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.
Should we wait?
DH and I put an offer on a house in August, and finally heard back from the seller's bank last week. We are planning to counter, and we are fairly certain they will accept. Our question now is if we should wait to see what happens with the "fiscal cliff" situation. If our take home pay is affected, we will not be able to live comfortably in the house, and we don't want to live paycheck to paycheck.
DH is worried that if we don't hurry up and make up our mind, someone else will get the house. We know there is at least one other offer on the table. He said he doesn't think our take-home pay will be that much smaller if nothing gets agreed upon in the fiscal cliff situation. But I have always been the cautious one when it comes to big decisions, so I really want to wait and see....
What do you think?
Re: Should we wait?
I think this is a valid concern, and I'm glad I'm not the only one worried about it. There are quite a few calculators out there where you can get an idea of how different your take home pay will be. If absolutely nothing is done, it seems that my DH and I will be out almost $10K a year. That could be the extreme since we make very good money and don't have kids right now.
Chances are, something will be done with the fiscal cliff before the deadline (stupid broken Washington), and as long as you are not making $250-$300K a year, you should not feel a huge difference. However, I do believe that either way, the 2% payroll tax cut will end (I cannot see this being extended no matter what), so you will at least see a 2% tax increase.
If you are really that close to not being able to afford it, then maybe it would be best to wait and see. Always better to err on the side of caution than end up with a mortgage payment that you cannot happily afford (you should be able to have a life too, not be house poor).