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Originally Posted by poundwise
Check your income to house payment ratio. I know people who need 1/2 of their take-home pay just to pay the mortgage; that's just looking for grief IMO.
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i feel this part is more important that one's downpayment, but that's just me. what's the point in saving for 20% down on a house when you still won't be able to afford the resulting monthly payments anyways?
when i started looking for a house, i calculated how much we were willing to pay per month. then i used an online loan calculator and the highest end of the average interest rate for my area to calculate my highest comfortable purchase price.
it worked out well for us. we found a house we liked, bought for about 20% below appraised value, and our mortgage payment is now less than 15% of our net income.