Home buying thread

Khane_sl said:

300k seems WAY out of your price range unless your wife also makes good money and/or you want to be house poor....

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Khane's advice might be a bit hard to take, but it is good. You don't want to be in over your head on a mortgage.

My wife and I bought our second house in May. It was $345K. We put 5% down at 3.5% (3.65%) for 30 years, and the monthly with escrow is around $2,025. We can handle the payment, and it will be better two years from now when we kiss PMI goodbye, but it is a huge jump from our first house which was $225K with 20% down at 4.75% for 30 years with an escrow around $1,200.

And yeah, taxes vary from place to place, and escrow numbers rise and fall with them. Be glad if you're not in NJ or southeast PA.

koljec_sl said:

Khane's advice might be a bit hard to take, but it is good. You don't want to be in over your head on a mortgage.

My wife and I bought our second house in May. It was $345K. We put 5% down at 3.5% (3.65%) for 30 years, and the monthly with escrow is around $2,025. We can handle the payment, and it will be better two years from now when we kiss PMI goodbye, but it is a huge jump from our first house which was $225K with 20% down at 4.75% for 30 years with an escrow around $1,200.

And yeah, taxes vary from place to place, and escrow numbers rise and fall with them. Be glad if you're not in NJ or southeast PA.

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... you should see the taxes in MA.

Christ... my house was $245k (I put 3.5% down) and at 4.5% over 30 years my mortgage payment is $2039/mo. Koljec's taxes are obviously miniscule compared to mine... Damn you Northeast USA!!!!

Khane_sl said:

Christ... my house was $245k (I put 3.5% down) and at 4.5% over 30 years my mortgage payment is $2039/mo. Koljec's taxes are obviously miniscule compared to mine... Damn you Northeast USA!!!!

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The projected taxes for the house I am in the process of buying are ~$700/month assuming the town assess it $665K, the price we are paying. Yay, MA!

Where are you at... your mortgage (taxes inc?) seems super high.

Vinen_sl said:

The projected taxes for the house I am in the process of buying are ~$700/month assuming the town assess it $665K, the price we are paying. Yay, MA!

Where are you at... your mortgage (taxes inc?) seems super high.

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Come to Chicago and the collar counties if you think those taxes are bad. My friends just bought a house for $360k and they pay $9800 a year in taxes.

I live in an unincorporated portion of a suburb of Chicago (so lower property taxes but higher water price and we get all the city services/schools), our house was assessed at $225k and we pay about $4100 in taxes... or rather, we will, but since I bought it from an old lady who had a property tax freeze, I get a year with a 30% discount.

Wow I'm feeling good about my $230k house with $2500/year taxes.

I pay $7200/yr in property taxes on a house assessed at $221k

Love the cheap property taxes in Vegas, but do not love all the county mayors coming together to say the maximum 3% increase a year in taxes is hindering economic recovery. Hey dumbass mayors, increasing taxes hinder recovery, it does not increase spending within the private sector. On another note, forget who said they were afraid of a new build, but did a new build this year with a reputable builder and I love it. Picked our finishes, colors, etc. To our liking with no problems and for essentially cheaper then existing housing in Vegas. Vegas market has calmed down some, but its incredible the amount of cash investors trying to flip existing housing. Its forcing new buyers to try to buy new housing because most cash investors are not patient enough to wait for a build.

Khane_sl said:

Christ... my house was $245k (I put 3.5% down) and at 4.5% over 30 years my mortgage payment is $2039/mo. Koljec's taxes are obviously miniscule compared to mine... Damn you Northeast USA!!!!

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$2900 per year in taxes. We lucked out and found a home in a historic township in southeastern PA that doesn't tax its residents (still have to pay the county and school district). If we hadn't found this tax "oasis," our total taxes would be in the $5,000 to $7,000 range.''

Taxes are crippling.

Senaiel_sl said:

Love the cheap property taxes in Vegas, but do not love all the county mayors coming together to say the maximum 3% increase a year in taxes is hindering economic recovery. Hey dumbass mayors, increasing taxes hinder recovery, it does not increase spending within the private sector. On another note, forget who said they were afraid of a new build, but did a new build this year with a reputable builder and I love it. Picked our finishes, colors, etc. To our liking with no problems and for essentially cheaper then existing housing in Vegas. Vegas market has calmed down some, but its incredible the amount of cash investors trying to flip existing housing. Its forcing new buyers to try to buy new housing because most cash investors are not patient enough to wait for a build.

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The Vegas market is going nuts again from investors. I bought my house last April for $145k and now the same houses in my neighborhood with smaller lots are going for $210k. It worked well for me though. I put 10% down on a 30 year when I bought it and refied into a 15 year at 3.25% earlier this year and only had my payment go up about $100 to cut 14 years off my mortgage. Dropping MI saved a bunch of money for me.

OneofOne_sl said:

Wow I'm feeling good about my $230k house with $2500/year taxes.

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The question is how are the services and school system

Vinen_sl said:

The question is how are the services and school system

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I most recently moved from Delaware, and that state's public system is among the absolute worst. 50th percentile for SAT Math score is around 467 (I'm not making fun of that score, but for it to be a state median, it's pathetic). The state has low property taxes, and no sales tax. Anyone with means sends his kids to one of a handful of private schools for $10,000+ per year.

Drive a few miles into Pennsylvania, and the the suburban public shool system keeps with, and sometimes outpaces, the private schools. 50th percentile for SAT Math scores in many public schools is over 600. But teachers hold the communities hostage over these statistics, and school taxes are perhaps triple, and there is state sales tax. You pay to play.

If kids are important to you, then the school question probably matters to you. Even if you're going private, you don't want a community of nincompoops around.

As for services, they vary widely. A lot of the more desirable places around us use ground water and septic, and paying taxes for services doesn't make a whole lot of sense if you can arrange for them on a smaller scale. Weekly trash collection is like $26 per month for us. Sewer is about $40 per month, but that's optional. If I were trying harder to make a fair comparison, I should say that my taxes and services come to about $3,400 per year.

I'm babbling, but yeah, these boring things become important factors in the increasingly lame adult world.

Tmac47_sl said:

Incentivize baby mamas and punish marriage. Working as intended.

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Please point out where marriage is punished on this chart.

Burnesto_sl said:

Please point out where marriage is punished on this chart.

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Marriage starts to get punished as your household income goes over ~$150,000 a year, assuming each person in the marraige is making somewhat equal income.

2 individuals could each make 75K a year and pay 25% taxes, but a married couple making $150,000 a year is tased at 28%

I know in real-life scenarios it's not quite as cut and dry as that, but once you get up into 6-figure combined incomes, the tax rates can definitely differ significantly married vs individual. At the top end, 2 individuals making $300K apiece would pay 33% each, but that couple would be at $600k so they are taxed at the max 39.6%

Now, if 1 person is bringing in ALL of the income, marriage is quite nice, it's a tax break in almost every scenario.

How on earth are you all getting $300k loans with 3.5-5% down? What is this, 2007? lol

joeboo_sl said:

Marriage starts to get punished as your household income goes over ~$150,000 a year, assuming each person in the marraige is making somewhat equal income.

2 individuals could each make 75K a year and pay 25% taxes, but a married couple making $150,000 a year is tased at 28%

I know in real-life scenarios it's not quite as cut and dry as that, but once you get up into 6-figure combined incomes, the tax rates can definitely differ significantly married vs individual. At the top end, 2 individuals making $300K apiece would pay 33% each, but that couple would be at $600k so they are taxed at the max 39.6%

Now, if 1 person is bringing in ALL of the income, marriage is quite nice, it's a tax break in almost every scenario.

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They can file separate at higher incomes and often times it is tax advantageous.

Gadrel_sl said:

How on earth are you all getting $300k loans with 3.5-5% down? What is this, 2007? lol

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FHA loans are still out there up to $417k. (Higher in some areas) The difference is you're paying MI. Before people were doing 80/15/5 and not paying MI at all.

Gadrel_sl said:

How on earth are you all getting $300k loans with 3.5-5% down? What is this, 2007? lol

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We've only done conventional. It's been a better rate for us.

I assume the approval mainly depends upon a mixture of credit history and dual salaries. They say that education and occupation don't really factor into it, but the lender stillknows(I have a hunch certain professions, like doctor and lawyer, are pretty much automatic). We used the same mortgage company for both homes, so we had a three year history with the company by the time of the second house.

I always approached financing in a straight-forward fashion with the loan officer. I told him exactly what we were bringing to the table and exactly what we wanted. I had a lot of the numbers worked out ahead of time. I think the loan officer is the best potential ally you have during the whole home-buying process. They can make or break the deal (and you).