How much house *did* you buy?

[glock35ipsc]

Originally Posted by MonkeyMama

First home:

1 - What was your income?
2 - What was the purchase price?
3 - How much did you borrow?
4 - Do you feel, with time, you stretched too much, were quite conservative, or it feels just right? Why?

First home:

1] $28,000 (just me at the time)
2] $39,000
3] $35,500
4] My "future" wife moved in with me in October of that year, and we were married in February the next year, so all in all it was do-able.

[Scanner]

BTW, my original loan was a NO-DOC loan. . .just showing you that not all "marginal loan products" are a disaster.

Here we are - productive, taxpaying homeowners 11 years later and 1 move and 1 refinance.

[ThriftyTexan]

First home -- 1200 sf, 3br/2ba:

1 - 40k (single, no kids)
2 - 73k 1995 in Austintacious
3 - 69k
4 - It wasn't too bad. I got roommates to help with the bills a little.

Second home -- 1400 sf 3 br/2ba:
1 - 85k combined (married, no kids)
2 - 135k 2002 in Tampa Bay area. Sold in 2008
3 - 120k
4 - The first year was OK. Second year was really bad because we bought the house brand new and the property taxes for the house kicked in. After that, it was very manageable.

We base our desired purchase price on what we want to pay monthly and not what we are told we can afford.

[red92s]

This is great info! A very helpful thread!

I'm saving for a down payment now, with no real firm horizon on making my first home purchase . . . still starting out in my career and want to be ready to relocate if required.

Current income is $60k, with $0 debt, (nearly) fully-funded 6 month EF, and 15% gross to retirement. I hope to have $10-15k ready for a DP by next summer.