How much home we can't afford
Posted on January 25, 2006 by Him and tagged housing
One of my guilty pleasures is watching the Fine Living Network. I dunno, something about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel or something like that. Anyway, an interesting show on that channel is What You Get for the Money; each episode showcases houses across the nation of a certain price point. It is interesting to see how much house $300,000 can buy in the midwest, versus the tiny space in downtown Manhattan.
A few days ago, I decided to see how much home we would be able to afford. I used the handy-dandy How Much House Can You Afford? calculator over at Bankrate.
With our current monthly expenses and a down payment of $10,000, we would be able to afford...
...wait for it...
...a $10,000 house. What's that? The amount of the monthly mortgage we can afford? $0.00.
Anyone got a single wide they want to sell us?
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JLP at AllThingsFinancial | Jan 25, 2006
So you can't afford a house. Big deal. Actually, knowing that should be liberating. Now you can focus wholeheartedly on your goal of getting out of debt.
I wish you guys the best.
Those shows are addictive like the home shopping network. We have a cable station here that does 24/7 real estate. It just goes to show me what I CAN'T have. Great blog!
SunsetCYC | Apr 21, 2006
I actually think that calculator is screwed up. It asks for "other debts" but on a monthly basis - so I put in my student loan monthly payment, plus the principle I try to pay down each month. It told me I could afford at $15,000 mortgage payment and $263K house - no freakin' way. When I then put in my total student loan amount (though it clearly totals all the expenses as "monthly" it said I could also only afford a $10K house. There's something wrong with that calculator.
real money, real finances | Jan 25, 2006
I get hooked into those shows too and it can get downright discouraging. In Japan, you can probably less than in New York!
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