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Originally Posted by jodi_m
I live and sell real estate in upstate NY - and $300k will get you a very big, new house around me. $150-200k will be more than enough to get a great house around here (Syracuse area). Not sure where you are looking though - it you are looking within a closer range to NJ/NYC, then I am sure houses will be selling for much higher.
When my brother bought his house, he was able to put 10% down and get a piggyback loan for 10% and his mortgage was for 80%, as a previous poster suggested. This saved him from having to pay PMI, although the piggyback loan was at a higher interest rate. There are a lot of creative options, but I always advise the people I work with not to get the absolute most expensive house they can afford or else they may find themselves "house poor" - in other words, have a gorgeous house without the money to keep it up. Just my two cents...good luck!
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Thanks for the advice. The Syracuse area is too far north and west for us because we need to be closer to the NJ border for our commutes to work. We are looking in the Middletown/Wallkill/Monroe area. The piggy bank loans seem like a good idea, but wouldn't the higher interest rate on the piggy bank loan negate the effect of not having to pay PMI?
I don't think that a 300K home is out of our range or the "most expensive" house we can afford. Our combined salaries are presently 110K and should steadily go up in the future. Also, we already have a decent base of furniture and household applicances.