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Old 04-24-2008, 09:34 PM
myrdale myrdale is offline
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One general rule of thumb I have heard is you do not want the house to exceed x3 your yearly salary.

I am guessing you make $65,000 before taxes, so the highest you could pratically go would be $195,000. Your hefty down payment brings that down to with in the range.

Another rule of thumb is you do not want your house payment to be more than 1/4 of your monthly take home pay. Your a bit outside of that range. I am at 26% myself, where as you would be at 35%. That said I try to double up on my payments and actually put 40-50% of my pay on the house each month. I absolutely would not have a house that the real payment was that much though.

Lastly I think I would consider this, how much house do you need? Are you like me, single, no kids, and just need a place to sleep? If so you may have more house than you really need. Are you married with a couple of youngins and have out grown your current home? Then it might not be so unreasonable.
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