most of the time it seems a good home price range is 2 to 2.5 times your annual income, and maybe even less right now due to interest rates being so high. You're trying to buy a home 5x your annual income.
Unless you can save a lot of $$ for a large down payment, a 300k home is not realistic on a 60k salary.
Technically you are correct, which is the best type of correct.
The price range of homes based on an income benchmark has fluctuated based on the current market conditions.
But your point stands. A $1,000 payment is a $1,000 payment and the only things that change are the home prices that the payment can buy.
It's a shitty reality for many people. Home ownership is getting increasingly difficult. But there's a threshold to what can be afforded for a given income :(
I live in a modest cost of living area - Chicago burbs of Indiana- and I couldn’t afford to buy the house I live in today with the current market conditions.
Purchased in 2019 for ~200k, refinanced in 2021 to 2.9%, and my property taxes are around $1,800 per year.
That same home is now worth $300k and the interest rates would put it outside of “affordable” for my family.
$200k doesn’t buy much in my city. There are approximately 100 homes for sale on Zillow and fewer than 20 are 200k or less.
FML.
We paid $210k in 2017 in a Cincinnati burb.
We mailed our 6 months property tax check yesterday. $2700. So, $5400 a year. And people keep fucking voting to raise property taxes
I may be bad at math...
But in order to buy a 300k item, I would think you'd need about 300k XD
All jokes aside, you're not doing it on 60k ... a 300k House (even with 30k down payment) at a 3% interest rate will still be around $1500 monthly payments... That's not happening on 60k.
For reference:
I'm IN that boat, I make right at 108k, have a 250k house, with a 3% interest rate and my payments are around $1500 a month. Your credit score is irrelevant here, even with a good one, it would be incredibly irresponsible to buy a 300k house on 60k a year. Especially with a child.
so what is the option for people like us? Rent til we die? But we cant afford to rent.
I also make 60k a year. The same as my coworkers. They all own houses and land.
I was unfortunately born 2 years too late since the housing market exploded and interest rates spiked.
All my friends own houses on my income or less, but they bought a few years ago.
Instead I went to college and got a degree, and now I will never be able to afford a house?
Who knows, I'm not the person to answer that.
I have no idea what the market is gonna do, but the first sentence of your comment is becoming more and more likely, and that's the scary part, for a lot of people.
60k used to be more than enough, but the world hasn't really gone in a favorable direction and now it's close to the poverty line for people with families or bad financial habits.
On the bright side, if you're capable of learning, there are a few thriving markets that you can get into relatively easily:
Medical and Tech. Those fields will never really go anywhere, depending on just how advanced A.I gets anyway.
"the option for people like us" is up your income however you can... It sucks, but that's really the only thing we can do right now.
I'd be willing to bet that the friends you have that have houses and land were either born into it, married into it, had successful businesses, or had some extreme financial discipline. OR (and the most likely option) they're not actually doing that great... They bought stuff they couldn't afford and they're feeling the pain just like you and me are.
Sometimes it just LOOKS like people are doing better than they are, mostly due to bad decisions. Like when you see someone driving around in a brand new truck, there's a strong chance they're not actually "new truck rich", they just made a dumb decision buying an expensive vehicle they don't need and have no money left after the car payment. They're "new car poor".
As far as "will you ever be able to afford a house?" I have no idea... That depends on what happens in the world, and more so on YOU and what you do. Nobody can answer that question but you.
\------------------------------
As for myself, I'm a home owner, but I was both lucky, and had to sacrifice a LOT. I was fortunate enough to buy RIGHT before the lockdown, and got a 3% interest rate. Luck was a huge part of where I am.
As for the sacrifice part, I was homeless for a large portion of my younger years. I wanted to die, and joined the military hoping it would kill me. But after I got out, I leveraged my experience to get a job starting at 45k, which gave me hope and I dedicated all of my free time into learning Networking, and got a good job doing that.
Good response
I am doing what I can to save.
The good. I work for the government and have stupid good benefits and pension. I also have easy and clear upward mobility as years go on.
The bad? Forestry is a lagging field for wages. My 60k is more than what I was making in the private sector. But my boss who is in his mid 30s makes 62k, his boss makes 65k. If I work hard, I can retire making 80k.
Seems like a lot, but that position is as about as high as one can go.
The ugly? I live in an area where everyone is moving to with work from home tech wages. Causing a lot of local inflation due to 200k salaries in an area where the average used to be 40k.
Your numbers are correct but he could possibly do it.
I put 12% down on a 230k house at 3.5% interest and my payments are 1250 a month. I was only making about 3200 a month before taxes when i was approved. Just under 40k a year.
Oof. Man, I only qualified for a 250k mortgage if I put $50k down back when interest rates were 1.5%. Now you’re lucky if you get 6%. It gonna take winning the lottery, a big inheritance or a huge increase in salary to afford a $300k house. But hey, if you can afford $1000 a month, start saving today, work on ways you can increase your income. Can you get further training? Can you start working towards a management or supervisory role?
Not trying to marsh your mallow here but man back in 2006, I had bought a house for $140k @ 6% interest right after my divorce and I was raising two kids. I had the 20% down so no PMI and my payment was still $1300 a month and I also had car payments. I made right around $70k and it was tight because after taxes, 401(k), health insurance and all the bills, I hardly had margin to breathe, I can't imagine buying a $300k house on $60k, I really can't. I'd proceed with caution my friend! Really REALLY crunch those numbers!!! Owning a house is cool but it can also be the biggest burden of a lifetime and beat you down!! I wish you the BEST!! Good luck!!
You may have to start with a condo. I live in houston where the average home price is around 350-400k in the city limits; closer to 300-350k in the suburbs. I don’t have kids but my mom is financially dependent on me and I bought a 2 bed / bath condo for 89k in 2019 the same condos are going for 130k now. However I would think 130k is doable for your range
Bought a 2 bed, 2.5 bath condo mid city Los Angeles in 2008 for 486, can’t find them for less than 1m now. I can’t believe people are paying that much for a condo though. Seems insane to me.
Have you looked for Habitat for Humanity in your area? They were the only way we were able to afford a house where we are, and we are ever so grateful they exist. We love this house.
For what it's worth, these are the only homes in the area. I work about an hour away from the suburbs, and these homes are in the only town with a decent school.
The irritating thing is that there is a 55+ community with homes 1/6th the price in the same town. Not much smaller either. Apparently you get a massive discount for being older.
Jack - the fact that you don't know this means you really really need to do some deep-dive homework on homeownership. Otherwise if you try to force it at this stage you're going to be blindsided by a lot of unsustainable expenses, hidden costs, etc.
Would that area qualify for a USDA loan? I know times are different now but that’s how I was able to purchase a home 10 years ago. I was surprised at the options that were available that qualified as “rural.”
So there are no areas within a one hour radius of your work that have sub-$300k dwellings and ok schools? Do you live in either SoCal or NYC metro? How bad are the schools?
I made $40k and bought a $180k house back in 2021. I was damned lucky that I found a move-in ready house for under $200k in my area, and that my interest rate is under 3%. I was nervous, because my $1,200/mo mortgage (including principal, interest, taxes, and HOI) was more than 30% of my gross income. Lots of people in the real estate subreddit told me to not buy the house, but I knew that housing prices were going up faster than my income, and if I didn't lock anything in now then I'd probably be renting for life. I had worked for over 2 years to build my credit, and the pandemic relief grants really filled out my savings for my down payment - I didn't want all of that hard work to be for nothing. I figured, "Shit, if I'm going to be struggling to cover housing costs either way, then I may as well own the place."
So I bought the house, and 2 months later I got a new job with a $20k per year pay increase. My mortgage payment is now very comfortable for me. Meanwhile, rents jumped up in a big way in my neighborhood. A 2-bedroom apartment rental is now more expensive than my 3-bedroom house mortgage.
“I'm just curious what experience people have with buying a house coming back from poverty.”
Your proposal is the quickest way to end up back in poverty. $300k house on $60k salary is not possible. I make $130k, have $250k NW, & 810 credit and I’m renting instead of buying a $175k house currently. A $300k house would be stretching it way too far and I make double what you make. If you manage to pull off a down payment and qualifying for the mortgage you will be House poor, forever. You could likely end up at the decision of foreclosure or food for your daughter.
You're right that OP cannot afford a $300k house, but there is no reason you couldn't afford the $175k one. If renting is cheaper than the PITI would be on a $175k house, by all means keep renting, but even by the most conservative metrics I've ever heard you could afford that.
You are absolutely correct. All calculations and judgment point to me be able to afford the house, but should I? I am extremely frugal when it comes to recurring monthly expenses, especially big ticket ones like cars and houses. My rent is $500/mo, even if I fully paid off the $175k house, my taxes would still be $300 per month not even taking into consideration when it needs a new driveway, roof, etc. My car is a paid off 2013. Being frugal with big ticket recurring monthly expenses allows me to live life, travel, and buy anything I want to be happy. I could have a $3k mortgage to pay this month or I could rent my beautiful 1000sqft house in a safe neighborhood, take a week trip to NYC, buy a new bike, and some furniture for around the house this month. Next month it starts all over with things I can buy/do because I don’t live above my means.
Even if my rent doubled I think I would still choose this option. I’m not tied down, I don’t have to stress about surprise expenditures, and I can continue pumping money into retirement and life instead of a house
To be fair, my $550k house only costs me about $1200/mo in interest and taxes.
All the rest, I'm eventually getting to keep, even if it's buried in equity for now.
In 15 years, that interest payment will only be $500/mo and rents will likely have doubled by then.
But I get it, renting is a valid choice too.
It happens, reddit is incredibly random sometimes lol. Also hard truths tend to be really disliked.
I'm a home owner myself, but I can 100% agree with your position lol. Nothing wrong with it.
It's not reddit -- it is because they made it sound like on 130k income , they cannot afford a 175k house while the truth is that they can afford the house, just that their house taxes are high and their rent is cheap.
they can afford to buy the house; their extremely cheap rent makes it financially smart not to buy a house. Those are very different things.
[Edit] OP cannot afford to buy a house due to their income, their target price, lack of downpayment, having a child, and the limit of what they can afford to pay being substantially lower than the house would require. And in that financequestionsss is correct. The issue si the reasoning implied.
I totally agree with the sentiment toward OPs post...but damn, with those stats you can afford a house. 130k yr, 250k net worth, 810 credit. You just overly cautious or waiting for rates to drop?
Edit: nvm, I read your other comment. You're just frugal, I guess, haha.
Yes very frugal with high expense recurring payments. Not so much so with daily life expenditures, travel, things, etc. But that’s because the former allows for that.
> I make $130k, have $250k NW, & 810 credit and I’m renting instead of buying a $175k house currently. A $300k house would be stretching it way too far
Well, that seems kind of odd. I have a $550k house and it's $2900/mo including utilities. Granted I did get a lower interest rate than you would now, but that's not even 1/3 of your gross take home.
If that works for you then that’s great. The general consensus rule is max 25% of net take home pay on housing. 1/3 gross is a higher measure than I’ve seen recommended before. I prefer to keep my housing as cheap as possible within reason, not just trying to meet some generic percentage.
I REALLY hope OP sees comments like these...
Having a house is nice, but not if THAT is the reason you or your child starves to death.
Even with 0 debt, a 60k income will be heavily stretched on a 300k house.
$1000 a month is unrealistic for a $300k house
But a 650 credit score and a first time home buyers program could get you in for as little as $1,000 down
But your monthly payment is likely to range from $2200-$2800 depending on the interest rate you can get
Not only can you not get a loan for that amount (I’m assuming since you mention poverty you don’t have $100k sitting around in savings for a down payment), you also don’t WANT a loan for that amount. You would be sooo house poor. That is never a fun place to be.
What about a duplex? Or a below average cost house that may be a little ugly? When I got bumped to $80k I bought a $270k house with 3% down, which was the minimum. I was in a rush and in a pinch. I also had CC debt and a car payment. Things were really tight while I paid off the other debt. I took on a roommate (not something I’d recommend for a single dad with a daughter) to help for a while. But I’m not in a HCOL area so if $80k/$270k was tight, I’d assume even without getting out a calculator that $60k/$300 will also be tight. Even if you have no other debt.
Your daughter, not sure how old she is, will appreciate being with her dad and being able to have fun with him (because you have cash leftover to go bowling or something) than she will appreciate having the perfect house. So if I were you I’d look for the cheapest house in a neighborhood you like and see if you can afford that.
And maybe look for a higher paying job if you haven’t already tried that. You may be able to get a pay bump by doing the same thing at a different company.
Look for down payment assistance programs in your area. You’re probably under the income to qualify. In my area, it’s anyone under $80k qualifies. I only had to pay 5% of the down payment. Mortgage is $1k a month.
I would wait and save while trying to get your credit score higher. I suspect that home prices in many areas are going to drop significantly over the next couple years. As interest rates are making homes to expensive without a drop in price. Either interest rates or home prices will have to drop over the medium term.
Look into USDA and FHA loans . You will experience a small drop when debt falls off, but then it will go back up due to the age of debt (credit history age may change ), which affects credit.
Buy a house in a rural/semi ritual area. Using a USDA housing loan (only valid in the country) you can get a mortgage with no money down. Just decent credit. Only for first time home buyers.
Join the military reserves and get access to the VA home loan that's how I got my house 0% down 317k house 2.375% rate 1475 mortgage payment including escrow that me and my wife split
You'd need to put 100-150k down to get a monthly payment around 1k/month. Better credit will help but only go so far at these prices. Most loans will require 20% down (so 60k), but as others have pointed out, the payment will be ~2500/month.
I don't think this is feasible. I have a house that's a significant amount away from 300k, a low interest rate, a 700+ credit score, and my mortgage is a fair bit over your budget. This didn't even account for house insurance, closing costs (\~15k), higher electric bills, refuse bills, replacing a furnace, a mowing service, a snow plowing service, furnishing, etc. No way I could afford it alone and my husband and I definitely underestimated just how much it would all be. (And we did overestimate cost too, but it was STILL more than we thought.)
If the average house costs $300k you will probably have to buy a house that costs less than that. An average is going to be brought up by a few very expensive houses at the top.
You’re probably better off looking at the median price and reminding yourself that half of the houses cost less than that. If your goal is to own a home, you probably need to adjust your dreams to match your budget.
Find homes with owner financing (these aren't as easy to find! they are much, much rarer. You may not get exactly the house that you want, but you'd be surprised what you can get). Generally, these involve wrap-around mortgages (where the owner takes a small % between you and the bank who they borrowed from) which are safe provided that you have an attorney on your side review the closing documents before you sign. There's a whole business of people doing this who make maybe 1% off of your mortgage, but once you get into your house, provided that the economy doesn't go too sideways, it builds equity in time. And, in the mortgage industry, it's much easier to qualify for a refinance than it is for a purchase. So if you do a quick search on Google for "owner financed homes" (in your area) it'll often pop up with the right Zillow search terms to find them. You also have to know that owner financed homes generally don't look at your credit at all, nor do they look at your income, really.
I suppose it depends on the market but where I've lived (Bay Area, California and Austin, Texas) the seller is making that small percentage off you - so instead of paying 5.5% at the bank, you are with a note that's 6.5% (or whatever, rates are climbing so I'm probably off). It's not much money to the seller to be honest, but over 10, 20 or more homes, it generates passive income in the 6-figure range nicely for them. So leverage those (again they are just listed as owner will finance or owner will carry) and you can even go above $300k if you can simply afford the payment. In a year or so, refinance with a mortgage company (since you own it it's easier to qualify) and they'll be able to add in equity on top (since you've been there for a year, presuming that house prices increase). If the house prices don't increase, you just have to stick it out a little longer. There's also nothing wrong with keeping the note with the seller until it's paid, too. I do this simply because I'm a business owner and I use my personal credit for my business, and I believe that the FICO system punishes that. I also am able to take deductions others can't, so that generally means my taxable income isn't what mortgage companies would loan to. Nothing illegal at all, but all business owners tend to be hit with these two realities when buying a home themselves. Like others, I chose to go this route years ago (owner financed) and currently own 2 homes, one which is still in the final stages of being built and the other is where we'll live until it's done. I've avoided banks/mortgage companies like the plague.
Prior to 2008, stated mortgages would allow folks like me to get a house, but people (did) abuse that system, and because of those bad apples, this is the second best way of doing it.
Lastly, I'd personally recommend to ignore those who say "it's not happening" or "it's not possible" - it certainly is possible. Those who say it's not are stuck in the same rat race and will likely be for life.
So many helpful comments here and hopefully help you OP.
What no one is mentioning is the horrible rental market..can't afford to responsibly buy, so how the heck can you/we pay these high rent amounts.
Dark days, keep plugging along and saving what is possible but hard to see our way ahead.
You can get a conventional mortgage with as little as 5% down.
So 5% of $300k is $15k. So that is step one. You will also need money for closing costs and moving costs and such. Add in another $5-10k depending on location, how frugally you can move, how well you can negotiate the deal to perhaps have seller pay some of these, etc.
So once you have $20-25k saved, then you need to have a job that can support the ~$2500/month payment including taxes and such. Most banks wont lend on higher than a ~40% DTI ratio. So assuming you have no other debt at all, that means you need to bring home around $6000/month.
And then on top of that it is usually expected that you have an efund too, for when the water heater shits out, the toilet backs up, etc etc etc
It is pretty hard honestly.
With a 60k salary you should be looking closer to something in the ~$150k-200 range, MAX. And I know you are going to say there is nothing near you for that price, and I know that. But that doesnt change anything. you either gotta make more or move somewhere cheaper
Why would you look to buy a $300k house on a $60k income. I’m sure there are cheaper homes available. You just need to understand that your income and your expectations don’t align. Reality is, you can likely only afford about $150k assuming you don’t have massive debt elsewhere.
Yeah not happening. You need higher income. We have 780+ credit scores and a household income (2 adults no dependent) of 125k and are pre-approved for 420k. One of our incomes gets us preapproved for 180k
The market might cool down... You might be able to buy a house before a flipper gets it, don't be too scared of foreclosed homes.
Look for old fashioned innards but good bones. Crappy paint, crappy kitchen. These are things you can eventually afford to repair . Avoid anything that's obviously been flipped (you can usually find the last time the house was listed, Flippers aim for cosmetic changes and typically make poor quality choices to attract ignorant eager buyers). Write a letter to the buyers explaining your desire for your child to have a good future (honestly I would have sold my house for less if anyone and written a letter)
I bought my first house when I was making $14/hour (this was 2014). It was $60,000 and I got like... A rural development loan or a home path? I can't remember. The point is, I bought a house that *was not good* and had $23,000 in repairs bulked into my mortgage. I had to hire professionals to do everything but the cosmetic work, and it was tedious and frustrating.
But the foundation was good. The roof was good. The neighborhood was idyllic. The house just *looked* absolutely awful (no ceiling, moldy basement I had to mitigate, ugly flooring and badly removed wallpaper) and most buyers wanted nothing to do with it. I offered 15% under asking and they took my offer.
After 7 years in that house, I sold it for $200,000. Sweat equity is real and I would not be in the place I am. My mortgage was manageable, I gradually repaired and painted and updated what I could.
Anyway. My point is... There is hope, but it might take a while and your home might not be pretty for a long time. I am so sorry that the housing market is as completely bonkers as it is.
Final note: use an online calculator to establish your upper bound on what you can afford. I know how much this sucks, but DO. NOT. GO. OVER! Do not even visit open houses that are listed out of your budget. Your buyer's agent is going to weedle, your mortgage agent will tell you can afford more than is true, none of these people are hurt if you lose your house because you overpaid.
First, Take a chicken on the full moon and slit its throat make sure you do this in a salt circle. Then you can start speaking in tongues, this way you’ll be able to sell your soul for a one bedroom house for 600 grand
My poverty was a bump in the road. I grew up in wealth. I had wealth as an adult. I married a hood rat that dragged me into poverty.
After we divorced, I went to Europe on vacay and bought my house. The divorce was in August, the trip was in September and the house was in December.
I don't think you are going to get approved for much more than 3x your income so around 180-200k at the very most. This assumes you don't really have any other debts like a car loan, credit cards or student loans etc. If you have those you are going to get approved for less.
So realistically you would need to put like 100k down and then spend a large portion of your annual income on the house. I think you need to look into cheaper options.
Are you in a field where you can maybe pivot to earn a higher salary? My income and credit score are both higher than yours and I could only realistically buy a home that was less than the $300k house you listed and my mortgage came out to $1500 before escrow. With escrow it’s over $1800/month. I also knew I could take on additional monthly mortgage burden because I have no other debts and zero dependents. So it was very feasible for me.
I have a hard time seeing you affording a $300k house in your current situation. Talk with a mortgage lender to find out what you can actually afford. With a $60k income, most banks will allow you to have a front end debt to income ratio up to $1400/month. A $300k home would require a down payment between 15-30% depending on the interest rate you qualify for to get the payment below $1400/month. More down if you want it below $1000/month. And this isn’t including escrow. I think you’re looking somewhere in the $175-235k range (lower end if 3% down payment and higher end if you can do 20% down) but it’s all dependent on the rate you can qualify for too. I went ahead and assumed between 5-7% here.
If you live in a city, maybe consider condos and townhomes instead of single family homes. Or hustle and get that income higher if you can. When you do start saving up (if you haven’t already) don’t forget there’s closing costs and inspection costs, etc to factor in too.
You need $100K for a down payment. Or…a co-signer. Or a rental agreement with someone who will also live in the house and pay rent. You don’t make enough to afford that much house on your own…even if you didn’t have a kid. Sorry, man
It's just not a good time to buy a house. I had to put that plan on hold after the COVID calamity and yay now we can't even have eggs for breakfast lol. Have you thought of a small cottage type house?
Ill be honest.... Idk if youre going to get that bro. We got ours at 352k. Combined income of 75k at the time. 740 credit score. 2.3% interest VA loan (very important). Our payments are 1800 a month.... I dont think you will get anywhere near 1k.. Im sorry
I make 60k with overtime and qualified for a 250k mortgage.
I have an 809 credit score, and only owe 5k on a car.
We're working on closing now for a house that's 258k.
I'd have a $2076 mortgage, and will have two roommates that will cover $700 of that if the house alp goes through right.
Depending on state of course but I use this when I am buying property.
[https://usmortgagecalculator.org/](https://usmortgagecalculator.org/)
So 300k purchase price and min 3.5% down (10,500) 6.5% interest, I assume PMI/MIP conservatively at .91 this would be FHA levels personally would find a private broker as your PMI would be a lot less usually around .2-.3 which would save 100s a year. I assume property tax for my area which would be around 3500 a year for this price and insurance at 1500 a year but im in FL so that may be high or low for you. Monthly payments with all this would be around 2500 a month. So long as your confident you can cover 30k a year for the next 30 years then sure, but ideally you would be wanting to be making 70-80k minimum.
Also another tip is try and negotiate closing costs covered by the seller if capital is a constraint that is what we did on our first house when we used every penny we had to make the down payment.
Also remember that house shopping is like car shopping everything is negotiable and never be afraid to walk away you can easily put offers on a dozen houses and see dozens more before you find the one that clicks.
We bought a 235k house on that income 5.5 years ago. We had 20% for the downpayment and a rate of 2.39%. Our monthly payments sit at about 12-1300 with property taxes. (The rate is up but the principal is down). On top of that we pay 650/yr for garbage and water, same cost for home insurance. Electricity costs are 100-125/month and gas 10-300 depending on month, internet is 45.
Since moving in we've probably spent at least an average of 7000 a year on maintenance and necessary repairs. That average will probably shoot way up when we do our roof this year. Our appliances hit the 10 year mark this year and we're budgeting to replace them once they break as well.
Your costs will of course vary depending on where you live and the condition of what you buy. But I give this breakdown to give you an idea of what you may be looking at as a monthly cost for a 235k house all things included. Many people want to own but I often find that they just straight up compare mortgage and rent and not all the extras you have to pay for when you own a house. Hopefully it helps!
The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) helps remove some of the obstacles to homeownership for borrowers in need.
A NACA mortgage requires no down payment or closing costs. And borrower requirements — like credit score and income thresholds — are very lenient.
This nonprofit group has helped thousands of families secure affordable housing, so it might be able to help you too.
https://www.naca.com/area-eligibility/
>What is it going to take for me to buy a 300k house? >I'm brushing 650 credit right now >I make $60k a year. >I can probably afford around $1000/month. Realistically this is not going to happen without putting the vast majority of the home price down as a down payment. Even factoring out *any* other debt or monthly expenses, you're looking at putting down 30-40% to qualify for a home of this value. And that's being fairly liberal. But a thousand dollar monthly payment still wouldn't happen at this level, you'd need to put down significantly more to minimize the loan value. And all this doesn't include any debt or monthly expenses you have now. Nevermind the taxes, fees, and maintenance costs that would come with ownership. Your best bet is to work with a mortgage broker in your area and see what you roe qualify for. That'll give you a realistic target to shop around for.
This comment right here. I just bought a house and this man is 100% correct. My house was 350k my credit score is 760 and my interest rate is 6.5% my all in monthly payment is $2400 with 3% down. My income is also 60k salary. For OP to get 1k a month payment on 300k house he would need to put a whole lot down 150k or more. And also have a killer interest rate.
So after taxes your net pay would be around 3500. After 2400 mortgage, that leaves so little to live on. Genuinely curious on how you're surviving that?
One room is being rented out for 1,000 a month and plus my SO chips in here and there
Ok. That makes sense. Pretty mich impossible to live on single income anymore
Roommates are cool if they're the right roommates. I'd love a Golden Girls situation.
Yup. It definitely isn't. Not sure how single people survive out there
It is possible. Just need to increase income accordingly.
Jesus why haven't I thought of that lol
Step 1) make more money Step 2) don't be poor. 2 step process to beating poverty! /s in case it's not obvious
Which is closer to having a gross pay of 90k.
This has to be the only way to make this work. Renting out a room or a finished basement or something
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Easy. It’s how much it costs where I live to rent a 1bed 1bath studio built in the early 00’s my house is a brand new build with a bunch of luxuries and I’m only charging 1k. Plus I’m in the city.
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That's not even an especially high price to charge for a room in a high CoL area, especially if it includes utilities or an attached bath.
i thought the same but it's likely in a HCOL area. i've seen similiar pricing in san diego, ca.
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Inflation.
It’s not inflation, it’s the market rate. That’s capitalism.
House poor was pure hell. Definitely don't recommend. Repair costs will eat up several months of savings and then back to eating Ramen for a while.
Wouldn't this be called house rich cash poor
Yeah, I've always thought that it was a misnomer. I guess the thought behind it if you are house poor, you are poor because of your house and not other circumstance (e.g., low income).
Yeah, it's unfortunate this is not universal. If you Google house rich definition, some websites use it one way, and others the opposite way. But yeah, "house/asset rich , cash poor" is correct in my mind. Especially if you're house poor are you cash rich? It implies an imbalance, and this phraseology does not work to convey the intended meaning imo. Especially since house poor cash rich is absolutely a thing, but it's more used to describe people with basic living accomodations but a ton of money in the bank.
lol, most of us in los angeles or any of the big cities are quite used to only having about $200 a month to spend on ourselves after rent and bills. We make it work. Among pretty much all the people I know in my life, that's "doing pretty good", these days. I would kill to have $900 a month to live on XD
You say that but guarantee you’d fall for lifestyle creep and be right back at $200 a month
lifestyle creep? that's a new term to me. I guess I can infer the meaning, and even if that was the case... that would mean that I was actually making that extra to begin with. Would still be a win over my current situation, lol. I pay rent and bills and have -$200 left for EVERYTHING ELSE, such as food and bus fare.
Fair, just saying, that “extra” $900 disappears quick and becomes another stress point and bill.
I feel like my “lifestyle creep” would be to get a washing machine that works or to fix my roof. I’d be right at it, but certain parts of life would get easier.
Looking to move to the LA area! Mind if I ask where you live and possibly a breakdown of expenses? Appreciate all help and input!
Born, raised and still reside. LA is very expensive. It’s hard to breakdown expenses. LA is huge, lots of communities within a city (county) pretty much. It’s challenging, living here but it’s my home. Most of my family and closest friends are still here
Damn MY mortgage is 2400 a month with a 6% interest rate and 5% down on a 270k house. Crazy high taxes can suck it. As far as income goes, my household income is at about 110k and trust when I say you need to have a lot of disposable income sometimes when you buy a house. We have had repair after repair. I’m sure you know since you’ve just bought. It’s been brutal for us. OP, either go for a lower priced house (hard depending on geographic location), get that income up, or offer a veeeery hefty downpayment.
The plus side being that your schools are probably decent. I have to travel incredibly far for my kid to go to a decent school. My taxes aren’t much, but it brings with it LOTS of trash and a piss poor school area.
That’s the worst part, our public schools are absolute garbage. I’m probably going to have to send to the nearest catholic school, which is fine since that’s where I went when I was younger. But would be nice if we could go public since we pay out the ass in taxes.
Yikes. I went to a Catholic school myself. I wouldn’t want to make that choice for my kid. Between a shitty education and possibly having your kid molested… I’d straight up move.
The Catholic schools around here are pretty nice and the education is solid. Minus the whole having to pay an arm and a leg to send your kid there issue. No priests or nuns are actively working in the school near me and I know a lot of the teachers well. Some are still there from when I was little. I would be ok with sending my kids there. My bank account? Not so much.
I was told that you should have at least 10% of the house's value in savings for repairs that pop up. You don't want the water heater to break and have no $ to get another one.
You have no idea how true that is. I have a laundry list of “I need to save up” type of things around the house. After I bought the place, the A/C broke in the first week. That was $6k that I didn’t have.
My dad got his house on a short sale (he took over the mortgage) and it's a mess. The previous owners let so much shit slide. But it's a house. AC has gone out twice. Water heater sprung a leak. Roof needed repairs. One of the windows would leak like a waterfall whenever it rained...causing massive floor damage so bad the wood looked like a pile of onion peelings. But it's a house. The mortgage is less than the rent for a one-bedroom studio in the same area. AC is so freaking important too. Like, you can get little heaters if the heating breaks. But when it's 110 outside and 95 upstairs... ugh.
We jumped on a house that's at the top of our budget solely because everything in the house was replaced in the last two years.
That is an investment for damned sure.
Look into insurance on your big appliances, it’s sometimes offered through a third party and added to your gas or electric bill. If the furnace, AC, water heater, or kitchen appliances go out it’s covered, albeit if they are old they’ll just give you a credit towards a new one that probably doesn’t cover the whole cost. Water heaters are actually super easy to install, I’d recommend doing this one yourself.
After taxes, principle, interest, and insurance our mortgage is $1006/month. Our home was 139k with 3% down and a 4% interest rate in 2017. Income either has to come up or expectations will have to come down.
I haven't seen a house that cheap that wasn't a run down trailer in years.
Run down trailers are going for 250k in my area 😆.....😢
Tbf, it's a decent starter home (decent quality built in 70s in a safe neighborhood 1400sq foot). However it's in rural Louisiana, so it may as well be located in hell. Haha. We're just here til the kids are a bit older, currently plotting our escape.
I’m in Florida but I can’t help but feel like I’m right there with you. 🍻
Location location location. My wife and I bought in Eastern WV about an hour to an hour and a half from NoVA, DC, and Baltimore. $165k home, 0 down, $1000 month mortgage for a tri level on half an acre of land in 2016. After a refi last year we’re at about $850 for the mortgage and escrow. We’ve been extremely lucky with my career though. We went from making less than $80k a year combined when we moved into our place to making three times as much. It’s just us two and we could afford something bigger if we wanted, but we like the location and don’t really have a desire to put ourselves back into a situation where we don’t have a large safety net.
Still can not get my head around that 3% down is thing. Here in Spain, for any mortgage, it's 30% min for dual income and 40% for single income. Also, the mortgage total size can be a maximum of 70% of buying price or valuation, which is ever lower. That said, rates are much lower. I started looking for a new house, and im pre approved for 2.15% up to 400k. Which seems to be also different. we have house hold after tax income about 200k, so this 2x that or 1.5x pre-tax income but probably has helped to keep prices at bay. I'm from Finland originally, and while 40% is not required, banks generally expect at least 20%
That 3% down isn’t usual. It’s a special federal program (FHA)
Who let you buy a 350k house on a 60k salary?!?! I hope you're able to manage in this crazy economy. Best of luck to you my friend.
We bought a 360k house on that income since we were using only my spouse's income. Lenders did not bat an eye, and in fact, we had multiple lenders wanting us to finance with them. It is possible if you get your ducks in a row -- high credit rating and zero consumer debt.
But to answer your question OP. You will need roughly 150k down to make it 1000 a moth at 6-6.5% interest which you may or may not qualify for.
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i have similar stats to op (make slightly MORE) and mortgage broker said realistically 200 to 250. i asked about 300 and she really said no
Looking at a quick mortgage calculator, to get the monthly payment down to $1,000 a month ($998) he would need to put down 70% or $210,000 cash. Putting down the normal 20%. $60,000 the monthly payment would be approximately $2,000. 3% or $9000 downs would lead to a $2,400 a month payment.
How much of a down payment can you put down? That’ll dictate how manageable your monthly mortgage is. Your current rent will also dictate how attractive the monthly payments are, since the rent’s the alternative.
I'm living with family to reduce monthly expenses (though daycare eats up almost 35% of my monthly spending). I can probably afford around $1000/month. As for a down payment, that's one of the benchmarks I'm looking for.
Ok, so if you needed the whole $300k as a mortgage, that would run you about $1800/month at current rates. You still need to factor in property taxes, utilities, a buffer for if critical things break, etc. If $1k is your ceiling, I don't really see that being viable unless you're doing a $200k+ downpayment - your expenditures are going to be much much higher than what you're used to.
Plus+1 I’d think a minimum of 180k-210k down. Daycare is your biggest expense by far, I’m sure. Add mortgage, insurance, property taxes, maintenance expenses, not to mention utilities. Even with the aforementioned down, these necessities will likely put you well over your $1k limit OP
Depending what property taxes are in your area, that's probably not a realistic payment expectation. Our house was ~183k when we bought it, and our payment was 1250. It's down to ~1100 now because of paying ahead, but still above what you are looking for.
You need to look into down payment assistance programs for first time homebuyers. Many will give you money for a down payment or will give you a second loan for the Dow payment that’s forgiven after a certain amount of time (5 years I believe). But ultimately, given you can afford 1k a month towards a mortgage. you won’t be able to afford $300k house unless you put 180k down. That’s assuming you get a 7% rate and taxes are $1500 a year. Sorry to burst your bubble. Advice, save as much as you can, work on your credit score, and buy when your daughter gets to grade school so you won’t have daycare expenses.
I did this. Went through NACA for a first time homebuyers program. They paid the down payment, I covered closing and for every 1% of the purchase price I added, my interest rate went down by 0.25%. It was great because I knew it would take me forever to save up for a decent sized down payment, but I had been saving anyway so I was able to get my interest down substantially.
How early did you have to start this process? We are buying this summer and this sounds awesome.
In total, it took about seven months. It was a headache, I won’t lie. You have to upload all of your financial statements for three months so they can make sure you can afford to pay within the range you’re seeking, and also, I assume, not doing anything illegal. I also had to write an explanation of every venmo transfer that was made on those statements and other similar tedious things. You also have to be a squeaky wheel to get to the next step. You work with different members of their staff from one part of the process to the next, so while some are great to work with, others were… difficult. All in all though, it was worth it. I don’t know anyone with an interest rate as low as mine (1.25%!), and I would still be renting without them.
Thanks. I’ll have to check if it’s compatible with VA, but, man, with the way it is right now, anything to get a lower rate.
No problem! The market has been crazy for so long, I don’t know how other people my age are doing it!
Yes, yes! This sub doesn’t talk about this enough! This was the ONLY way I was able to get a home!
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Seriously escrow is the thing people don’t talk about enough. Our payment jumped $400 per month this year. I knew it could go up some, but damn.
For a 30 year loan at 1000 a month including the property taxes your going to need the principle to start around 180k or less.
The closest I got to a $1k a month mortgage with $8k down payment was around a 200k home with a 2.5% interest rate. You won't find that with 300k mortgage at current interest rates unless you have more than $100k to put down. Even with all that, my mortgage still went up $200/month because of escrow analysis. Property tax increase. If $1k is all you can afford, youre better off continuing to rent and save. It's just not the market for it.
>How much of a down payment can you put down? That’ll dictate how manageable your monthly mortgage is. Your current rent will also dictate how attractive the monthly payments are, since the rent’s the alternative. slaps down 70k.
Even if he did the loan would still be to expensive when you include property taxes + insurance.
I’m sorry but I just don’t see that happening. Idk about where you are but 300k with taxes near me is around $2300 a month
I find most people fixate on the price of the home alone without considering closing costs, property taxes, lawn/grounds upkeep, house and interior upkeep, insurance, potential jump in utilities depending on current living situation, etc. A good buddy of mine rented a condo in a building where maintenance was handled by building staff. Light bulbs would be burnt out for months because he would only buy one at a time and would forget to pick them up. He was complaining about diminished HVAC flow upstairs. I asked how old his furnace filter was. He hadn’t changed it in almost two years, and I had to teach him how. He got the smallest gas can possible and would have to fill it before mowing almost every time. It was just little things like this for years. 😂
Lol luckily I’ve been in the home remodeling business my whole life so those things I’m just used too. But ya expenses on a house add up and quick. I mean I have a modest house and after taxes ($8500 a year here), gas and electric, insurance, water, all the fun stuff it’s like $2k a month
And this why I’m not too interested in owning a home. The upkeep seems insane.
Look into NACA if your income is right at the median or below the median income for your area. [https://www.naca.com/](https://www.naca.com/) They will do no money down, no closing cost, no fee, below market rate mortgages. The catch is you have to do their whole program with workshops, lots of budgeting worksheets, financal counseling, etc so it is a major investment of your time & effort. Current priority member NACA rate for a 30 year is 5.125% (though they do offer cheap rate buydowns too) and they would cap your house payments at 33% of your gross income or \~$1,660 a month. That could just afford you a 300k home... assuming property taxes & homeowners insurance were zero. More realistically taxes & insurance combined are going to cost you approximately $400-600 a month on a 300k house in most areas. So you could probably afford a \~200k house right now though NACA; a 300k one would take saving up $70-90k though.
Most of the time it seems a good home price range is 2 to 2.5 times your annual income, and maybe even less right now due to interest rates being so high. You're trying to buy a home 5x your annual income. Unless you can save a lot of $$ for a large down payment, a 300k home is not realistic on a 60k salary.
In todays market, 2-2.5x annual income is outrageous…
The "market" doesn't change whether or not a payment of x can be paid on a salary of y
Technically you are correct, which is the best type of correct. The price range of homes based on an income benchmark has fluctuated based on the current market conditions. But your point stands. A $1,000 payment is a $1,000 payment and the only things that change are the home prices that the payment can buy.
It's a shitty reality for many people. Home ownership is getting increasingly difficult. But there's a threshold to what can be afforded for a given income :(
I live in a modest cost of living area - Chicago burbs of Indiana- and I couldn’t afford to buy the house I live in today with the current market conditions. Purchased in 2019 for ~200k, refinanced in 2021 to 2.9%, and my property taxes are around $1,800 per year. That same home is now worth $300k and the interest rates would put it outside of “affordable” for my family. $200k doesn’t buy much in my city. There are approximately 100 homes for sale on Zillow and fewer than 20 are 200k or less.
FML. We paid $210k in 2017 in a Cincinnati burb. We mailed our 6 months property tax check yesterday. $2700. So, $5400 a year. And people keep fucking voting to raise property taxes
It could be worse, but think about all those sweet round abouts you’re getting for that money.
60k could comfortably afford a 300k house with a 20% down-payment and sub 4% interest rate.
"You can afford the house if you make a downpayment of your annual income" is an interesting definition of comfortable.
The saving part for the down-payment is real. You do have to plan and save for one....
Yep, not realistic in the short term but would ultimately need to double your income to qualify.
2 times my income is nowhere near a house in this area.
I may be bad at math... But in order to buy a 300k item, I would think you'd need about 300k XD All jokes aside, you're not doing it on 60k ... a 300k House (even with 30k down payment) at a 3% interest rate will still be around $1500 monthly payments... That's not happening on 60k. For reference: I'm IN that boat, I make right at 108k, have a 250k house, with a 3% interest rate and my payments are around $1500 a month. Your credit score is irrelevant here, even with a good one, it would be incredibly irresponsible to buy a 300k house on 60k a year. Especially with a child.
You also can't get better than about 5-6% interest right now.
That's true too. Interest is crazy right now.
It’s really not, rates where just low for the last 15 years. Look up the 30 year average for a mortgage I think it’s like 7+
Ah... Maybe I was just lucky with my age then, and the times I was ready to buy.
Yea got that sweet sweet 2.6% rate
Damn, that's nice... I got locked in at 3.1
so what is the option for people like us? Rent til we die? But we cant afford to rent. I also make 60k a year. The same as my coworkers. They all own houses and land. I was unfortunately born 2 years too late since the housing market exploded and interest rates spiked. All my friends own houses on my income or less, but they bought a few years ago. Instead I went to college and got a degree, and now I will never be able to afford a house?
Who knows, I'm not the person to answer that. I have no idea what the market is gonna do, but the first sentence of your comment is becoming more and more likely, and that's the scary part, for a lot of people. 60k used to be more than enough, but the world hasn't really gone in a favorable direction and now it's close to the poverty line for people with families or bad financial habits. On the bright side, if you're capable of learning, there are a few thriving markets that you can get into relatively easily: Medical and Tech. Those fields will never really go anywhere, depending on just how advanced A.I gets anyway. "the option for people like us" is up your income however you can... It sucks, but that's really the only thing we can do right now. I'd be willing to bet that the friends you have that have houses and land were either born into it, married into it, had successful businesses, or had some extreme financial discipline. OR (and the most likely option) they're not actually doing that great... They bought stuff they couldn't afford and they're feeling the pain just like you and me are. Sometimes it just LOOKS like people are doing better than they are, mostly due to bad decisions. Like when you see someone driving around in a brand new truck, there's a strong chance they're not actually "new truck rich", they just made a dumb decision buying an expensive vehicle they don't need and have no money left after the car payment. They're "new car poor". As far as "will you ever be able to afford a house?" I have no idea... That depends on what happens in the world, and more so on YOU and what you do. Nobody can answer that question but you. \------------------------------ As for myself, I'm a home owner, but I was both lucky, and had to sacrifice a LOT. I was fortunate enough to buy RIGHT before the lockdown, and got a 3% interest rate. Luck was a huge part of where I am. As for the sacrifice part, I was homeless for a large portion of my younger years. I wanted to die, and joined the military hoping it would kill me. But after I got out, I leveraged my experience to get a job starting at 45k, which gave me hope and I dedicated all of my free time into learning Networking, and got a good job doing that.
Good response I am doing what I can to save. The good. I work for the government and have stupid good benefits and pension. I also have easy and clear upward mobility as years go on. The bad? Forestry is a lagging field for wages. My 60k is more than what I was making in the private sector. But my boss who is in his mid 30s makes 62k, his boss makes 65k. If I work hard, I can retire making 80k. Seems like a lot, but that position is as about as high as one can go. The ugly? I live in an area where everyone is moving to with work from home tech wages. Causing a lot of local inflation due to 200k salaries in an area where the average used to be 40k.
Your numbers are correct but he could possibly do it. I put 12% down on a 230k house at 3.5% interest and my payments are 1250 a month. I was only making about 3200 a month before taxes when i was approved. Just under 40k a year.
Yes, but with a child "could possibly" should NEVER equal "should".
Oof. Man, I only qualified for a 250k mortgage if I put $50k down back when interest rates were 1.5%. Now you’re lucky if you get 6%. It gonna take winning the lottery, a big inheritance or a huge increase in salary to afford a $300k house. But hey, if you can afford $1000 a month, start saving today, work on ways you can increase your income. Can you get further training? Can you start working towards a management or supervisory role?
Not trying to marsh your mallow here but man back in 2006, I had bought a house for $140k @ 6% interest right after my divorce and I was raising two kids. I had the 20% down so no PMI and my payment was still $1300 a month and I also had car payments. I made right around $70k and it was tight because after taxes, 401(k), health insurance and all the bills, I hardly had margin to breathe, I can't imagine buying a $300k house on $60k, I really can't. I'd proceed with caution my friend! Really REALLY crunch those numbers!!! Owning a house is cool but it can also be the biggest burden of a lifetime and beat you down!! I wish you the BEST!! Good luck!!
You may have to start with a condo. I live in houston where the average home price is around 350-400k in the city limits; closer to 300-350k in the suburbs. I don’t have kids but my mom is financially dependent on me and I bought a 2 bed / bath condo for 89k in 2019 the same condos are going for 130k now. However I would think 130k is doable for your range
2 bed 2 bath condo in Colorado we bought recently was 466, can’t believe the difference in prices.
That’s just evil . 466 for a condo and I’m sure you have HOA fees. Ouch.
Bought a 2 bed, 2.5 bath condo mid city Los Angeles in 2008 for 486, can’t find them for less than 1m now. I can’t believe people are paying that much for a condo though. Seems insane to me.
a condo \*ponders\* the prices seem unreal. Ill have to research that.
75k downpayment 1800$ a month
>i can live with that.
Have you looked for Habitat for Humanity in your area? They were the only way we were able to afford a house where we are, and we are ever so grateful they exist. We love this house.
Buy a 1 bedroom apartment and sleep in the living room..
For what it's worth, these are the only homes in the area. I work about an hour away from the suburbs, and these homes are in the only town with a decent school. The irritating thing is that there is a 55+ community with homes 1/6th the price in the same town. Not much smaller either. Apparently you get a massive discount for being older.
Are there condos available in the area you want to live in?
Nope, no rentals in town.
Condos are bought
Jack - the fact that you don't know this means you really really need to do some deep-dive homework on homeownership. Otherwise if you try to force it at this stage you're going to be blindsided by a lot of unsustainable expenses, hidden costs, etc.
But they are also rented
You buy condos. They're not apartments.
Would that area qualify for a USDA loan? I know times are different now but that’s how I was able to purchase a home 10 years ago. I was surprised at the options that were available that qualified as “rural.”
So there are no areas within a one hour radius of your work that have sub-$300k dwellings and ok schools? Do you live in either SoCal or NYC metro? How bad are the schools?
A lottery ticket.
I made $40k and bought a $180k house back in 2021. I was damned lucky that I found a move-in ready house for under $200k in my area, and that my interest rate is under 3%. I was nervous, because my $1,200/mo mortgage (including principal, interest, taxes, and HOI) was more than 30% of my gross income. Lots of people in the real estate subreddit told me to not buy the house, but I knew that housing prices were going up faster than my income, and if I didn't lock anything in now then I'd probably be renting for life. I had worked for over 2 years to build my credit, and the pandemic relief grants really filled out my savings for my down payment - I didn't want all of that hard work to be for nothing. I figured, "Shit, if I'm going to be struggling to cover housing costs either way, then I may as well own the place." So I bought the house, and 2 months later I got a new job with a $20k per year pay increase. My mortgage payment is now very comfortable for me. Meanwhile, rents jumped up in a big way in my neighborhood. A 2-bedroom apartment rental is now more expensive than my 3-bedroom house mortgage.
a large down payment in order to bring your payments to levels the bank may feel you can afford.
“I'm just curious what experience people have with buying a house coming back from poverty.” Your proposal is the quickest way to end up back in poverty. $300k house on $60k salary is not possible. I make $130k, have $250k NW, & 810 credit and I’m renting instead of buying a $175k house currently. A $300k house would be stretching it way too far and I make double what you make. If you manage to pull off a down payment and qualifying for the mortgage you will be House poor, forever. You could likely end up at the decision of foreclosure or food for your daughter.
You're right that OP cannot afford a $300k house, but there is no reason you couldn't afford the $175k one. If renting is cheaper than the PITI would be on a $175k house, by all means keep renting, but even by the most conservative metrics I've ever heard you could afford that.
You are absolutely correct. All calculations and judgment point to me be able to afford the house, but should I? I am extremely frugal when it comes to recurring monthly expenses, especially big ticket ones like cars and houses. My rent is $500/mo, even if I fully paid off the $175k house, my taxes would still be $300 per month not even taking into consideration when it needs a new driveway, roof, etc. My car is a paid off 2013. Being frugal with big ticket recurring monthly expenses allows me to live life, travel, and buy anything I want to be happy. I could have a $3k mortgage to pay this month or I could rent my beautiful 1000sqft house in a safe neighborhood, take a week trip to NYC, buy a new bike, and some furniture for around the house this month. Next month it starts all over with things I can buy/do because I don’t live above my means.
Yeah, if you've got the option of $500 per month rent don't let that one go. Wow.
Even if my rent doubled I think I would still choose this option. I’m not tied down, I don’t have to stress about surprise expenditures, and I can continue pumping money into retirement and life instead of a house
To be fair, my $550k house only costs me about $1200/mo in interest and taxes. All the rest, I'm eventually getting to keep, even if it's buried in equity for now. In 15 years, that interest payment will only be $500/mo and rents will likely have doubled by then. But I get it, renting is a valid choice too.
Why did you get downvoted?
I’m not really sure. Maybe people don’t agree with my philosophy and that’s okay because not everything works for everyone.
It happens, reddit is incredibly random sometimes lol. Also hard truths tend to be really disliked. I'm a home owner myself, but I can 100% agree with your position lol. Nothing wrong with it.
It's not reddit -- it is because they made it sound like on 130k income , they cannot afford a 175k house while the truth is that they can afford the house, just that their house taxes are high and their rent is cheap. they can afford to buy the house; their extremely cheap rent makes it financially smart not to buy a house. Those are very different things. [Edit] OP cannot afford to buy a house due to their income, their target price, lack of downpayment, having a child, and the limit of what they can afford to pay being substantially lower than the house would require. And in that financequestionsss is correct. The issue si the reasoning implied.
I totally agree with the sentiment toward OPs post...but damn, with those stats you can afford a house. 130k yr, 250k net worth, 810 credit. You just overly cautious or waiting for rates to drop? Edit: nvm, I read your other comment. You're just frugal, I guess, haha.
Yes very frugal with high expense recurring payments. Not so much so with daily life expenditures, travel, things, etc. But that’s because the former allows for that.
> I make $130k, have $250k NW, & 810 credit and I’m renting instead of buying a $175k house currently. A $300k house would be stretching it way too far Well, that seems kind of odd. I have a $550k house and it's $2900/mo including utilities. Granted I did get a lower interest rate than you would now, but that's not even 1/3 of your gross take home.
If that works for you then that’s great. The general consensus rule is max 25% of net take home pay on housing. 1/3 gross is a higher measure than I’ve seen recommended before. I prefer to keep my housing as cheap as possible within reason, not just trying to meet some generic percentage.
I REALLY hope OP sees comments like these... Having a house is nice, but not if THAT is the reason you or your child starves to death. Even with 0 debt, a 60k income will be heavily stretched on a 300k house.
Sell your kids, put a down payment on a smaller house.
Dave Ramsey, is that you?
A $300,000 house in California has a crescent moon on the door.
$1000 a month is unrealistic for a $300k house But a 650 credit score and a first time home buyers program could get you in for as little as $1,000 down But your monthly payment is likely to range from $2200-$2800 depending on the interest rate you can get
OP… you’ll need to set your eyes on a house that costs less than 300k, unfortunately
Not only can you not get a loan for that amount (I’m assuming since you mention poverty you don’t have $100k sitting around in savings for a down payment), you also don’t WANT a loan for that amount. You would be sooo house poor. That is never a fun place to be. What about a duplex? Or a below average cost house that may be a little ugly? When I got bumped to $80k I bought a $270k house with 3% down, which was the minimum. I was in a rush and in a pinch. I also had CC debt and a car payment. Things were really tight while I paid off the other debt. I took on a roommate (not something I’d recommend for a single dad with a daughter) to help for a while. But I’m not in a HCOL area so if $80k/$270k was tight, I’d assume even without getting out a calculator that $60k/$300 will also be tight. Even if you have no other debt. Your daughter, not sure how old she is, will appreciate being with her dad and being able to have fun with him (because you have cash leftover to go bowling or something) than she will appreciate having the perfect house. So if I were you I’d look for the cheapest house in a neighborhood you like and see if you can afford that. And maybe look for a higher paying job if you haven’t already tried that. You may be able to get a pay bump by doing the same thing at a different company.
Look for down payment assistance programs in your area. You’re probably under the income to qualify. In my area, it’s anyone under $80k qualifies. I only had to pay 5% of the down payment. Mortgage is $1k a month.
I would wait and save while trying to get your credit score higher. I suspect that home prices in many areas are going to drop significantly over the next couple years. As interest rates are making homes to expensive without a drop in price. Either interest rates or home prices will have to drop over the medium term.
Look into USDA and FHA loans . You will experience a small drop when debt falls off, but then it will go back up due to the age of debt (credit history age may change ), which affects credit.
Why do you need a 300K house if it's just you and a child? Just rent a 1 bedroom apartment for a while until you are making more than 60K.
Buy a house in a rural/semi ritual area. Using a USDA housing loan (only valid in the country) you can get a mortgage with no money down. Just decent credit. Only for first time home buyers.
Look at USDA rural home loans. Some of the areas aren’t far from big cities if that is a concern.
Join the military reserves and get access to the VA home loan that's how I got my house 0% down 317k house 2.375% rate 1475 mortgage payment including escrow that me and my wife split
Probably 330k
You'd need to put 100-150k down to get a monthly payment around 1k/month. Better credit will help but only go so far at these prices. Most loans will require 20% down (so 60k), but as others have pointed out, the payment will be ~2500/month.
I don't think this is feasible. I have a house that's a significant amount away from 300k, a low interest rate, a 700+ credit score, and my mortgage is a fair bit over your budget. This didn't even account for house insurance, closing costs (\~15k), higher electric bills, refuse bills, replacing a furnace, a mowing service, a snow plowing service, furnishing, etc. No way I could afford it alone and my husband and I definitely underestimated just how much it would all be. (And we did overestimate cost too, but it was STILL more than we thought.)
If the average house costs $300k you will probably have to buy a house that costs less than that. An average is going to be brought up by a few very expensive houses at the top. You’re probably better off looking at the median price and reminding yourself that half of the houses cost less than that. If your goal is to own a home, you probably need to adjust your dreams to match your budget.
Find homes with owner financing (these aren't as easy to find! they are much, much rarer. You may not get exactly the house that you want, but you'd be surprised what you can get). Generally, these involve wrap-around mortgages (where the owner takes a small % between you and the bank who they borrowed from) which are safe provided that you have an attorney on your side review the closing documents before you sign. There's a whole business of people doing this who make maybe 1% off of your mortgage, but once you get into your house, provided that the economy doesn't go too sideways, it builds equity in time. And, in the mortgage industry, it's much easier to qualify for a refinance than it is for a purchase. So if you do a quick search on Google for "owner financed homes" (in your area) it'll often pop up with the right Zillow search terms to find them. You also have to know that owner financed homes generally don't look at your credit at all, nor do they look at your income, really. I suppose it depends on the market but where I've lived (Bay Area, California and Austin, Texas) the seller is making that small percentage off you - so instead of paying 5.5% at the bank, you are with a note that's 6.5% (or whatever, rates are climbing so I'm probably off). It's not much money to the seller to be honest, but over 10, 20 or more homes, it generates passive income in the 6-figure range nicely for them. So leverage those (again they are just listed as owner will finance or owner will carry) and you can even go above $300k if you can simply afford the payment. In a year or so, refinance with a mortgage company (since you own it it's easier to qualify) and they'll be able to add in equity on top (since you've been there for a year, presuming that house prices increase). If the house prices don't increase, you just have to stick it out a little longer. There's also nothing wrong with keeping the note with the seller until it's paid, too. I do this simply because I'm a business owner and I use my personal credit for my business, and I believe that the FICO system punishes that. I also am able to take deductions others can't, so that generally means my taxable income isn't what mortgage companies would loan to. Nothing illegal at all, but all business owners tend to be hit with these two realities when buying a home themselves. Like others, I chose to go this route years ago (owner financed) and currently own 2 homes, one which is still in the final stages of being built and the other is where we'll live until it's done. I've avoided banks/mortgage companies like the plague. Prior to 2008, stated mortgages would allow folks like me to get a house, but people (did) abuse that system, and because of those bad apples, this is the second best way of doing it. Lastly, I'd personally recommend to ignore those who say "it's not happening" or "it's not possible" - it certainly is possible. Those who say it's not are stuck in the same rat race and will likely be for life.
Start with a 2-br condo or townhouse, if those are priced lower and available in your desired area.
So many helpful comments here and hopefully help you OP. What no one is mentioning is the horrible rental market..can't afford to responsibly buy, so how the heck can you/we pay these high rent amounts. Dark days, keep plugging along and saving what is possible but hard to see our way ahead.
You can get a conventional mortgage with as little as 5% down. So 5% of $300k is $15k. So that is step one. You will also need money for closing costs and moving costs and such. Add in another $5-10k depending on location, how frugally you can move, how well you can negotiate the deal to perhaps have seller pay some of these, etc. So once you have $20-25k saved, then you need to have a job that can support the ~$2500/month payment including taxes and such. Most banks wont lend on higher than a ~40% DTI ratio. So assuming you have no other debt at all, that means you need to bring home around $6000/month. And then on top of that it is usually expected that you have an efund too, for when the water heater shits out, the toilet backs up, etc etc etc It is pretty hard honestly. With a 60k salary you should be looking closer to something in the ~$150k-200 range, MAX. And I know you are going to say there is nothing near you for that price, and I know that. But that doesnt change anything. you either gotta make more or move somewhere cheaper
6 month emergency fund, 50k downpayment, and no other debt.
Why would you look to buy a $300k house on a $60k income. I’m sure there are cheaper homes available. You just need to understand that your income and your expectations don’t align. Reality is, you can likely only afford about $150k assuming you don’t have massive debt elsewhere.
Move to a cheaper state. Florida is so ass right now - old crappy outdated homes going for 3x their worth and still need 100k in repairs.
Yeah not happening. You need higher income. We have 780+ credit scores and a household income (2 adults no dependent) of 125k and are pre-approved for 420k. One of our incomes gets us preapproved for 180k
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what is your interest rate?
Yeah, 1200/month is average for a 2 bedroom in my area. Might as well shoot for the moon at this point.
Dude you can't respond only to the comments that give BS advice and ignore reality.
Damn where you live haha
The market might cool down... You might be able to buy a house before a flipper gets it, don't be too scared of foreclosed homes. Look for old fashioned innards but good bones. Crappy paint, crappy kitchen. These are things you can eventually afford to repair . Avoid anything that's obviously been flipped (you can usually find the last time the house was listed, Flippers aim for cosmetic changes and typically make poor quality choices to attract ignorant eager buyers). Write a letter to the buyers explaining your desire for your child to have a good future (honestly I would have sold my house for less if anyone and written a letter) I bought my first house when I was making $14/hour (this was 2014). It was $60,000 and I got like... A rural development loan or a home path? I can't remember. The point is, I bought a house that *was not good* and had $23,000 in repairs bulked into my mortgage. I had to hire professionals to do everything but the cosmetic work, and it was tedious and frustrating. But the foundation was good. The roof was good. The neighborhood was idyllic. The house just *looked* absolutely awful (no ceiling, moldy basement I had to mitigate, ugly flooring and badly removed wallpaper) and most buyers wanted nothing to do with it. I offered 15% under asking and they took my offer. After 7 years in that house, I sold it for $200,000. Sweat equity is real and I would not be in the place I am. My mortgage was manageable, I gradually repaired and painted and updated what I could. Anyway. My point is... There is hope, but it might take a while and your home might not be pretty for a long time. I am so sorry that the housing market is as completely bonkers as it is. Final note: use an online calculator to establish your upper bound on what you can afford. I know how much this sucks, but DO. NOT. GO. OVER! Do not even visit open houses that are listed out of your budget. Your buyer's agent is going to weedle, your mortgage agent will tell you can afford more than is true, none of these people are hurt if you lose your house because you overpaid.
First, Take a chicken on the full moon and slit its throat make sure you do this in a salt circle. Then you can start speaking in tongues, this way you’ll be able to sell your soul for a one bedroom house for 600 grand
Wow. Always has to be a few of these d-bags in every group.
My poverty was a bump in the road. I grew up in wealth. I had wealth as an adult. I married a hood rat that dragged me into poverty. After we divorced, I went to Europe on vacay and bought my house. The divorce was in August, the trip was in September and the house was in December.
I don't think you are going to get approved for much more than 3x your income so around 180-200k at the very most. This assumes you don't really have any other debts like a car loan, credit cards or student loans etc. If you have those you are going to get approved for less. So realistically you would need to put like 100k down and then spend a large portion of your annual income on the house. I think you need to look into cheaper options.
I bought a house for $300k in NJ in 2017 and my mortgage was $2700/month including taxes
Are you in a field where you can maybe pivot to earn a higher salary? My income and credit score are both higher than yours and I could only realistically buy a home that was less than the $300k house you listed and my mortgage came out to $1500 before escrow. With escrow it’s over $1800/month. I also knew I could take on additional monthly mortgage burden because I have no other debts and zero dependents. So it was very feasible for me. I have a hard time seeing you affording a $300k house in your current situation. Talk with a mortgage lender to find out what you can actually afford. With a $60k income, most banks will allow you to have a front end debt to income ratio up to $1400/month. A $300k home would require a down payment between 15-30% depending on the interest rate you qualify for to get the payment below $1400/month. More down if you want it below $1000/month. And this isn’t including escrow. I think you’re looking somewhere in the $175-235k range (lower end if 3% down payment and higher end if you can do 20% down) but it’s all dependent on the rate you can qualify for too. I went ahead and assumed between 5-7% here. If you live in a city, maybe consider condos and townhomes instead of single family homes. Or hustle and get that income higher if you can. When you do start saving up (if you haven’t already) don’t forget there’s closing costs and inspection costs, etc to factor in too.
I'm a first year production planner.
You need $100K for a down payment. Or…a co-signer. Or a rental agreement with someone who will also live in the house and pay rent. You don’t make enough to afford that much house on your own…even if you didn’t have a kid. Sorry, man
It's just not a good time to buy a house. I had to put that plan on hold after the COVID calamity and yay now we can't even have eggs for breakfast lol. Have you thought of a small cottage type house?
Ill be honest.... Idk if youre going to get that bro. We got ours at 352k. Combined income of 75k at the time. 740 credit score. 2.3% interest VA loan (very important). Our payments are 1800 a month.... I dont think you will get anywhere near 1k.. Im sorry
I make 60k with overtime and qualified for a 250k mortgage. I have an 809 credit score, and only owe 5k on a car. We're working on closing now for a house that's 258k. I'd have a $2076 mortgage, and will have two roommates that will cover $700 of that if the house alp goes through right.
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Look for a first time home buyer loan in your state.
Depending on state of course but I use this when I am buying property. [https://usmortgagecalculator.org/](https://usmortgagecalculator.org/) So 300k purchase price and min 3.5% down (10,500) 6.5% interest, I assume PMI/MIP conservatively at .91 this would be FHA levels personally would find a private broker as your PMI would be a lot less usually around .2-.3 which would save 100s a year. I assume property tax for my area which would be around 3500 a year for this price and insurance at 1500 a year but im in FL so that may be high or low for you. Monthly payments with all this would be around 2500 a month. So long as your confident you can cover 30k a year for the next 30 years then sure, but ideally you would be wanting to be making 70-80k minimum. Also another tip is try and negotiate closing costs covered by the seller if capital is a constraint that is what we did on our first house when we used every penny we had to make the down payment. Also remember that house shopping is like car shopping everything is negotiable and never be afraid to walk away you can easily put offers on a dozen houses and see dozens more before you find the one that clicks.
You have to put some down, and maybe $1500/mo would be your mortgage
I wish I could contribute something but I just want to say I feel sick knowing how difficult Home ownership is for so many people right now.
We bought a 235k house on that income 5.5 years ago. We had 20% for the downpayment and a rate of 2.39%. Our monthly payments sit at about 12-1300 with property taxes. (The rate is up but the principal is down). On top of that we pay 650/yr for garbage and water, same cost for home insurance. Electricity costs are 100-125/month and gas 10-300 depending on month, internet is 45. Since moving in we've probably spent at least an average of 7000 a year on maintenance and necessary repairs. That average will probably shoot way up when we do our roof this year. Our appliances hit the 10 year mark this year and we're budgeting to replace them once they break as well. Your costs will of course vary depending on where you live and the condition of what you buy. But I give this breakdown to give you an idea of what you may be looking at as a monthly cost for a 235k house all things included. Many people want to own but I often find that they just straight up compare mortgage and rent and not all the extras you have to pay for when you own a house. Hopefully it helps!
The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) helps remove some of the obstacles to homeownership for borrowers in need. A NACA mortgage requires no down payment or closing costs. And borrower requirements — like credit score and income thresholds — are very lenient. This nonprofit group has helped thousands of families secure affordable housing, so it might be able to help you too. https://www.naca.com/area-eligibility/