Oklahoma Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
How much house for this income?
If you were a stay at home mom, and DH made $90,000 gross, in what range would you look for houses?
Other information:
You will do an FHA loan
$40K student loan debt (DH)
you need to buy a new car soon--ETA: will be used vehicle purchase
DH's job is very secure
this is a 5-7 year home
E-fund is minimal, due to recent grad student status
ETA: To me, a minimal e-fund is three months of expenses. So we've got
that. Now assume that we do have a 10% DP because we're waiting just a
few months. All other numbers remain the same (debt, car, income). I added more info in a response below.
Re: How much house for this income?
I personally wouldn't buy a 5-7 year home in this market and wouldn't buy at all at this time without an efund. If you accumulate 3 months efund and at least 10% down, then I'd look in the $150-$200 range depending on how much you want to travel, save for kids' college, etc. Oh---forgot retirement savings. I'd buy less house (like $150-$175 and save a lot for retirement, particularly if you're a SAHM.)
I'm also adding on that I really like JLimberg's idea of a fixer upper if you must buy a short-term house and are handy.
Because I follow Dave Ramsey's baby steps... this is what I would do....
Pay off all debt before buying a house (credit cards, car loans, students loans)
Save an emergency fund with 3-6 months of expenses
Save a minimum of 10% to put down
Take out a mortgage that is no more than 25% of your NET monthly income (including taxes and insurance). If your DH grosses $90k that would put you at about $5k net per month....? So your mortgage payment could be $1250 including, taxes and insurance, per month. Let's say your taxes and insurance is $400/month, you could probably afford to mortgage $170k (that's after your down payment).
My definition of minimal e-fund is three months of expenses. Sorry I wasn't clear.
We actually could easily accumulate a 10% down payment if we just waited a few months.
So, new situation: three month e-fund, 10% down payment.
We are very conservative with all other expenses. I'm planning on going back to work in a couple of years, but we still only want to live off DH's income.
Thanks for your input. I don't regularly post here, but I wanted to ask local women who are familiar with OK real estate.
I would not recommend a fixer upper - Even if you get a home in short sale or foreclosure (as we did), the costs to fix up a house are astronomical - you would be better off buying a house that doesn't need work.
Signed, someone that spent $40k last year fixing up her house (but has yet to tackle two bathrooms and the kitchen)
Before I can make an informed decision, can you tell me what his net is (actual cash deposited into your account after medical, 401k contributions, etc)?
Net is about 4950 after retirement and health insurance.
Thanks to everyone so far. I was originally thinking houses in the 140K-165K range, so seems like I wasn't too off base. We're fine with living small and modestly.
I would stay around $140k. You can get a nice house for $140k in Oklahoma. Further, houses in this price range are selling quickly as people continue to downgrade due to the economy which is causing these homes to quickly appreciate in value making this a great investment for a short-term living situation.
Good luck!